Insurance on collections?

[LightingElectricDream]

So how do you go about insurance on your collections?

I know some people have insurance.

How much dose it cost?

Do you have to take photos?

Please explain..

[Tak]

I had a thread about this not long ago. It depends on your insurance company. Mine wants pictures of all of them. Values in a screenshot on any worth more than fifty. They just upped my renters insurance to include the value of the collection. I have pictures of everything in my house.

[Thunderwing]

Mine wanted a written appraisal by an expert. And then it cost 1% per annum on the total value of the collection. So a collection worth $30,000 costs $300 per year to insure. BUT there is a limit on it, too, various restrictions. Time limit on replacing them, a fairly high deductible, doesn't cover certain situations (like natural disaster), etc. Every insurance company will be different. They also said each collection had to be insured separate, so My Little Pony separate from She-ra separate from Strawberry Shortcake separate from Comic Books separate from Gold Coins etc.

[teacher316]

Interesting thunderwing. Who would the "expert" be? It's not like there is a profession for mlp appraisers. Did you sign up for insurance then? It sounds expensive. I should look into this myself too.

[QueenStarglow]

I've put a lot of thought into insuring my collection, too, so I'll follow this thread for sure.

I'm curious as to who the expert would be as well. When insuring real horses, the one to apply a value to the animal was the professional trainer. I recall it being VERY expensive to insure the horses. It cost several thousand dollars a year and we couldn't afford to insure my equitation horse for his real value. (we got him very cheap and trained him up.)

But again there are deductibles and other stuff... $300/yr on a $30k collection sounds very affordable, but if the deductible is $10k or something, that's still $10k worth of ponies lost. OR you could have zero insurance and that's $30k worth of ponies lost.

*edit* Maybe an expert would be someone who wrote a book on collection values like SweetTune?

[rosesare]

When I had a house fire in 2005 our general insurance policy covered my ponies.  I had to print out ebay auctions and such to show the values.  I had 30+ MOC's ruined as well as loose ponies.  They even paid to have some of the ones I had stored in bins that the smoke didnt seem to get into cleaned just in case. A little fact I learned was that even if you pull something out of the house that doesnt seem too damaged by smoke it can slowly turn grey or black over the course of days after so it's best to have them treated.   Also the smoke reek could take years and years if ever to leave. 

 I would say my claim for ponies was probably in the $3000+ range although I'm sure the actual value may have been more. And it would have been triple that if I hadn't been able to salvage the ponies that were sealed in plastic air tight bins.  I think that was just luck of the draw with who we got to work with for our claim from the insurance company. 

[SunbeamV]

My collection is "small" enough (~300 ponies) that it's covered by the contents insurance on my apartment since I don't really have much else in the way of valuable possessions, but I was told I would need proof of ownership in the event that something were to happen, so I've been attempting to catalogue my collection with pictures. Everything is super variable depending on your living situation, individual brokers' policies, collection size, and approx collection value so it can get pretty confusing!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

The search function can be a great resource.... 

http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,375853.0.html

[Tak]

I have farmers and they said that as long as I had a set of pictures proving I have them. (He recommended a video of walking through the house, too) They insure them for the current listed value from a few different sources and in the event of damage they replace for current value as determined by the same sources. (I.e. EBay, angelfire, molto, mlparena, etc.

[Galactica]

since i'm an insurance attorney I have a lot to say on the subject-  but definitely already say it.  Thank goodness squirmy found those old threads (the search function does not easily work for me...)

[lovesbabysquirmy]

It is DEFINITELY something that comes up a LOT!    I don't own enough ponies at this point now for insurance - but I totally understand the need for it!  Should I ever get into Takaras....