Getting your collection insured

[wayneg]

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on getting my Star Wars collection insured. I currently have it insured on my household insurance and the insurance company holds an inventory (no pictures though).

I wanted to check with other collectors to see if there are any specialist insurers out there that anybody uses.

Cheers

Wayne

 

[e30318is]

This is a hot topic for me too! My mrs works for an insurance company- we have taken out contents insurance- it covers any individual item to the value of £500. My "collection" is not classed as one item- and there are sigle items that are worth much over £500 (one or two on the cusp)

My concern is- I don't have receipts for any of it and currently don't have an inventory- this is top of my priority list to do- details of condition and a rough Market price of each and every item..... It will be quite an interesting exercise to see what I have got!

Will be interesting to see what the guys with more valuable collections do. My other concern is the fact I am on the forums posting pictures of my collection- There is at least one member on here who had his collection stolen- being on the net isn't going to help with security- I have all my packages sent to a different address now just incase.

 

[spoons]

Mine is covered on household, and as I mostly buy on line I keep pdfs of my paypal receipts.

If it came to it your Paypal account has a record of all transactions since the year dot, it would just be a pain finding them all

 

[e30318is]

That's great news- the only problem is with eBay purchases is the auction info expires after 6months or so!

I can imagine it will take some serious trawling!! I want to know the bottom line I have spent on my collection!!

 

[Caswellbot]

I have mine specially insured with the bank. As the normal contents insurance will only insure up to a certain amount. Some companies are funny with insuring collections so it is worth checking. Some companies view a collection of stamps as different to a collection of star wars toys. Again worth checking.

I have to declare any single items that are worth in excess of 2,000 and provide photos and detailed description to the insurers. I only jave one item like this at the moment so its not too much bother.

I have a record of everything I have paid since the very start and a record of condition. This would form the basis of a claim should I need to put one in.

I believe I pay approximately 10 pounds a month for the insurance.

 

[plantman]

I keep all my items documented in this software: http://www.whatyouown.org/faq.html

It allows you to attch recipts for proof of value and keeps a good inventory of what you have and what its worth.

But you need to speak with your insurance company to make sure your collection is covered, generally if you have proof of value then you are fine as long as it doesnt go over a certain value ie £2000 for a single item.


Andy

 

[edd_jedi]

As somebody who has had to claim for an entire collection, here's the deal. Virtually ANY contents insurance will cover your collection - as said, you only might run into bother with single items worth more than £1500. So unless you only collect prototypes, it will be fine for the vast majority of loose or carded figures.

HOWEVER it is ESSENTIAL that you have receipts and photos of EVERYTHING. You will have a nightmare making a claim if you don't! It's quite simple - assuming you bought most of your collection with Paypal, just go through your email history and save each Paypal receipt to a PDF. Keep them somewhere safe. And take photos too. If I hadn't done this, I don't think I would have got anywhere near the payout I did.

 

[e30318is]

Thanks Edd I was hoping you may chime in.

As I unpack all my stuff I am going to do an inventory of what I have- with a photograph of each item and a value... Could be a tough task!

 

[wayneg]

Thanks for the info.

I have a video (old Video8 format) that I took back in '99 which covers all the valuable items in my collection. Resolution is not that great but at least it's a visual reference. In terms of receipts, a lot of my stuff came pre-Ebay as far back as the 70's/80's so no receipts and, obviously, not relevant anyway. I'll endeavour to keep all receipts for stuff that I buy from now on.

 

[edd_jedi]

Thanks for the info.

I have a video (old Video8 format) that I took back in '99 which covers all the valuable items in my collection. Resolution is not that great but at least it's a visual reference. In terms of receipts, a lot of my stuff came pre-Ebay as far back as the 70's/80's so no receipts and, obviously, not relevant anyway. I'll endeavour to keep all receipts for stuff that I buy from now on.

That's fine, you just need to be able to show receipts for SOME of it. There were obviously many items in my collection too that were either bought pre-ebay or on forums with cheques etc, so just have receipts for as much as you can and photos of everything. I'd consider updating your video - proving that you owned them 12 years ago doesn't prove you still have them!