Insurance Related Questions About Collectibles From A Property Insurance Claim REP

Hello Everyone

I decided to start this thread as I thought I could be of help to some of you with questions regarding insurance as it pertains to your collectibles. I will strictly only answer questions regarding property insurance and only if it applies towards collectibles. I work in claims for a company that will go unnamed. I work routinely/daily on claims pertaining to already established policies with set coverage's and limits. I gather loss facts, investigate/determine coverage, and generally make payouts on covered losses.

I will be more than happy to answer any question I can to the best of my knowledge and abilities but keep in mind that you should always do your research when it comes to insurance, and that includes reading each and every single paragraph, having extended conversations with your agent about your property, and getting EVERYTHING in WRITING.

If anyone has questions, please feel free to let me know. If any one else is in the insurance business feel free to jump in.

I still haven't done anything with insurance on my collections but I have been told by multiple companies that my collections (small art one, decent size sports memorabilia, and way too big toy collection) are NOT covered by my general home insurance policy, that they all would need separate policies and proof of purchase/value. Proof of purchase could be an issue as I have been collecting for years, buying from ebay, sideshow, other sites directly and don't have all the receipts.

My question would be in general would photo evidence of ownership and current value (say on ebay or elsewhere) hold up as a claim if I had a separate policy? Say I had $30K in coverage for my action figures and there was a fire, damaging all of them. Would photos be enough to show proof of ownership?

This is one of the things I struggle with all the time, I love collecting stuff and displaying it but is it worth it? Insurance claims on stuff like this isn't as easy as a car accident or regular home claim...

I take pictures of all my collectibles so hopefully that would count as proof of ownership. I'd like to know if having my collection listed on a site like collectionstash.com counts as proof of value since it keeps track of current market value. With my figures, statues, comics, and art I've got somewhere around 100k in collectibles that'd I'd like to make sure I'd get something for if my house burned down.

I think the first and most important thing is to see how collectibles are defined in your policy, as "Not All" homeowners or renters policies will consider Statues or Figures as collectibles however some may. The policy may also not cover collectibles and may require you get a separate policy. Three of the most important sections of a Policy is the "Definitions, or Definitions Used In This Policy" , "Limitations," or "Limitations On Personal Property", and "Property We Do Not Cover". Not everything you own will be limited, so for example your clothes would not have a limit other than how much Personal Property your entire policy is insured for. As an example you might have $100,000.00 in personal property coverage which would be applicable if there was a whole house fire or something of that nature, however out of that $100,000.00 coverage there will be specific items that are limited to how much they will pay for (collectibles, jewelry, money, business property, etc).

To answer your question I would say that receipts are always the best way of proof of purchase but not necessarily the only one. Boxes would be helpful as well the certificates of authenticity. We have on occasion used photos as well. If you are going to take photos of the figures themselves I would also take a picture of you "yourself" in a panoramic shot with the collection. If something did happen you can always contact your credit card companies, banks, paypal etc to see if they could print or email you copies of the transactions.

The single most important thing is to make sure that you actually have coverage and that it isn't limited, otherwise you will either get nothing or only a portion of what you lose. Using your example if you had a $30K collection then you would want to make sure the collection is first covered by the policy and second if there are any limits.

I know this was a lot, but I hope it helps. If you have any other question please let me know.

GeneralZodLives said:

I take pictures of all my collectibles so hopefully that would count as proof of ownership. I'd like to know if having my collection listed on a site like collectionstash.com counts as proof of value since it keeps track of current market value. With my figures, statues, comics, and art I've got somewhere around 100k in collectibles that'd I'd like to make sure I'd get something for if my house burned down.

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I can't say I know anything about collectionstash.com but I know that most insurance companies have apps or systems that you can use to catalog and record the items in your home in an online locker.

Most major and respected insurance companies will request that you provide them an inventory with a detailed description(Brand, Make, Model, etc), age (how long you have owned the item, and original cost. What they will then do is try to go online and research the cost of the items in today's current market, if that item is no longer available they will try to find something similar. I think that is where most disputes arise, you have an item no longer made/available and they price something they believe is similar but it is in fact not. You should always be able to discuss a claim settlement in detail and have an extended conversation with the claims rep to see if any changes need made or if the pricing was done correctly.

Replacement Cost Vs Actual Cash Value is another very important thing. In general you always want to make sure your policy has Replacement Cost as it ensures that you will receive the full cost of replacement for your item vs Actual Cash Value which means you will get what your item is worth minus depreciation.

They base depreciation on long you have owned an item and a pre-determined life expectancy for certain categories of items, this applies sometimes regardless of how well the items condition was kept.

Some companies pay the full replacement cost upfront and others may actually give you the depreciated amount first and then the remaining amount once you have replaced the item.

It is hard with collectables. Even if you've taken photos of them, how can you prove you still had them in your possession if say, your house burnt down and there was nothing left of them?


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Sidewinder said:

It is hard with collectables. Even if you've taken photos of them, how can you prove you still had them in your possession if say, your house burnt down and there was nothing left of them?


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While my office is smaller and would never handle a whole house fire, I imagine that no what office or adjuster was handling the claim would be very empathetic to what you were dealing with. I imagine that an outside adjuster would come to the property and inventory what ever they could, and then gather a detailed list of what you had in the home to the best of your knowledge. Its always helpful to have receipts and photos of the items, another thing you could do is see if your Agent will make copies of receipts/purchases and store them at their office that way if something did happen they would have records of your collectibles. You really get a feel for how good/competent your Agent is when you sit down and have an in depth conversation about your property.

I found this to be really nice to insure your collection.

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