Insuring your collection

[Ed T]

Does anyone have experience on the process of insuring your collection? I called our homeowners agent and asked her to add coverage for the knives and guns as I had gone well past the basic coverage. She did so, but I did not ask too many questions. I was in a hurry.
While she did not mention an appraisal, I am not sure of the process. I thought about just keeping a CD of pictures and updating frquently to keep current on new purchases and trades.
How do others handle this?

 

[newknifeguy]

This is a very good question. I own about $10,000 worth of wine and in attempting to insure it I ran in to many difficulties. The biggest problem is with wines (and I imagine, knives) which increase in value because they are collectors items. If you were fortumate enough to buy a Mayo for $400, and it was stolen, you would have to prove its current replacement value. A production folder which is still in production would be much easier. My suggestion (after lengthy discussions wit three insurance agents) is definately keep photos and receipts for your knives. These forums would be helpful in establishing value if knives were stolen. The biggest problem would be knives that you got in trade, or trades away. Good luck and just hope you never need to make a claim. Peace, Josh

 

[Gollnick]

Many people say, "I don't have to worry. I have $100,000 worth of content coverage on my homeowners policy."

Worry!

Why?

Read the fine print on your policy. $100,000 may be your overall content coverage but most policies have specific sublimits on specific types of property. A $100,000 policy may easily have a $5000 limit on "collectibles."

You might say, "Well, my knife collection all together isn't worth $5000, so I'm ok."

No. Maybe not.

Why?

Because that $5000 is for all "collectibles" and the insurance industry takes a very broad definition of collectibles. Basically, anything that has special value above its utilitarian worth based on age or brandname or uniqueness is a collectible.

Watch out seriously for sublimits on guns. Guns are often the targets of criminals and they're also often involved in insurance fraud since there's such a ready black market for them. Sell the gun on the sly and then claim it was stolen. It's all to common. So, most insurers, fed of with gun-related losses, have slapped very low sublimits on them. I've seen policies with $100,000 contents but only $500 for guns. $500 is barely the value of ONE good pistol, not even anything collectible or special.

Jewlery is another big one where many people are not, despite what they think, fully insured.

Read the fine print.

 

[Ed T]

Chuck,
This is what promted me to increase the coverage. Appearantly, I was only covered for up to $1500. What she has added is a "floater" for an additional amount. I will review it when I recieve the paperwork and try to add some specifics for the topic.