A favor --- explaining the impact of water damage

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Posted By: Scott Levy

We recently had a minor flood in our basement that soaked several cards (mostly newer items). Our insurance company, to our pleasant surprise, has indicated that these collectibles are covered by our policy. An inspector came out and agreed that cards had been damaged resulting in them no longer being flat but rather wavy and/or curled. But the frustrating part was their assessment of the impact on the value of damaged cards.

Here is an example: "Water stains on edges, lost 10% of value".

If a hobby dealer and/or other recognized expert is willing to vouch for the impact of water damage on NrMt or NrMt/Mt cards, I'd be most appreciative. I think a much more accurate view is that even the tiniest amount of water damage impairs the value of a card by a minimum of 50% and any significant damage impairs it by 90%.

Thanks for looking and considering my position.

Regards,
Scott

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Posted By: Fred C

Scott,

The water damage will impact the value of the card by much greater than 10%. It'd be interesting to see how they came up with that number. You could ask a reputable grading company what impact the damage has. That would be a bit more definitive in determining actual lost value.

Now, when you say "newer items" do you mean new and shiney (post '80 material)? I'm not sure exactly how you'd get a good gauge on the value of common cards (or stars for that matter) on cards from that era. I'm not trying to bust your bubble but new and shiney might be easily replaced at a very reasonable price.

Good luck with the settlement. No, I'm not a big time dealer that can vouch for the value of your cards, sorry.

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Posted By: david

your best bet is to have them decide it is a total loss.

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Posted By: Peter_Spaeth

Put a couple up for auction on ebay, describe them accurately with a high quality scan, and show they are now worth a fraction of the value.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

scott- so sorry to hear, email sent.

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Posted By: peter chao

Definitely challenge them on the 10%. Possibly pull-out an SMR or print out PSA's grading standards from their website and show the claims adjuster what the standards are in the hobby. Good luck.

Peter C.

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Posted By: dennis

you are really lucky they are covering baseball cards at all. water damage kills the value,they are almost worthless if they are modern cards. (post 1960) look for a big increase in the next insurance bill you get.

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Posted By: JimB

That is too bad. If a previously nm/mt card is now warped from water damage, it has lost 90% of its value.
Good luck,
JimB