Insuring your collection

My experience was a separate rider with each knife photo(ed) Receipt for purchase and current value updated each year, Examples sold, ebay and or Blade Forums Sale Forum.

Quite costly as a rider.
 
Well, there are different options for methods of insuring your stuff: paper, steel, lead, or dirt/concrete/rock/etc.
The paper version gives a lot of people you don't know information about what you may not want them to know, people put a heck of a lot of faith into paper these days.
The steel version is to get the best safe you can afford as a lifelong investment like a Graffunder.
The lead version is for the high speed low drag operator or dirty harry types, sounds bada$$, but doesn't always play out well, especially when you aren't there.
Dirt/etc version is for either well before or possibly right after all of the others have failed... just hope it is your stuff, not you going in the dirt, and remember where. ;)
PS: Not all safes are worth their weight in dollars either.
[video=youtube;nBhOjWHbD6M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhOjWHbD6M[/video]
 
I do not really insure my collection, but AS it will get more serious I might think about something.
 
If you've got big money tied up into collecting - do it. I always cringe a little making the yearly payment (about $600) to insure my toys that go bang. However, I take peace of mind every time I read a thread on another forum or hear a police report of a home break in with $$$$$ stolen.

State laws vary, but I use the following as a general rule. If you have $5000+ tied up into a tangible investment, and it isn't built into/onto your residence, get a Personal Property Rider (PPR).
 
This a difficult question to answer as there is many different scenarios and situations where certain policies and coverage's offer better protection than one over the other. Generally speaking you have a few options. Also, as stated earlier in this thread, its best to keep in mind there are limitations to what is actually covered in your standard homeowners or renters policy and that this coverage can vary from state to state but overall those limitations are very similar.

Your homeowners policy has limitations. As mentioned by a couple people already their current limitation is $5,000 on their home policy. Here's the deal, does your policy pay up to $5,000 if they are stolen? Or is it $5,000 if they are lost or if there is a house fire? If your policy actually pays $5,000 in the event of theft, that would be rather high coverage because in most cases, in most states, for theft the level of coverage is $1,500 or $2,500, not $5,000. I'm not saying you don't have that coverage but $5,000 for theft automatically built in, would be high so please confirm under what scenarios you actually get that $5,000.

Okay, so great, now you've confirmed that you have $5,000, $1,500 or $2,500 automatically built into your policy under certain conditions and limitation's. How are you going to prove you still own and the value of the forearms or knives? #1, pictures. You must have pictures. You need pictures of everything in your home in the event of a total loss, little less firearms or knives. Just because your house burns to the ground and your homeowners policy says your policy pays up to 80% of the value of your home for personal property (contents) coverage doesn't mean they just write you a check for that figure. You must prove you owned everything from silverware, dishes and clothes to the collectible items like knives and firearms so take pictures of everything, especially your knives and firearms.

Your best option usually but not always. SCHEDULED PERSONAL PROPERTY....aka an endorsement or rider to the policy that is putting specific additional coverage on those knives or firearms. You will need a copy of a sales receipt and or an appraisal to insure those items individually for a stated value and that must be updated periodically...usually every 3 years it should be updated. This type of coverage will cover you in the event the knives are stolen, you lose them while traveling or camping or your house burns to the ground with them inside. The question was asked does insurance take into account if the items are stored in a safe? Yes, they do. They would qualify for a "vaulted" rate which is lower but also limited the situations in which coverage would be provided/ For example, if you lose it camping and they were insured as being vaulted, well your company will be asking you how come it was not in a vault? Therefore, don't include your users as a vaulted rate just in case they are lost while in use.

There is also stand alone policies that aren't connected to your personal home insurance as well. Those are a good option. There are many specialty insurance carrier's out there that insure collectibles but typically want collectors only and not the guy who uses his $500 knife while camping but you do have options.

This is a tough question to answer as there are may variables as to which policy or coverage is best for your scenario. I hope this helped but please ask any further question's and I will do my best to assist anyone I can. I also own my own insurance agency...hint, hint! Lol! Best of luck!

JM
 
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Too much good info. Now I need to go have a sit down with my agent and double check some things.


Sigarett said:
This a difficult question to answer as there is many different scenarios and situations where certain policies and coverage's offer better protection than one over the other. Generally speaking you have a few options. Also, as stated earlier in this thread, its best to keep in mind there are limitations to what is actually covered in your standard homeowners or renters policy and that this coverage can vary from state to state but overall those limitations are very similar.

Your homeowners policy has limitations. As mentioned by a couple people already their current limitation is $5,000 on their home policy. Here's the deal, does your policy pay up to $5,000 if they are stolen? Or is it $5,000 if they are lost or if there is a house fire? If your policy actually pays $5,000 in the event of theft, that would be rather high coverage because in most cases, in most states, for theft the level of coverage is $1,500 or $2,500, not $5,000. I'm not saying you don't have that coverage but $5,000 for theft automatically built in, would be high so please confirm under what scenarios you actually get that $5,000.

Okay, so great, now you've confirmed that you have $5,000, $1,500 or $2,500 automatically built into your policy under certain conditions and limitation's. How are you going to prove you still own and the value of the forearms or knives? #1, pictures. You must have pictures. You need pictures of everything in your home in the event of a total loss, little less firearms or knives. Just because your house burns to the ground and your homeowners policy says your policy pays up to 80% of the value of your home for personal property (contents) coverage doesn't mean they just write you a check for that figure. You must prove you owned everything from silverware, dishes and clothes to the collectible items like knives and firearms so take pictures of everything, especially your knives and firearms.

Your best option usually but not always. SCHEDULED PERSONAL PROPERTY....aka an endorsement or rider to the policy that is putting specific additional coverage on those knives or firearms. You will need a copy of a sales receipt and or an appraisal to insure those items individually for a stated value and that must be updated periodically...usually every 3 years it should be updated. This type of coverage will cover you in the event the knives are stolen, you lose them while traveling or camping or your house burns to the ground with them inside. The question was asked does insurance take into account if the items are stored in a safe? Yes, they do. They would qualify for a "vaulted" rate which is lower but also limited the situations in which coverage would be provided/ For example, if you lose it camping and they were insured as being vaulted, well your company will be asking you how come it was not in a vault? Therefore, don't include your users as a vaulted rate just in case they are lost while in use.

There is also stand alone policies that aren't connected to your personal home insurance as well. Those are a good option. There are many specialty insurance carrier's out there that insure collectibles but typically want collectors only and not the guy who uses his $500 knife while camping but you do have options.

This is a tough question to answer as there are may variables as to which policy or coverage is best for your scenario. I hope this helped but please ask any further question's and I will do my best to assist anyone I can. I also own my own insurance agency...hint, hint! Lol! Best of luck!

JM
Click to expand...
 
So I contacted my insurance who referred me to another company about insuring my knife collection. I went through the process, provided info and pictures.

Today they contact me back and said because I used the knives they could not be insured. I tried to explain to them I only wanted insurance on theft, not damages due to the Busse warranty. They said even with that the fact that I plan to use/carry them they could not be insured in the case that Busse denied the damage claim and I tried to claim it with them. He said if I didn't use them and only displayed them then it would be fine.

Going to PR, I want to have some theft protection for the move. Anyone have any suggestions for theft only coverage so I can still use my blades?
 
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