TOPIC: Insurance

Has anyone here insured their collection? How did you go about estimating the value?

i have insured my tokens. i did some asking of some folks that know more than i about it. lots of vague and uninformed answers. not anyone's fault. it was just a matter of lining up the ducks.

i finally got a rider for my home owners insurance. i got my agent to come to the house and we spent a big chunk of the day taking photos and verifying values. since i had other collectables (guns, BB cards, records, etc.) already with them, i just added my tokens. also since some items are irreplaceable, i ended up just rounding up to a 1/2 million for all the collectables. if i cannot replace some of it, i want to make sure i get top dollar if bad things happen.

Yeah I like the idea of inviting my agent over. Does your homeowner’s insurance rider cover your tokens when you travel?

Usually. Mine does. My company only requires a rider for certain types of collectibles (e.g. coins, art, jewelry). Tokens are covered with everything else, so I just had to make sure our coverage limit was high enough. It's best to ask your agent.

Regardless, I like Smak's idea of taking photos. I usually lay out all the "good stuff" and take pictures every year, but things got weird with the move. My collection is scattered about the property in boxes and chip cases. I should track it all down this winter and try to get things semi-organized again.

As an aside, if you're a veteran, you can go to Chase Bank and open a checking account and get a safe deposit box for no charge. Doesn't help while traveling, but it's one less thing to chuck out the window if your place burns down. It worked great, until the banks locked down last year for a few months, but the cons were all canceled so I didn't need the tokens anyway. I still have the (empty) box but that branch isn't as convenient as it was before we moved, so I guess I should look into moving it closer.

I called insurance. Got the "as long as you have proof of contents and its within replacement value, its covered." I quoted him, emailed him and asked him to confirm that...not that useful but someone to sue if he is wrong given he is the registered agent.

I also bought a safe. The "chucking out window" during fire...yeah, that just sucks...so I got a 4.5 cu ft fireproof/waterproof safe. this is so I can then just get the firemen to cool that zone if a fire did hit.

With the pictures on my phone, cloud and then the safe itself, it shows proper protection to the adjuster if I ever needed a claim. Having high end items and making a claim will lead to them checking how you secured your investment...

anyway...cool topic.

Josh Wilhelmi wrote: Yeah I like the idea of inviting my agent over. Does your homeowner’s insurance rider cover your tokens when you travel?

my house and vehicles are all the same company and making sure they were covered during travel was a given and at no extra cost. i also forgot to mention that i did get my agent to go on a run several years back, so he did get a sense of the tokens/game/value.

Hey all, I am an insurance agent and I can tell you for my company my visiting and viewing someone’s collection is not enough. There are PLENTY of independent appraisers who will (given some direction) view several websites to determine value. They will then provide a “Certified” evaluation. This is going to be what is needed in the case of loss. The appraiser shouldn’t be too expensive probably in the $200 range. I have someone who insures a HUGE comic collection. The appraiser did the initial and all he has to do at this point is keep an excel spreadsheet of purchases and sales. Unless he gets a particularly high value comic in which case he needs to keep the record of the transaction as well as photos of that issue.

After an incident/closer than comfort call at Gen Con one year i redid my insurance. Tokens are listed as both a category and separate line items under my renter's policy and noted that I travel with them. I have a general coverage for the bulk with notations of i email my agent when i add or sell a token of a certain value or higher. Fortunately my agent has dealt with others who have MTG collections so it was fairly easy explaining and getting a correct policy/rider for me.


Taking photos sounds like a reasonable precaution to help one's memory regardless.

Bob Chasan wrote: Hey all, I am an insurance agent and I can tell you for my company my visiting and viewing someone’s collection is not enough. There are PLENTY of independent appraisers who will (given some direction) view several websites to determine value. They will then provide a “Certified” evaluation. This is going to be what is needed in the case of loss. The appraiser shouldn’t be too expensive probably in the $200 range. I have someone who insures a HUGE comic collection. The appraiser did the initial and all he has to do at this point is keep an excel spreadsheet of purchases and sales. Unless he gets a particularly high value comic in which case he needs to keep the record of the transaction as well as photos of that issue.

It should also be noted that you can wait until a loss to hire an appraiser (and I would always recommend doing so if that ever happens). As long as you have proof that you own the items (pictures/video), you'll be covered the same, it will just add a bit of time to the claim process while the appraiser does their thing.

Matt wrote: After an incident/closer than comfort call at Gen Con one year i redid my insurance. Tokens are listed as both a category and separate line items under my renter's policy and noted that I travel with them. I have a general coverage for the bulk with notations of i email my agent when i add or sell a token of a certain value or higher. Fortunately my agent has dealt with others who have MTG collections so it was fairly easy explaining and getting a correct policy/rider for me.

Taking a photo isn’t just good advice for your tokens. It’s recommended that you take a video of ALL of your possessions that you can store somewhere electronically so again if something happens you can retrieve that video to make a claim. Update it at least every 4-6 months.

Taking photos sounds like a reasonable precaution to help one's memory regardless.

NightGod:
Possible but falls under what I would call “Bad Advice” Creating a list to increase the claim is looked at more stringently than having proof before. Often the thought process is that people in general feel the need to “cover their deductible and so mis-state the value of their possessions.
It’s similar to a house for sale. The seller knows they own a mansion while the buyer knows the home is one step above a tree house.

Again it is possible but as an agent, I would caution you against that. If you’re considering insuring your tokens, the cost of an appraisal is a minor cost. You didn’t hear this from me but some agents may be willing to pay a portion of the appraisal cost for you.

I bought a policy from collectinsure.com/