Anyone have insurance on their collection?

[nesgamer]

Been roaming through the Rooms of Doom and have been wondering if anyone here has taken out insurance on their collections. Or am I the first to think about this?

[KHELVIN]

I've thought of doing this myself, more so as my collection grows. Not too worried about a robbery as it would take many trips to snag it all and robbers want to be quick. However a fire, tornado, flood, etc..... just thinking on it makes me sick.

[heybtbm]

Most homeowners or renters insurance policies already cover collections. Just make sure you're insured for enough. Back in my renting days, I had to double the coverage on my renters insurance since my collection was worth more than the standard policy. Same thing goes for homeowners. I've discussed this exact issue with my agent several times.

There really is no excuse for not having some type of insurance anyway. Homeowners are essentially forced to have insurance (banks won't give you a mortgage until you provide proof of insurance...a good thing IMO), and renters policies are usually under $100 a year.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

There have been discussions on insurance and value of collections previously on the board, so it may help to look those up.

I will warn you that most standard policies don't adequately cover collections. I had a flood in August and was lucky to only have a few cartridge games and an arcade cabinet come out damaged, considering the amount of water (invest in shelves with legs and plastic totes - saved me $5k+. IKEA Besta shelves FTW).

Invest in a fireproof safe for your rarities and keep them in something waterproof inside (fireproof != waterproof) for safekeeping. The rest, for the most part, can be covered under renter or homeowners insurance as long as you're aware of the cap for coverage (ranges from $2k-$5k, typically). If you feel that's not enough coverage, take out a separate policy but be prepared to give an arbitrary value to the collection.

[Lucifersam1]

Not that I have a huge collection or anything, but I was told, when I inquired, that video games were not insurable under my homeowners insurance policy. The agency has since switched the insurer they use, so maybe things are different now.

Been roaming through the Rooms of Doom and have been wondering if anyone here has taken out insurance on their collections. Or am I the first to think about this?

[icarwngs55]

My father's homeowners covered my games when the Dishwasher from the kitchen leaked through the floor into a closet where many of my games were stored. All the games were in plastic bins EXCEPT my Dreamcast and Playstation Games and Game Disc Demos; which were in a "Z" Top plastic bin. The water leaked right in and since we didn't notice the leak for a bit, they got nice and moldy.

Here is the kicker, most of the games (including all final fantasy's) were sealed. NOT WELL ENOUGH APPARENTLY! And all were ruined.

Want to know what the insurance company gave me for the one bin (and I am not exaggerating)? $9,200. Needlessly to say I was shocked. My father had asked me prior to getting the quote back what I had paid for everything and what I would be happy getting back; I said I paid no more than $1,000 for it all but would cost much more to replace and would like ~$2,000.

Apparently the insurance company out sources "collection type things" to a different company that looks up the "replaceable" value of each item. And the $9,200 is what they came up with.

I never replaced the specific games, but much of the cash went to College Tuition and some game stuff.

The other thing was the insurance company had no desire to take the games away. As far as they were concerned they were ruined. Leaving me (after gutting them all and using clorox) TONS of loose PS1 and dreamcast game discs.

I always intended to sell and never did...oh well

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Same thing here - the insurance collector looked up the games on eBay. He apparently was not very familiar with some of the titles that I listed, as he gave me the list price for Seiken Densetsu 3 instead of Secret of Mana (not that I minded).

I ended up getting CIB list price for most of my items, and besides the water damage (which, for cartridges, is mainly just labels, instructions and boxes), almost all of my games still work. *shrug* I thought they'd take the items, which is why I claimed them for replacements.

[portnoyd]

Part of our homeowners. When we rented our apartment, we had a separate policy.

[Bojay1997]

Guys, you need to be really careful about assuming your homeowner's or renter's incurance will cover your collection. Some policies will cover collectibles up to a certain amount as long as you document them in some reasonable way. You need to review your policy and see what is covered and for how much. If your collection is large or valuable (like over $10K), you absolutely need to get a separate coverage rider at additional expense. You should also be aware that if you ever do need to make a claim, there is a chance your premiums will rise significantly.

[portnoyd]

We submitted photos and documentation both times we got the policy and yes, it cost us extra.

[Oldskool]

My collection is insured with our home owners insurance. Remember if you have home owners insurance to take pics of everything you own for proof.

Everything is also secured as well. Nothing beats an alarm system installed in your home when the siren goes off and the local authorities are called.

All I need now is a camera system.

[Trade-N-Games]

My collection is insured with our home owners insurance. Remember if you have home owners insurance to take pics of everything you own for proof.

Everything is also secured as well. Nothing beats an alarm system installed in your home when the siren goes off and the local authorities are called.

All I need now is a camera system.

I got a huge safe last summer. Not some cheap safe but a real fire safe rated for super high temps and 3 hours of burn time. It cost me $2000 used and the weight was 700 pounds. I fit inside almost 200 CIB games along with some personal items. I double comic book baged each game. The worst thing is a fire and if alot of water was on it it could leak. It has no rubber seals on it just a deep metal grove that is there to drain water away in case. A rubber seal would just melt. I keep my collection now at my store with extra insurance that cost me around $1000 a year. The collection is huge at almost 15,000 games. In a few years I will just sell it all off to send my kids to school.

[bacteria]

Blimey! I just buy games cheaply from ebay or car boot sales; not interested in mint condition or sealed titles or even ones with instructions in most cases; therefore my games cost me about 50p-£2 each in a lot of cases, up to £6 each for quite a few titles and only a handful at up to about £25 each. I probably have about 700 games, value of about £2000; not worth insuring!

[cyberfluxor]

I've bought most of my stuff on the cheap as well but the time and effort wasn't. Everything comes at a cost and quite frankly if I had spent $1k on a $10k collection you're damn right I'd go close to $10k because it'll take years to recoup those items again at that same pace and price.

Living with my parents items are insured. Living in my own place it's insured. I own too much stuff (outside of video games as well) to not have a blanket insurance policy to cover so many things that can go wrong.