Having Your Collection Appraised

[Polygon]

Not because I give a crap what it's worth, but because I've switched insurance carriers and if it's worth more than $5,000 you need to have proof or they will only give you $5,000 in case of a loss. So, anyone know the best way to go about this?

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

Combined with my G1 Transformers and other toys and Collections, I'm paying insurance on a 1 million dollar collection. I have a lot of movie set props and one of a kind sports pieces.

[ProjectCamaro]

I don't know who to get to do the appraisal but with my insurance company you can claim it's worth whatever you want as long as you're willing to pay the premium. If it were me I'd decide what it would take to replace everything and then claim it's worth a little more than that so if the worse were to happen you could replace everything even if prices went up a little.

[old_skoolin_jim]

Combined with my G1 Transformers and other toys and Collections, I'm paying insurance on a 1 million dollar collection. I have a lot of movie set props and one of a kind sports pieces.

Wow, that was super helpful to OP!
Personally, (it'd probably be a pain in the rear to do, but...) I'd compile a list of your games, their condition, and each title's individual value (verified by the DP guide/database and current eBay/resale market). Don't know if that would count as a "professional appraisal" by insurance company standards, but it's at least something definitive to go by.

FWIW, I have a $20,000 renter's insurance policy with Liberty Mutual and never had to give any sort of detailed appraisal. I have a good-sized collection, but $20k seemed enough to replace most, if not all, of my bigger-ticket goods. Good luck!

[Griking]

I don't know who to get to do the appraisal but with my insurance company you can claim it's worth whatever you want as long as you're willing to pay the premium. If it were me I'd decide what it would take to replace everything and then claim it's worth a little more than that so if the worse were to happen you could replace everything even if prices went up a little.

But how exactly does that work? Obviously some of your collection is worth much more than others. Say your home was broken into and the thieves got into your basement where you kept the Nintendo portion of your collection. they stole everything including your Stadium Events and NWC carts. The rest of your collection was in your office and was untouched. How do you go about getting reimbursed for your losses? You don't just automatically get a million dollars if anything is lost. I'm sure that you'd have to somehow prove what each item was worth

[ProjectCamaro]

But how exactly does that work? Obviously some of your collection is worth much more than others. Say your home was broken into and the thieves got into your basement where you kept the Nintendo portion of your collection. they stole everything including your Stadium Events and NWC carts. The rest of your collection was in your office and was untouched. How do you go about getting reimbursed for your losses? You don't just automatically get a million dollars if anything is lost. I'm sure that you'd have to somehow prove what each item was worth

For specifics you'd have to talk with your individual insurance agent. For me I have an overall value and anything that is individually expensive I have listed individually.

I don't use this for my video games as I don't have any extremely expensive/rare games like a Stadium Events but I use this method for my firearm collection.

[Polygon]

Just saying what it's worth isn't going to fly. The agent wants proof. He said appraisal, but it wasn't mentioned to him what would need the extra coverage for. I wasn't present at the conversation. What are my options besides appraisals? That's what I would prefer since it's rock solid and they wouldn't be able to argue with me in the event of a payout. However, is there a resource online that would give me an idea of the value of each of my games?

[ProjectCamaro]

Just saying what it's worth isn't going to fly. The agent wants proof. He said appraisal, but it wasn't mentioned to him what would need the extra coverage for. I wasn't present at the conversation. What are my options besides appraisals? That's what I would prefer since it's rock solid and they wouldn't be able to argue with me in the event of a payout. However, is there a resource online that would give me an idea of the value of each of my games?

If you agent isn't willing to work with you maybe you should shop around. My will let me state what an item is worth as long as I do so before hand and pay the premium based on that stated amount.

[Polygon]

If you agent isn't willing to work with you maybe you should shop around. My will let me state what an item is worth as long as I do so before hand and pay the premium based on that stated amount.

Unfortunately, this is not my decision to make. I'm merely renting from family right now.

