Insuring your collection.

[Major_Gilbear]

I have mine listed as a separate item on the home insurance, although the value is honestly pretty difficult/vague. It's a very big and diverse collection, acquired over about thirty years, and if I lost the stuff and wanted to replace it, it could take me another thirty years to track all the models down again!

That's also another problem with insurance; you're paying to insure something that you might be able to replace properly, even with the insurance payout money. If you had a box of LE or unreleased figures for example, replacing them could be almost impossible, and the prices could vary wildly.

One thing to note is that I only value the figures (and some of the books) themselves. I feel that paintjobs that aren't competition-level are probably not worth insuring, and most of us painted the figures ourselves anyway. Not that our time doing so isn't valuable, but rather than we do it for fun and I would therefore find it difficult to estimate that; I would still want to paint a replaced collection if I lost the first one, and that would still eat up my time (again).

Regardless of whether it's itemised under the insurance or not, if you have a reasonable collection, it's probably worth making and keeping some sort of record or inventory of what you actually have. If nothing else, it's a useful tool to know what you've actually got when you are looking to purchase more! 

[racm32]

I'm sure there is a presidenc for insuring collections of things. Even ones that can't be replaced 1 for 1.

[Tactalvanic]

googlefoo starts coming up with specialist collection insurers such as hixcox and others, guess country dependent and possible similar provided by mainstream insurers to

Giggle a little that several results where for " your rights when the bailiffs call". hmm

So there are options that mght fit.

[Jack Jones]

Hi All

Interesting thread, especially since I have just gone through the process of valuing my collection and insuring it as a separate risk item.

I calculated the cost of the miniatures, scenic items, and materials (even MDF bases – it soon adds up) and then figured the cost of commissioning someone to paint the whole lot at an average of £5 per miniature.

I have digital photos of everything too.

Cheers
JJ

[_Si_]

Holy crap that's thorough. How long did it take you?

[Jack Jones]

Holy crap that's thorough. How long did it take you?

Not so long … I summed up all the receipts that I have, and where these were missing calculated the purchase value on manufacturer’s web sites.

[FreakyFenton]

Not so long … I summed up all the receipts that I have, and where these were missing calculated the purchase value on manufacturer’s web sites.

That's rather clever!