Do you place a monetary value on your collection? How?

[tylerwillis]

I did a search on "insurance" and came up with a few threads here and there, but I didn't see anything addressing these specific questions, so I thought I'd pose it out.

I'm sure that most here collect because we enjoy collecting/playing games. I doubt that many (if any) collect because we think that it's an investment to sell off at a future time. But there comes a point when someone (perhaps even ourselves) looks around at our collections and says "Good grief, that's a lot of systems/games/accessories/etc, how much is this worth?"

After having been asked that numerous times myself, I finally decided to pose the question to myself - this is good, because it led to my first serious effort at cataloguing my entire collection. When I finished the catalog, I saw 500+ games and wondered how much it would be worth.

So I've been attempting to go through and assign a dollar value to each game and thus take the aggregate as the monetary value of my collection.

Have any of you done something similar? How did you determine the price of each game (I've been going by approx eBay prices and taking into account completeness and condition)? Did you use IGN, Gamespot, DP or eBay - I think each would generate a different number. Which is the most realistic? Or did you just guestimate, not wanting to take time to go through each game individually? Do you have a minimum value for a game (mine was $1 - I know that there's many many games out there that are worthless, but even worthless games would cost to replace if they disappeared)?

Any thoughts, views, experiences or suggestions would be welcome.

[DeputyMoniker]

In my experience I've found DP to be the best guide. Really, I'm not just saying that. The reason is that eBay fluctuates so much that it makes it very difficult to determine what a low dollar item is worth. One day it goes for $30 but the next it goes for $13. DP is a nice average. I've found that if DP quotes something at a certain price then if you are prepared to spend that amount, you'll usually get what you're looking for.

[v1rich]

It also helps to catalogue the price as you buy them, so at least you know the cost. I keep track of cost and est value of everything I have. Some people use spreadsheets, and some have databases. Find a tool that works for you.

[imanerd0011]

I agree with Deputy. I think you should use DP as a base, and for your more rare games use Ebays most recent prices. For some of your rare games you are going to have a hard time getting them for the DP price they are listed at, but for your average (R5 and below) you should be able to get them again at the DP price.
I have looked into getting my collection insured, but I have ALOT of displays and memorbilia that doesn't have a set price (like most games do). I guess I would just insure it for what I paid +25%, since most of the items have gone up in price recently.

[DynastyLawyer]

Audi TT or better.

If you can buy me a new Audi TT, I will gladly sell out and surrender to you every videogame I own. I will likewise not overlook other cars that are obviously better (Ferrari) and real estate transactions (if your house is in a good neighborhood, I'll give you all my games for it.)

Problem? I own 200 games. And while there are some gems in there (Phantasy Star for Sega Master System, Most of the Alex Kidd games), nobody in their right mind is going to buy videogames for 150$ per pop (or more), when most of the videogames can be bought for 50 on Ebay. Still, that's the going price on my childhood.

Any takers?

[tylerwillis]

Dynasty brings up a good point - for some of the games that I own, there is more than a monetary value, there's a sentimental attachment. I don't care if I find a mint, complete in box Final Fantasy - I won't ever trade/sell away my beat-to-crap childhood copy. (It's not really beat-to-crap, but the dog got a hold of the manual... it was a sad day).

However, I don't think that most insurance companies will agree with an Audi for 200 games. (If you find one, please do let me know - I'm sitting on 2.75 Audis right now.)

I've been referring to DP as a base price, but also looking at eBay. Since I do most of my buying/selling on eBay (big computer nerd), I can generally gauge what an average price is. (I once sold a Suikoden CIB for $80... but I know that the going rate is much less... but it did make me happy).

I've generallly been trying to go low-figure on it, but be accurate for what I could actually hawk a game (if someone stuck a gun to my head) for.

[sharp]

I have a special collection-insureance worth 10.000 euro, maybe it's a bit overrated. I took a special insureance because otherwise they will put every game for 1$ or something when they break into you're house. Anyway my parents pay the extra insureance as I have a realy small income at the moment. So don't ask me what it costs.

[FlufflePuff]

As far as my insurance company is concerned, my collection is worth $20,000. So if I lose everything in a fire, I get a check for $20,000 give or take recent aquisitions/sell-offs. I keep current pictures of my collection in a fireproof box along with printoffs of all my excel spreadsheets. That way if the worst happens, I'm covered.

[vulcanjedi]

Hey

My inventory database http://www.vulcanjedi.com/inventory.htm
has fields for approximate value. I don't worry about it being exact but I do tend to update it when I notice values going way up. When it comes to insurance the more details you keep records of the better. Don't forget to take pictures. And it depends on the insurance you have. Some pay out by cost - depreciation and others are true replacement costs and then there is a fixed declared value.

VJ