"Assessment of Collection for Insurance Purposes?" Topic

Someone asks:

I lost my husband recently. He has a huge collection of wargame stuff. I need some help in how to evaluate it for insurance purposes. Any suggestions?

What do you suggest?

Approximately 10 years a friend of mine had his large collection evaluated for insurance. His company agreed to accept the assessment of two "qualified and reputable" members of the hobby, one of whom ran a part-time wargaming business. Photos and videos were where taken of his entire collection: figures, terrain, books, etc.

Like most items value is determined by what someone else would pay for it. In this case, her best course would to be several appraisals by professional figure re-sellers (GAJO, etc.) and present the valuation to the insurance adjuster.

If they are collectible figures like 54mm Britian's from the 1900's or so she could go to an antique appraiser who specializes in such items.

Dave

Or you get a rider covering a collection for a set dollar amount. The policy is not that expensive and still can cover a large dollar amount off items.

agree with StoneMtnMinis….George Johnson original owner of GAJO Enterprises, having decades of experience in buying/selling painted wargame figures would provide estimates of collections for insurance purposes.

Although George is no longer with us, Craig Tyrrell, current owner might be approached to see if he could provide that service.

As an aside, after George passed, I curated and disposed of his collection of figures, terrain, books, paints, tools, etc….took several years to sell it off. While not looking for top dollar, neither was I interested in giving it away.

The best approach was to go to where the market was…the wargame conventions.

An appraisal by reputable dealers, and or gamers should suffice for an insurance company.
Photos, accurate counts, sizing and paint quality are necessary. It's a big job, especially if it's a large collection.

Those are all good suggestions, though if the paint jobs are of superb quality, it may be undervalued by many.

From what I've read, a general rule of thumb is to use the purchase cost, and then double that, if the minis are cleaned up, and given a basic, one color paintjob – works for vehicles, not so much for figures.

3 x if the minis are painted reasonably well, in multiple colors.

Well painted minis with nice washes, drybrushing, sealing, detailing, etc. can go for 5x – 15x, depending upon the quality, paintjob, basing, figures used, etc., etc..

Another good way to get estimates is to ask painting service what they'd charge to paint the figures like they are, and then add the purchase cost to them too. Showing them closeup photos to get quotes would be a good way to go, by units/collections.

Adjusting for inflation, and rarity/scarcity/irreplaceability are issues too. Ideally, if the figs are still in production, replacement costs for the minis would probably be best. Others that aren't will be harder to assess.

You can also use eBay sale prices as rough guides perhaps, for the more rare items in high demand.

At the very least, take lots of photos, or a videolog of the collection, and make a backup copy, just in case. Might want to store at least one copy with a reliable family member, at another location, just in case, as well. Add that to the documented listing of the minis too.

If a large collection, a detailed spreadsheet of it, and estimated values, number of figs, etc., etc. would probably be a good idea too.

Hope that helps.

I work in the insurance industry and I think the disconnect between monetary value and perceived worth would be your undoing here. Insurers work in absolutes – If you say "This goes for £30.00 GBP on Ebay" they are going to take that with a pinch of salt. Also , to what extent is any of it "replaceable" – there can be no substitute really for the time and effort invested in a collection.
At the end of the day though if you are prepared to pay the premium for what you perceive the collection's value to be you will be able to get someone to insure it …

At the end of the day though if you are prepared to pay the premium for what you perceive the collection's value to be you will be able to get someone to insure it …

This is the real issue.

What is the impact of the loss to her and what would be needed to ameliorate that loss? Then that needs to be compared to how much she is willing to pay for what degree of amelioration.

This question pops up regularly, and I am always a bit puzzled.

Wargaming items are mostly crafted personal hobby items (modeling, painting, …), with prices that are largely artificial. Just look at many B&Bs at conventions. Huge armies are seldom sold, and prices are largely a matter of agreement between that individual buyer and seller, and not much driven by any market or generally accepted price points. I often see items going away for half the price or even less the seller was asking. "An army for 1000 euros" "No, too expensive!" "How about 500 euro then?" "Huh?"

