Insuring your collection
 

I’m guessing this subject has been addressed before but thought I would ask experienced N54 members how they have gone about insuring their personal collections.

I took an initial quick run at this but could not find an easy solution from my traditional homeowners insurance.

Thanks for any advice.

Jeff

https://americancollectors.com/

I am a USAA member, American Collectors Insurance is the company that they contract with for referrals. I have a $10,000 policy with them. I have collectors car insurance thru them as well, and I had to use that policy with them this summer. They were quick about getting me a check to cover my dings and dents.

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I think many/most people here who have insurance use these guys. They set up at the National and provide excellent customer service. I have never had to make a claim, but others here have reported no issues making them. And it covers your cards when you ship them, so no more needing to buy insurance from the shipper.

I also use collect insure... you will want to be careful about adding a safe to the policy.. what that means is you are stating the cards are always in the safe.. should you have a robbery and have any cards out of the safe at that time you would be capped on the coverage because the cards are supposed to always be in your safe when not home..

just something to be aware of...

Proceed with caution when using collect insure
 

I had a large claim with collect insure about 4 years ago as a result of a fire at my home. It's a long story, but they denied my claim because of an exception clause in the policy related to "dealer stock." Essentially, if you don't have their "Dealer Policy" and you sell items on ebay or elsewhere, this clause could come into play. My policy with them had been in place for over 10 years, and my ebay selling had evolved over time, but I never considered myself a "dealer." In addition, the "dealer stock" clause specifically states that the exception does not apply if you are selling doubles or excess stock. Also, NONE of the items I was claiming as damaged were the items I had listed on ebay.

Nevertheless, they said my claim was not covered. Fortunately, my homeowners insurer, Chubb, covered my collectibles loss in full (side note - Chubb is amazing and worth the extra premium - I highly recommend them). As a result, I never had to completely go to the mat with collect insure over the claim, which I would have done if Chubb had not bailed them out. I now have a "Dealer Policy" with collect insure in an abundance of caution, which costs twice as much.

It is also important to understand that collect insure is simply the broker for the insurance policy. They are not the actual insurance carrier. Early on, I remember that the insurance carrier they used was Hartford. At some point that must have changed (maybe more than once) because the insurance carrier at the time of my claim was an obscure insurance company I had never heard of, but I was not paying attention. It is also important to understand that the insurance policy can change each year when you renew, and will most certainly change if they use a new carrier. I don't have my original policy from many years ago when I started using collect insure, but I think it is very likely that it did not include the "dealer stock" clause. The bottom line is that collect insure is a broker and their allegiance is to the insurance carrier, not to you. They want the claims experience for this book of business to be as low as possible. They won't fight you on a small claim when a card gets lost in the mail, but when you are dealing with a large claim, I would expect a fight. They will do anything they can to try to avoid paying these large claims.

I've been meaning to research and find a better option, but haven't gotten around to it. If anyone has positive claims experience for a large loss like this with another carrier for collectibles, I would love to know about it.

Insurance company
 

https://www.thefia.com/

They have a collectibles insurance division and the owner is a collector and understands the insurance needs for a collector and dealer.

I always assume this is the case with any insurance company. That said, I’m sorry you had to deal with that. As if a fire isn't stressful enough. Glad to hear Chubb came through for you....even though it’s a horrific name for a company:)

Does anyone have experience with Collect insure with a big claim? I’m curious how they value something. How do they determine market value? Thanks

when you set up your policy you must list any items over $25,000 in value.... the value is provided by the collectors.. items under $25K in value do not need to be individually listed.

Do these companies cover losses or damage during shipping ? Like on a purchase or sale ?

Thanks

Collect insure will insure packages up to the amount you want covered when shipping items.

Thanks Peter.

My father recommended to me Americancollectors.com

Does anyone have experience with this company specific to cards ??

There are specific types of shipping you must use based on the value of the package, but it is still a good deal because you can insure anything and, unlike insurance through the shipper, it will actually cover the full value of the package.

Just did comparative quote from both. For my collection the cost was less than half for collect insure (collect insure was cheaper) by a lot.. Seeming to cover the same things.

I went with American Collectors, because as I said, they are the company associated with USAA. They paid up for my dings and dents on my wifes 58 Impala, dealt directly with the body shop, wrote me a check for the shops stated estimate minus deductible. Very smooth transaction. USAA is a fantastic insurance company, and if they recommend American Collectors, it's because they are reliable.

