"Insurance cover for figures and books?" Topic

Hi

Having just had a very real scare about losing my house in a fire (dishwasher catching fire whilst asleep) – I realised with horror I would also have lost my figures and books!!!
I've been wargaminig all my life and my collection still has figures I bought as an 11 year old. I now have many thousands comprising Napoleonic, Ancient, ECW, SCW and WW1 and 2.
I've decided I need to insure them – anyone got any ideas about the best way to do this?
I thought of adding them to the house insurances – working a cost out per figure to get a total cost? Any other things I should think of?
I also have a medium sized library related to my figures, is this simply a cost factor?

Thanks for any suggestions

We have a rider policy that covers valuable items like jewelry, paintings and such. It is part of the homeowner insurance. Give your agent a call. Take lots of pictures.

Yes, make sure you have it covered up front, check with the agent. Most home owners policies have a rather low default level for coverage of collectables, hobbies and the like.

I did have a fire and the books were covered under the policy, however, I was replacement cost. They give you some like $.50 USD a book and then you need to file for the actual replacement cost. I was lucky, the figures were not damaged and I was given a cleaning allowance for them.

The coverage under personal property is a percentage of the house's value.

All that said, If the figures would have been a total loss I would never have recovered the value. After all replacements were claimed, there was no money left on the table.

I have listed mine as part of the goods used away from home, like cameras and laptop. Check with insurer if that is possible.

When I moved home the removals firm lost a box. I claimed for value of new replacements, they tried to say as they had been painted etc by me should claim a used value. Showed them prices of painted items on eBay, got new prices!

I am uncertain about the UK, but in the U.S. this is one scenario where it is better to be a renter than a house owner. Renters' insurance tends to cover quite a bit and is relatively cheap.

Can't say about Uk insurrances, but hardly different from those I know.
And I once had a group of ( sometimes drunk) brokers on a reward foreign trip…learnt a lot, lost innocence.

Insurance first aim is to gain, and that means , pay as little as possible. Keep that in mind.

If you still " believe" keep pics, invoices for everything stored , duplicated elsewhere.
Most of the time everything old, maybe except very old, collector books you see, the type you buy for £600.00 GBP.;) will be hugely discounted as obsolete.
Miniatures… Need expert evaluation which will cost more than a new army.
You will have to prove you did everything to protect your stuff..

Ebay prices of painted stuff are way lower that the real costs, esp if you had them professionnally painted. If so, do try ( by writing! Never trust said words only= air) to see if invoices for them would work.
In fact you could try a simulation, and get the thing answered by writing.

To me, most of the time don't bother, whatever little you will get in case of major catastrophe will be " covered" by the house % normal way.

The most important thing to do is to calculate their value for insurance purposes. This will help:

collectioncalculator.com