Safe-guarding your cards

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Back in '94 I had a condo in the part of L.A. that got hit very badly in the earthquake. Looking at my place immediately afterwards, I knew that the city would condemn it as unsafe (four years in construction law at the time, with thousands of property inspections in the process). So, I unloaded my 200#+ safe of my cards and took them, my clothes and my cat with me to my parents' house in another part of town. I left that heavy bastard safe behind, especially since it was bolted to the deck and getting it out of there would have been really rough with all the debris blocking the way.

When I came back with the FEMA inspector a few weeks later, the whole complex had been burglarized. They stole the freakin' safe, ripped it right out of the concrete. I would love to have seen their faces when they opened it to find nothing but air.

Sooooo, the moral of the story is that I insure and safety deposit box my good cards now. I am confident that State Farm will pay off (whether voluntarily or by force) if there is a disaster. While I'd love to have the good stuff at home, the main fear I have of having my collection at home is a home invasion robbery. Once you are known to have a valuable at home, the odds go way up that some gang will hear and seek it out. That's another reason for keeping the good stuff at the bank.