When I got my card collection policy this spring, I had to send them pictures of items or groupings over $2000. Since my best items are in my display as a grouping, I took photos of that and told them the estimated value. Then some odd ball items here or there. Very simple to deal with.

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A bit of a bump of a thread a few months old, but was hoping to get some insurance related questions answered.

First, my homeowners insurance agent has mentioned that my collection can be covered through them. Have others have problems with doing this? Or is this typically more expensive? If it matters, my collection is fairly modest compared to most here (low five figures).

Any thoughts or advice regarding using homeowners insurance as a way to cover the card collection would be much appreciated.

Most homeowners are insured under a standard policy called HO-3. Under this policy form, jewelry and collectibles are covered up to $1500. Insurers will typically allow you to increase that coverage to $2500 or $5000.

If your agent can get you more coverage that's great, find out the terms and the cost and then compare it to the other options listed on this thread.


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My collection is at my office but most at my beach house..there are two three dogs. Pitbull doberman and the craziest of all our yorkie . Im not worried 🦮

Not sure anyone is still following this thread, but since I started it, I thought I’d wrap it up to help others... I just finished a super easy phone call with American Collectors Insurance, answered several questions, got about $32k coverage with $0 deductible for annual premium of under $200.

No requirements to keep cards in a safe, ok that they are on display in the basement in my card-cave to enjoy, and some nice extra features like an auto 8% value increase on any items valued over $2k. I do have to send them an inventory of the higher end cards within 30 days which is something I’ve been meaning to do anyway (but not the thousands of junk cards that we all probably have which are valueless)

Nice to have this done - thought I’d share to help others out.

Good luck and Happy Opening Day, 2021!

Jeff

Pwcc vault. Took advantage of the 3 free submission free for life and I'm planning to move out of the country in a few months. Was using collectinsure before

Finkelmeier Insurance Agency, Inc. in Ohio got me a much better rate than anyone else I spoke to. Much better. They're online. Ask for Jodi.

I use CIS as well. I got it mainly for submissions, so I do not have to waste time pretending USPS insurance isn't worthless. And so I do not have to tell someone making 10 bucks an hour that I need $5k in insurance.

I have never filed a claim, but from what they told me, keeping my inventory in a spreadsheet and keeping any receipts is good enough proof of value. I take pictures of my submissions, but not sure how a claim will work for raw cards that I do not have receipts for.

any protection from damage/theft is a bonus.

The thing I have, I do not know what the appropriate term is. It is just something I have set up with my insurance company that covers "contents" of a house. I choose that method because it covers various types of things not just the things I collect. I can raise or lower the coverage amount as I please and I do not need to keep a detailed list of assets, although I typically do anyways just because I like that kind of thing.

I would double check with them
 

That your Sports cards/collectibles are fully covered (at cost or replacement value?) and make sure their value is within the policy limit(s). I have heard a couple of nightmare stories regarding homeowners coverage and riders.

What BS; just because I sell cards doesn't make my collection inventory any more than driving a taxi makes a taxi driver's personal car into a cab. I'd relish a crack at them in court if they pulled something like that on me.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ks%20giffy.gif

Slab insurance
 

I set up a policy to insure all the plastic PSA and SGC slabs I have in the house.

My new agent Jake says it’s ok that there is cardboard pictures inside most of them, he says the contents don’t really matter.
What does matter is now I can be comfortable in knowing that I’m fully covered if something horrible happens to my plastic collection.

Formerly I had to worry about water damage, theft and fire.
Now that I have weighed my collection and signed all the paperwork, even if fire melts the plastic, I am covered (once it cools of course) as long as the weight is within tolerable thresholds of my initial inventory claim.
Jake said to save space it might be a good idea to melt them now, proactively. I’m going to wait for better weather and try it. He said that having stacks of plastic in boxes is still ok for now.

I love the insurance company that offers options!

Jodi is the best!

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For the most part. There are some things that have no known value, things that are rare and have no sales history besides what I paid for them. I guess I do not even count those types of things. And of course, the entire idea of having insurance is more of a feel good type of thing than anything else. There is no shortage of stories out there of insurance companies not honoring policies. Unfortunately, there is no garaunteed insurance method of anything.

Anyways, I think that if I were ever have to call in that policy, I probably would not bother trying to replace anything and just kind of start over into something new.