For rules, I guess these are worth the price of the paper, unless you have some really rare and sought after items. For any generic rulebook, people rarely want to shell out more than e few quid. Books on military history might be a different matter.

For figures, how much figures is a "huge" collection? Anything under 10000 figures is not worth the trouble insuring it, in my opinion. Perhaps starting at 50000 figures? And all figures should be painted and properly based.
I recently met a chap whose wargaming grandfather passed away. He had several 1000s of (unpainted) Napoleonics, from an established manufacturer, acquired during the 80s. Guess how many people were interested in buying it from him? Most wargamers like to build their own collections, not acquiring a collection from someone else with slightly dated figures.

Anyway, I understand the reasoning that "if the right person comes along, he might pay such and so for these armies". But the truth is, you probably will never will meet the right person. Wargaming si such a small niche, that the numbers of potential interested parties are just too low. So the monetary value is largely theoretical. I have seen this – again at B&Bs. Some chap had a very nice building of Hougomont, 28mm scale. Everyone agreed is was worth over 1000 euro. But no-one wanted to buy it at that price (too big, not my period, not my scale, don't know where to store it, etc… "But I'm sure you'll find a buyer. Terrific model!"). So is the item then really worth 1000 euro?

But, as a previous poster said, in the end it doesn't matter that much. If you're willing the pay the premium, you can insure anything.

Most insurance policies would cover a collection at a value up to a certain point, like with jewelry or other personal items. Anything of higher value needs a specific rider for your policy, and to purchase that rider you MUST catalog and place a value on the collection. Filming it is perhaps easier, an excel spreadsheet backed by photos is ideal but a pain.

Ebay can work for valuing the collection, but you would need to be able to show examples of sold prices to substantiate the price--for example, having print-out proof of three different sold auctions of similar size and quality items to yours would go a long way to showing the value was reasonable. The more unique the items, the harder it is going to be. Using a second-hand dealer like Hinds Ltd as a source of values is also likely reasonable.

A "huge collection of wargame stuff" does not equate to tremendous value. I sold a late friend's collection on behalf of his family a few years ago. By volume, 5' wide, 6' high, 8' deep – and that's being conservative. The real 'value' in that mass of material would probably have filled only about four or five banker's boxes (not legal size, either). And, like an earlier poster, it took two years to dispose of the lot. Granted this was selling in the trough of the recent Great Recession so top dollar wasn't an option but it still barely topped 10 K all told and the family got a bit less after expenses (almost entirely a storage facility). The only way I was able to get it all gone was to donate quite a bit and discount a LOT of it to get it to move. So, it really matters what that collection really is – lead, boxed games, or just a whole bunch of "stuff".

So … why does an insurance company care about the value of the thing you are insuring?

They should care what it is and in what conditions it is kept as those things influence the probability that the event you are insuring against will happen. And they should care how much money they are agreeing to provide in that contingency. But the value of the thing (if such a thing exists), is really irrelevant to the calculation of expected value.

The insuree should care. But not really so much. What the insuree should care about is what is their cost if the contingency event happens. Not some valuation of the thing, but a valuation of your reaction to the loss of the thing.

If your intent was to immediately replace the entire collection, then you would want to insure it for cost of new (equivalent) plus cost of assembly and painting. If you were going to just start again, you might want to insure the collection for a couple hundred bucks to prime the restart activity. If your reaction was to be emotionally unstable until you could secure revenge, then you should insure the collection for the cost of hiring Dog the Bounty Hunter.

I had to do this when a roofer destroyed my collection back in 1999.

I went to publisher sites for all current stuff and had to use the last retail value for other stuff. This was pre-ebay.

I would recommend she get a hobbyist to generate her the list/ provenance and offer to pay in cash or trade.