Hlaven | 27 Aug 2019 3:51 p.m. PST |
Hi Has anyone ever had their miniatures appraised for insurance purposes? If so, how would you find someone or a company that could do the appraisal? |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 27 Aug 2019 4:00 p.m. PST |
You might ask your agent for homeowner's or renter's insurance for advice on this issue. |
Thresher01 | 27 Aug 2019 5:08 p.m. PST |
No. I suspect that the cost of insurance will quickly outweigh any recovery you might get from said policy, unless you just happen to buy a new one, and almost immediately get burglarized. |
Extra Crispy | 27 Aug 2019 5:11 p.m. PST |
You probably can not get them appraised in any case as there is no established market/value. I have my stuff in storage. I have a simple rider on my homeowner's for it. I am insured for $75,000 USD (far less than the worth of the collection, frankly) mostly in case of flood or fire. Can't imagine burglars stealing the stuff, vanadlising more likely. I pay a few hundred a year for my policy and am well satisified. |
Dennis | 27 Aug 2019 5:38 p.m. PST |
Before he retired, Dean West was an insurance adjuster and investigator. I believe he wrote an article for a wargaming publication on insuring Wargames collections. If my memory is correct, the article would have been published not less than 10 years ago and more likely it would have been published 15-20 years ago. If I were looking for that article I'd start with Scott Mingus; Dean was one of the original Johnny Reb play testers and stayed connected with that group. My second guess for publication would be the Seven Years War Association Journal. |
Syrinx0 | 27 Aug 2019 5:41 p.m. PST |
For my replacement policy I have specified a lot of my hobby collections. It is impossible to get their value considering the painted portion of the collection. Some of the books are easier to price. |
Hlaven | 27 Aug 2019 6:14 p.m. PST |
Thank you all. I met with my insurance agent and he said even if you had a special added rider it would still need to be appraised. So I guess it's back to square one. |
Skeets | 27 Aug 2019 7:39 p.m. PST |
I have been playing around with Wargame Collection Calculator ( collectioncalculator.com ) . Have not yet pursued it further but after inputting data according to their criteria a prompt has come up asking if you would like to get a quote. Also in my previous experience as an insurance underwriter I would expect that coverage, if placed, would require some sort of a rider for an artwork collection. |
Ed Mohrmann | 27 Aug 2019 7:53 p.m. PST |
I looked into this years ago after having a portion of a collection 'go missing' at an H'con. The majority of the missing figures were Scruby's, so hardly collector items, but there was a 36-figure unit of Suren French Guard Grenadiers, artist-painted in oils. The appraisers I found (NC local) worked for flat fee OR a percentage of the appraised value of whatever they were appraising. I contacted five and only one would agree to do an appraisal. The other 4 demurred, claiming it would be almost impossible to arrive at a fair valuation given the fact that little history of figures sold/auctioned/lost and recovered, etc., existed (and probably still doesn't exist). That said, I did purchase a rider after providing my homeowner carrier with the cost of the unpainted figures, and then an affidavit about costs of painting. The rider covers loss through fire, natural disasters (tornadoes, for the most part) and accident (car wrecked during transport, for example). And it isn't cheap. Unless you have some very significant figures, I'd advise against. |
Ed Mohrmann | 27 Aug 2019 7:55 p.m. PST |
I looked into this years ago after having a portion of a collection 'go missing' at an H'con. The majority of the missing figures were Scruby's, so hardly collector items, but there was a 36-figure unit of Suren French Guard Grenadiers, artist-painted in oils. The appraisers I found (NC local) worked for flat fee OR a percentage of the appraised value of whatever they were appraising. I contacted five and only one would agree to do an appraisal. The other 4 demurred, claiming it would be almost impossible to arrive at a fair valuation given the fact that little history of figures sold/auctioned/lost and recovered, etc., existed (and probably still doesn't exist). That said, I did purchase a rider after providing my homeowner carrier with the cost of the unpainted figures, and then an affidavit about costs of painting. The rider covers loss through fire, natural disasters (tornadoes, for the most part) and accident (car wrecked during transport, for example). And it isn't cheap. Unless you have some very significant figures, I'd advise against. Oh, and speaking to the OP's question, there are appraisal firms listed in antique publications but the majority of them will deal in furniture, tableware, artwork, old books, etc. |
Zephyr1 | 27 Aug 2019 9:03 p.m. PST |
I spent about 20k collecting my 80's/90's GW figure collection (mostly archived & unpainted.) Replacement value is probably about 40k now… ;-) |
Kevin C | 28 Aug 2019 5:31 a.m. PST |
While homeowner's insurance can be fairly pricey depending on where you live, in the U.S., renter's insurance tends to be a fairly good deal. |
Frederick | 28 Aug 2019 6:20 a.m. PST |
We have it as part of our household insurance – did not add much to the cost; they are insured to $30 USDK CDN (I have a bunch of artist-done 54mms that account for much of the big price) |
FABET01 | 28 Aug 2019 6:56 a.m. PST |
Something to be cautious about is many insurers class our hobby items to be toys. Toys are immediately devalues 50% after the initial purchase. |
Striker | 28 Aug 2019 3:05 p.m. PST |
Skeets, I thought the original intent of the Wargame Collection Calculator was for this purpose. I heard 2 guys a while back on Meeples & Miniatures talking about it, so it may be a different name, but it was to let people put in their stuff and it would do some approximate value calculations, nothing to bet your life on just to get some kind of number for value. I haven't checked it out yet, I'm using Library Thing to catalog all my books….. |