Storing a collection
 

Hoping for opinions on storing and securing a collection via a) a vault, b) a bank safety deposit box, and c) at home with a CIS insurance policy -- or some combination of these.

a) Vault - cards are insured, and generally inexpensively as something of "group insurance". While you lose the ability to touch and feel the cards at any time, most vaults provide beautiful high-res imaging (and many times look better than the card does in person). While I never dug into the legitimacy, I vividly recall reading a variety of horror hypotheticals in the event of vault bankruptcy. You also have less flexibility / speed to sell unless you do so with the vault where they are stored. I'm also curious about anyone's experience with estate issues -- family access to the cards or funds in the event of death or incapacitation.

b) Safety deposit box -- my understanding is there is zero bank-provided insurance, but you could add the contents to a personal policy using an itemized inventory. While not always viewing in the privacy of your home, you do theoretically have easy access to them whenever the bank is open. There is the element of maintaining safety of a key. Most importantly for me, I wonder how much light exposure (if any) makes its way into your personal box. In my local banks, the light in the vault stays on for the duration of operating hours. I'd be concerned about the long-term effects on color pertaining to any light seeping through.

c) At home with CIS insurance -- this to me checks the most boxes. You buy a blanket coverage amount without the need to submit any itemized lists (you are required to maintain the list yourself ). My question here would be how often, if at all, one changes the coverage amount as your collection value changes. Here you also have the option of adding a home safe -- but while I appreciate the pitch darkness of the safe, I've read about negative long-term effects of breathability issues.

Note: I'm a long-term collector, but do "turnover" quite a bit in an effort to continuously roll-up, so having a certain portion of the cards on hand is needed. I don't travel with my cards, bringing at most a dozen or so to a quarterly show.

To this point, I've used a combination of a) and c), but was recently standing in my bank lobby and the vault struck my curiosity.

Thanks for any feedback, advice, or corrections to any of my assumptions above!

Some options will depend on whether you like to handle, view, and/or flip through your collection.

If it's simply an investment or you like hanging out in bank vaults then off-site storage is a viable option.

I take high resolution scans of my cards and organize the images into folders to "flip through" but I also like to have the cards on hand to casually flip through, too.

Option C is the only one that gives you a chance to grab it all and go in the event of a natural disaster.

If you had a 60 minute head start notice (sometimes it is much less), you can get your family, pets, documents, and cards out of a house.

Good luck doing that with a vault in another state or a safety deposit box somewhere in town.

Option C all day

Vault - Absolutely not. I want control over my cards to be able to physically hold them or whatever. And I do not my cards to be forgotten about in the event I pass on.

Safe Deposit Box - Possible. Mostly for reasons in the vault. Safe deposit box is usually be closer to home with easier access. But you are also subject to loss during travel if you remove them.

CIS Insurance - Absolutely. I have insurance plus two small home safes. This gives you better chance from theft and fire, etc.
I have both the personal and dealer insurance. The dealer part insures your cards while at card shows selling plus during the transportation to and from. So if you are robbed at a show or in an accident which causes cards to be ruined (drive off the road into a creek) you are covered.

Also, if you keep your cards in a home safe, and you disclose to the Insurance Company that you keep the cards there, they must be kept in there at all times other than when you are looking at them. By that I mean if you take them out to look at them and forget to put them back in the safe and leave them on your desk, and you are robbed while out to dinner, they will not be covered since the cards where not in the disclosed location.
So even though I keep them in a safe, I disclosed to the Insurance company that I keep them in a box on a shelf in my office. However it is cheaper if you tell them you keep them in a safe.

storing valuable cards
 

on this topic,
I know some guys prefer the bank vault thing...understandable due to security/ fear/ trust/ safety/ etc..

question - So you walk in , show your ID, ask the bank mgr for access,..and now what ? ..pull up a chair ( if they allow that ) slide open the box..and sit there 45 minutes thumbing thru your cards ?

Is anyone else in there " watching you ", can another customer come in and look in his box at his diamonds and gold..and strike up a conversation ??

Banks have small private rooms. There is a two key process to open the boxes. Your key PLUS the bank key. They pull out the box and hand it to you. Then you take it to a small private room to go through. When you are done, just leave the room and wait near the vault. A bank person will come and take you back to into the vault and place it back in again using the two key process to lock it back up.

At least this is the way it was back in the 1980's when I worked at a bank.

Bob

Safe Deposit Box

If you can't enjoy it at home, I don't see the point in any of it. I have coverage through State Farm and send one updated list each year. Easy process, very reasonable rate.

With CIS, there is a requirement to list any individual pieces that are over a certain value threshold. If memory serves, the threshold is $25k. While that’s a big number, the way values have moved in the last 5 years, my guess is that a lot of stuff that used to be under that threshold now might be well above it.

Personally, I keep my stuff at home, and the important stuff is displayed so that I can see it every time I walk into the room.

That's what I'm talking about -- it's that daily interaction that makes it special to me.

That individual item threshold with State Farm is $1,000.

This right here!
To each their own but I've always thought why even own the stuff if you can't see it and handle it any time you want to? If I feel things need to be vaulted or stored in a safety deposit box due to value then I'd rather just not own it. Hell, I could just collect scans of other peoples stuff and save myself a mountain of cash. IMO, insure it and enjoy it like you would a collector car or a piece of expensive art.

Half in a safe deposit box, half at home.

safe
 

Yes, I agree !

A mix of all...
 

I would suggest a mix of all of the above once you hit a certain cumulative value level. I used to keep everything at home but it just got to be too much weighing on my mind.

I have two safe deposit boxes and am opening a third this weekend. They are near my home and if I decide I'd like to look at things or need to retrieve something that process, including a drive back and forth, takes less than half an hour. The peace of mind is immense.

And you have no worries about light getting in. The boxes close and then get placed within their own metal slot and locked behind a solid little door. Nice part is that still allows some air flow.

Contrast that with my safe at home...I had a scare last week when I opened it and was immediately hit with a musty odor despite having several dessicant packages inside. Not sure what happened but I removed everything, wiped down the interior, and will not be using it again until I have time to call the store it was purchased from to discuss.

And my insurance premiums are kept in check by use of the safety deposit boxes. Way less risk for an insurer when the stuff is locked away.