Insurance and your Gaming Collection

[Harmonious Borealis]

It's something I haven't really thought about, at least I hadn't until a couple I'm friends with had their (gorgeously painted) stuff stolen out of their trunk while their vehicle was in the shop having a tire replaced. Of course, they know that it couldn't have happened anywhere else, and of course, the shop (part of a big department chain) alleges that they had nothing to do with the stuff going missing. The shop did admit they needed to move the cases out of the trunk to get to a tire or something.

I'm not going to get more specific than that, as nothing has been proven other than with logic.

It was hundreds of dollars worth at least, and they have had no luck speaking with managers and whatnot as far as I know. Since we work at one gaming store, we're letting everyone there and at other stores know to keep an eye out for it.

I have the urge to get my camera out all of a sudden

[Sinsinatus]

Living in the middle of hurricane country (South-central Florida), I had a discussion with my insurance agent when we moved into this house. He suggested a rider to cover my "collections" and reccommended I store photographic evidence outside the location where the collections are kept. He also suggested that if any single piece was very pricey, keep the reciepts or a list of when/where/how much/who from so that you could support any future claim. I have since photo'd all the finished armies and pieces central to my collection.... even the golden demon winning pieces. I burned all of those onto a disk and then stuck it away in a safety deposit box with the important papers. With cloud storage now though, the process would be much easier to do and keep up with.

If you have an extensive collection, protect yourself from the extra grief, call you insurance guy, and take some reasonable steps.

My .02 worth...
Sinsinatus

[SotonShades]

I wish I could get some insuerence on my stuff. Over 14 years I have amassed three more than sizable armies and some smaller ones and never sold anything. While amongst all that, there are probably only a few miniatures I would absolutely have to replace (competition winning pieces, some sentimental bits such as my old metal dreadnought etc) it would be devastating to see so many hours of modelling and paint go up in smoke, not to mention the thousands of pounds I have spent.

As I said, I wish I could get some insurence to cover it. Right now, at least until I get another job, I'm stuck with 'whatever my parents have covering the house', which I can't imagine would be a huge amount with respect to my miniatures.

Still, I've been looking for an excuse to photograph my entire collection. Guess that's my Saturday sorted!

[Rich_B]

I can't emphasise enough how good an idea it is to keep on top of this! We recently had to sort out home and contents insurance after buying a house and I was pretty shocked to realise I had upwards of £3,500 gbp in paint and modelling supplies alone. The cost of replacing minis and cases, rulebooks, etc on top made that amount look like peanuts... Actually insuring them properly didn't add all that much to the policy.

[Aldramelech]

MMMMMM buy insurance or more figures.......................

Figures are gonna win every time

[Kiarr]

Whilst we try to scan all reciepts and they get all saved in the fire safe as well as a copy elsewhere I have the sudden urge to check the insurance policy...