Insurance or Safe or both???

[Johnny T]

Hi All, Just getting to the point where my collection is worth enough to start considering protecting them more than with slabs, cases and boxes. Any thoughts, suggestions, or actual experiences that could share? thank you all in advance! JT

[Johnny630]

Both along with Smith and Wesson or Sig and Sauer.

[Casey2296]

I'm Old School...
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[troutbum97]

Those fancy Glock 9s & tough talk aren’t going to help you extinguish your house fire.

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by troutbum97

Those fancy Glock 9s & tough talk aren’t going to help you extinguish your house fire.

I have lived in 7 new homes in the last 58 years no fires 3 states.

[BeanTown]

Both no question. However using a bank box works well to

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

Both along with Smith and Wesson or Sig and Sauer.

Agree

[chalupacollects]

Originally Posted by Johnny T

Hi All, Just getting to the point where my collection is worth enough to start considering protecting them more than with slabs, cases and boxes. Any thoughts, suggestions, or actual experiences that could share? thank you all in advance! JT

Bury them on Oak Island!

[egri]

Originally Posted by chalupacollects

Bury them on Oak Island!

Just store them in the Amber Room. The thieves will never find them!

To the original topic, both are good ideas. Due to recent experience, I personally would be more worried about fire than theft, so long as you aren't carelessly flaunting the value of your collection. A family friend is a lawyer whose office burned down recently, and he estimated about half of his files had not been digitalized. There were a number of other items (photos, diplomas) that were lost as well.

[Exhibitman]

Insure them. A policy from one of the collector-specialty brokers is modestly priced and will give you peace of mind. The gun option is silly..and I own guns for every member of my family. Guess what? There are times when no one is home. Guns are useless if there's no one to use them. Also, home fires can occur from random sources. I had to call the fire dept once because our former maid spilled some cleaning product on a new dryer and it got into the electronics and burned when I turned on the dryer. Nothing like a little smoke out of an appliance that shouldn't be smoking to bring home how easily a house can catch fire. Fortunately I was there at the time...and my S&W 686 was useless.

[lumberjack]

There was a piece in The New York Times on June 10th re. an artist in SoHo who had two million dollars worth of her art work either destroyed or damaged by a plumbing leak in the loft above her studio.

You can't very well put 200 pieces of art work in a file cabinet or a gun safe, but it should be a warning to anyone with paper ephemera.

As a photo collector, I am reminded that only a matter of weeks after the Baseball Magazine archive was moved to be catalogued by the auction house, the basement it was stored in for decades flooded.

Paper ephemera is fragile, things can go wrong.
lumberjack

[jchcollins]

Unless your collection is just approaching some type of an insane value, (actually, especially then...) an insurance policy is a quick, painless, and very affordable trade for some peace of mind with a collection in your home. I would think though if you can afford an insanely valuable collection, then you can also afford a higher price to insure them each year.

Guns? Have a shootout at the OK Corral over your cards if you like. I'm not touching that one with a 10 foot pole. Given the controversy over virtually all guns in our society right now, using them as a primary means of safeguarding a sportscard collection just seems dumb to me. Safety Deposit boxes are fine, but they have been getting notorious over the last few months of the pandemic about being both hard to find, and expensive to rent if you can find them. I've never cared much for the idea of making an appointment and then having to hop in the car to drive and go "visit" key pieces of my collection for a few minutes anyway.

For insurance, I used CIS via the Beckett promotions that were going on earlier this year and was very pleased. I would imagine we'll have another 5 minute conversation next year over my collection and spreadsheet math, and that will be that.

[lumberjack]

I wasn't suggesting a gun, only a (gun) safe.

My feeling is, if someone is carrying your 700 pound fireproof safe out of your back door, you probably couldn't stop him (or her) with a bullet, anyway.
lumberjack