insurance question

[gbpxl]

Has anyone lost anything and had to make a claim due to theft, flood, fire, etc? I am at that point in my collecting where lots of my things are irreplaceable.

I am wondering how expensive it is to have insurance that covers your games and also, what kind of proof do you need to show that you own the items? Can you just take pictures of the game itself or do you need to have your name in the picture or have a receipt of purchase?

[zcrich01]

I have a rider on my renter's policy which adds an additional 15-20k in coverage (I can't remember which on the current policy...but it's on top of the base 10k) for property damage/loss. The best way to catalog what you have is to keep your database up to date on here, keep a physical copy of the list, and have pictures of everything you have...especially the more difficult to replace items.

[Izret101]

Insurance is only going to cover up to X amount for various fields. If your house was to burn down tomorrow it is likely that your 4K TV alone would take up the bulk of that cost.

Having receipts makes it easier for proof of ownership. Anything that is a big ticket item should be individually documented and ideally have a receipt.

If you get robbed or burned down and tell your insurance company you had 10k dollar copy of NWC in there too you will not be getting reimbursed for the value of the game.

Insuring a collection (even ONLY to cover the value of the most expensive items) ends up becoming rather expensive.

Insurance (IMO) is one of the biggest scams going. I suppose i could be skewed in my thoughts though because everyone i know that has ended up needing to make a claim(in some instances the first in 30+ years) has been boned.

Additionally some insurance policies might have a clause about a "collections" not being insured and needing special coverage.

The last policy i was looking at covered in separate categories(there were more these are just all i can remember):
Cash/Bullion (At face value. Not "your MS-65 1955 double die is worth 2500$s" value)
Jewelry
Firearms
Electronics
Plated flatware (silver/gold/platinum who seriously has this shit?)
Home Damages

The base policy payout values were all rather low. For instance my parents were broken into. They didn't end up claiming all of the damages done or all the items stolen (value to hassle ratio wasn't there) and still only ended up recouping something like 60% of the appraised value.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Renter's insurance covered $2500 for my flood damage to my collection. I had everything documented on RFGeneration, took pictures of the damage, and sent it to them. They looked up estimates for the cost of replacement on eBay, which ended up benefiting me, and I got to keep the damaged goods. Fortunately, just about all of the carts made it out alive, as they were Super Nintendo RPG cartridges and we left them in front of the professional dryers in the house to dry them out quickly without damaging them.

I can go on a diatribe about insurance for game collections, and have in the past in threads that are now purged. The biggest takeaway is this:
How much is your collection worth to you? Do you want to cover it as a whole, or just the expensive parts? You'll end up paying more than the cost of the collection with insurance if you cover everything, but is the payoff in the end bigger for the high-end items? Do you expect to be able to replace those high-end items, or just recover some of the value of it?

I had 3 FEET of standing water in my apartment, and the better cost savings in the end was having shelving that was off the ground, and waterproof totes for things on the floor. The only things damaged were things in totes that had damage that I hadn't noticed. Keep things elevated off the floor, and if you're worried about fire damage, get a fire safe.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

My insurance company told me that I am covered up to a certain amount for personal items. Anything collectible, starts blurring the lines. I was basically told that to have the full value of my comic collection replaced, I would have to hire a professional appraiser, to fly up to where I am from Vancouver.

[gbpxl]

thanks for the tips. I will probably just go without and make sure to keep my things out of harm's way whenever possible.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

I would suggest having the minimal coverage that comes with homeowner's or renter's insurance, and take minor steps to protect your collection like keeping it off the floor or storing it in waterproof containers. In the least, the minimal coverage there should provide some benefit without going out of your way to insure the collection as a whole.

Besides that - keep your collection up to date here on the site (we're a valid resource for insurance, I swear), and take pictures of any damage that occurs.

[techwizard]

i have pics of every single game i own on facebook, i use that as a sort of photo database/small scores showing off. even offline though, having photos of everything would help a lot, especially to be able to show the difference before and after any damage.