getting a valuable collection appraised ??

[todeen]

Originally Posted by raulus

Curious if you (or anyone else) has actually gone through the process of actually filing a claim and getting an insurance company to pay out on a policy, and how the mechanics worked.

I ruined a Butterfinger Ruth while I was trying to make a sale. It was 2021, and value had increased. I submitted a claim. The Rep had no clue about baseball cards. He asked for me to do my own research, find 3 valuations from different sources, highlighting cards in typical condition. My card was raw with some paper damage, and so I used comps of PSA 1, because nearly all Butterfingers are graded extremely low. I submitted valuations from VCP, Ebay, and a third company....Beckett? Anyway, the recent comps were $500, $750, and $1000. Insurance agreed to pay $750.

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[raulus]

Originally Posted by todeen

I ruined a Butterfinger Ruth while I was trying to make a sale. It was 2021, and value had increased. I submitted a claim. The Rep had no clue about baseball cards. He asked for me to do my own research, find 3 valuations from different sources, highlighting cards in typical condition. My card was raw with some paper damage, and so I used comps of PSA 1, because nearly all Butterfingers are graded extremely low. I submitted valuations from VCP, Ebay, and a third company....Beckett? Anyway, the recent comps were $500, $750, and $1000. Insurance agreed to pay $750.

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Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear they didn't try to argue you down to $500.

I think my biggest fear is some of the pieces that I have that are 1 of 1s (or maybe 2 or 3). For the pieces with a couple of other examples, I guess I could try to buy it off of whoever has the other pieces, assuming I can even figure out who owns them. But for 1 of 1 pieces, other than the price I paid to pick it up, about the only way to attempt to value it might be to look at other 1 of 1 stuff for similar players from similar sets, and then attempt to triangulate a little. But the analysis and math would get real dicey in a hurry.

Don't get me wrong - I have strong opinions on what those pieces are worth, and those are reflected in the scheduled values on my insurance policy. But getting the insurance company on board could be good fun.

Just spitballing here, but I guess I could also maybe call around to some dealers and/or auction houses (or these appraisal groups that others have mentioned above) and poll them on what they think it would be worth. Assuming they're familiar with the issue, and wouldn't just lowball the price because they assume it's not desireable, maybe that information could be used as an additional data point to bolster the argument about value.

Since every thread needs a card, here's an example of one that could be fun to get the insurance company to agree to my value.