[GamerTheGreek]

Id assume youd have to do a 1 , 3, 6 or 12 month ebay search and/or game site search for your titles within the calendar year ( for 2013 from 01/13 to 12/13 ) to price out what it would cost you to replace each cartridge. IF you can find it. Now even though this is a price of what people want ( not what they will get ) it will give some kinda value to what you would have to pay minus time and effort to replace each cartridge. ( I assume you would also have to factor in a $5.00 surcharge per cart to include shipping and insurance ( figuring ea cart mailed first class with insurance is about 4.80 ( 2.07 shipping + 2.70 insurance to 100.00 = 4.77 ). Ive thought this out once or twice but havent printed out any documentation to get it insured from ebay at the libary.

This would work great for 90% of my Atari 8 Bit collection. The Game that would be a stumper is my Mogul Maniac on the Romox company chip and cart. Its probably a 200- 300 at very most BUT in a case like that I would have to post a thread here, in the Whats it worth and print that out with the guestimations and average it out and store that as an proximate value, but brings up the fact of where would you replace a game like that when you havent seen another one like it ever. Thats where insuring rarer and hardest to locate cartridges will become a guessing game and I would be interested in hearing how others would handle carts that are 1 of a kind and cant be replaced due to just not being known out there. ( Even air raid there are a handful of copies in existance).

How do you price something prototype or a discovery piece when it comes to insurance.

[Bojay1997]

Just saying what it's worth isn't going to fly. The agent wants proof. He said appraisal, but it wasn't mentioned to him what would need the extra coverage for. I wasn't present at the conversation. What are my options besides appraisals? That's what I would prefer since it's rock solid and they wouldn't be able to argue with me in the event of a payout. However, is there a resource online that would give me an idea of the value of each of my games?

As far as I know, there is no appraisal service out there with expertise in video games. As such, your best option is to do a comprehensive inventory, assign a value to each item yourself and then present it to your insurance company. Most reputable companies have riders you can purchase to your standard personal property policies. As another poster indicated, the premium will be set based on the value and the risk. I'm not aware of any other way to do it. There is no comprehensive value guide out there and even Ebay is all over the place.

[GamerTheGreek]

How about Ebay price AVG and digital press online guide price and avg it out to get a price? Might not get the full value but youll get a chunk of it?

[Polygon]

Id assume youd have to do a 1 , 3, 6 or 12 month ebay search and/or game site search for your titles within the calendar year ( for 2013 from 01/13 to 12/13 ) to price out what it would cost you to replace each cartridge. IF you can find it. Now even though this is a price of what people want ( not what they will get ) it will give some kinda value to what you would have to pay minus time and effort to replace each cartridge. ( I assume you would also have to factor in a $5.00 surcharge per cart to include shipping and insurance ( figuring ea cart mailed first class with insurance is about 4.80 ( 2.07 shipping + 2.70 insurance to 100.00 = 4.77 ). Ive thought this out once or twice but havent printed out any documentation to get it insured from ebay at the libary.

This would work great for 90% of my Atari 8 Bit collection. The Game that would be a stumper is my Mogul Maniac on the Romox company chip and cart. Its probably a 200- 300 at very most BUT in a case like that I would have to post a thread here, in the Whats it worth and print that out with the guestimations and average it out and store that as an proximate value, but brings up the fact of where would you replace a game like that when you havent seen another one like it ever. Thats where insuring rarer and hardest to locate cartridges will become a guessing game and I would be interested in hearing how others would handle carts that are 1 of a kind and cant be replaced due to just not being known out there. ( Even air raid there are a handful of copies in existance).

How do you price something prototype or a discovery piece when it comes to insurance.

As far as I know, there is no appraisal service out there with expertise in video games. As such, your best option is to do a comprehensive inventory, assign a value to each item yourself and then present it to your insurance company. Most reputable companies have riders you can purchase to your standard personal property policies. As another poster indicated, the premium will be set based on the value and the risk. I'm not aware of any other way to do it. There is no comprehensive value guide out there and even Ebay is all over the place.

How about Ebay price AVG and digital press online guide price and avg it out to get a price? Might not get the full value but youll get a chunk of it?

It seems I'm going to have to talk with the agent and see if any of these ideas will work for them, or how they would expect me to assign value that they would honor.

[wiggyx]

Usually you can insure your posessions for as much as you'd like, regardless of actual value. Insurance companies aren't worried about you spending money on excessive coverage. I imagine the aforementioned million dolllar collection is a bit over-insured. It's being reimbursed for the loss that will require proof of value.

That said, do some research to determine roughly what your collection is worth (prolly sold eBay listings), and take lots of pictures as proof of your ownership. Insure accordingly. If you ever have to file a claim, then you'll likely have to (and want to) go through the process of determining value again.

[Gameguy]

Bring your entire collection to Pawn Stars so they'll call in an "expert", just get a copy of the episode later. Utah isn't all that far from Las Vegas.

[Cornelius]

It has been a few years at least, but someone on the forums had a situation where they needed an appraisal. I don't think it was for an entire video game collection, more like one or two items. As I recall (fuzzily) Joe was able to write something up that did the job. That's not realistic for a whole collection, but if you just have a few pieces you want to take extra care with, one of our friendly shop owners on the forum here or maybe one you know locally might be able help you out.

[SpaceFlea]

My insurance agent said my entire collection would be covered under my general home policy. And, if something were to happen to it, I would get reimbursed for the amount I paid and not the current market value. They said I had to keep documentation of everything I had and what I paid for it. However, if I took anything to a convention or something away from my house, it would only be covered up to $500 regardless of its value.

[Gameguy]

My insurance agent said my entire collection would be covered under my general home policy. And, if something were to happen to it, I would get reimbursed for the amount I paid and not the current market value. They said I had to keep documentation of everything I had and what I paid for it. However, if I took anything to a convention or something away from my house, it would only be covered up to $500 regardless of its value.

That's only good if you've bought everything at full retail and everything depreciated afterwards, more like if you bought a brand new TV or computer and something happened to it a few years later. If you actually bought things like collectibles for a good price you'd lose out, that insurance is probably almost worthless for you for your collection.

I was actually somewhat serious about the Pawn Stars type appraisal, more so to bring everything or a list of everything and condition to a local specialty game store and get them to write an appraisal for you. You might have to pay the store to do the appraisal as it would take up their time but I think it could be done.

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

Usually you can insure your posessions for as much as you'd like, regardless of actual value. Insurance companies aren't worried about you spending money on excessive coverage. I imagine the aforementioned million dolllar collection is a bit over-insured. It's being reimbursed for the loss that will require proof of value.

That said, do some research to determine roughly what your collection is worth (prolly sold eBay listings), and take lots of pictures as proof of your ownership. Insure accordingly. If you ever have to file a claim, then you'll likely have to (and want to) go through the process of determining value again.

I am kindof over paying but they didn't ask for itemized descriptions...I have things that can't be replaced, that's why. I don't think there is a reliable appraisal company for toys, collectibles and video games.

[wiggyx]

My insurance agent said my entire collection would be covered under my general home policy. And, if something were to happen to it, I would get reimbursed for the amount I paid and not the current market value. They said I had to keep documentation of everything I had and what I paid for it. However, if I took anything to a convention or something away from my house, it would only be covered up to $500 regardless of its value.

What did they tell you about stuff for which you have no receipt or way of proving what you paid?

I am kindof over paying but they didn't ask for itemized descriptions...I have things that can't be replaced, that's why. I don't think there is a reliable appraisal company for toys, collectibles and video games.

And that of course would be the issue if/when you ever have to make a claim (which I hope you NEVER need to). I can't even imagine how they would handle items that are one of a kind or aren't easily appraised