Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Is your collection unsured?

This may be a subject that many of you, like myself, have approached in your mind, but never went any further. A recent visitor to my modest collection exclaimed, "you must have 50 thousand dollars worth of stuff in here!" As I thought about it, I realized, I must. Then I thought that I really would not like to lose what I have put together over the years. As I thought more about it, the more I realized that all those times I bragged about my investment savvy buying advertising would just come back to spit in my face should something happen to my UNINSURED "stuff". But it never went any further than internal nagging.

However, a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by my agent's office and asked him to look into the cost of insuring my collection for, say, 50k. The answer was fairly surprising. My insurance company, Guide One, will insure the 50k for an additional 25 dollars per year tacked onto my homeowners policy. Now as I sit here going over the photographs of the collection and itemizing, I realize that I might just need to bump that up a bit. When you start putting the pencil to the paper, folks, it might surprise you as to the value of what you have accumulated.

It will take you a few hours to photograph, itemize, and price everything, but I'm convinced it just might be time well spent, if nothing else for peace of mind. The flip side of that is that, heaven forbid, our mortality catches up with us, whoever is left behind will have some idea as to the worth of items as they have the task of getting rid of our junk. Also, don't forget to put the inventory and pictures on a disc or flash drive or two and put them in different locations, just in case.

If you have suggestions I have left out, or have personal experiences to share, please do.

good advice dave, more people should look into insuring what they have. theft or fire , tornado or what it might be , it could be gone in seconds.

good reminder..

There's a collector up here by me that had some globes that were downright one of a kind and could not be replaced Example: an original hand-painted Chippewa Gasoline one-piece with the indian's head and feathers. Long story short, they broke into his building and stole probably 30 original globes. NO INSURANCE! He was out back the next day sitting on a big rock crying. Don't let this happen to you.

Goober

Could not agree more. You don't just buy insurance to say you have it. Make sure you get the right amount.

You are right Dave. I have thought about it and how I should put a price list for all my items so if something were to happen to me my wife would know at least what I thought the high and low for all my items were if she had to sell it. I had forgot about doing this until I had foot surgery in march and thought I was well beyond any problems until three weeks ago I woke up on a Saturday night feeling funny and went to the emergency room only to find out I had a large blood clot between my heart and lung and would have died in about two days if not treated.I am glad for a second chance at 54 years old and am working on getting mine insured and documented.

Dave, I find it hard to believe if you can get 50K of insurance for your collectables for $25.00 or better yet good luck collecting and I have a feeling your agent is telling you what you want to hear! As I have had Progressive, Tower Hill, State Farm and Allstate. And when I looked into the rates when you scheduled your collectable's "IE list, appraisals and photos" they where never close to $25 per 50K infract they where $800 to $1500 per yr. I use collectable insurance underwritten by United National Insurance Company that has an A rating and they charge $331 for $50K coverage with no appraisals' and they cover your shipping insurance via UPS, Fed EX or trucking! Better be safe than sorry!

American collectors insurance has $50,000 worth of coverage for $375 a year. No appraisals needed.

Why would he be telling me what I want to hear? I didn't ask him for the cheapest rate, he is somewhat familiar with my collection, he has been in business for years and I have my home and three vehicles insured with the company and have had for over 20 years.

That being said, I will double check tomorrow as I surpassed the 50k mark several pages ago.

One man Treasures Might be another mans JUNK.
Your agent works for the company, you are a Customer.

I found out years ago that your insurance coverage on anything is only as good as the agent that sold it to you, provided he is around if you have to collect. When we were building our house and my new shop nine years ago I had builders risk insurance and complete homeowners coverage on the whole thing from the time we started with an agent and good friend that has been with me for years. About a month into construction we got hit and they stole every tool and loose piece laying around the site, mostly belonging to the builders who were not contractors but working for me by the hour. My agent made sure they were paid for all of it even though I really don't know that he had to. Then, about a week before we moved in I got hit again, this time in the new shop that had most all of my stuff moved in to it from my old place. The alarm system people had been there the day before installing the system but it wasn't online yet. They took over $5000 worth of welders, tools, and even raided my motor home that was parked in there. Nothing had been itemized but I made a list of what I knew was gone and again my agent wrote me a check for that amount plus a little because he said I had probably missed something (turned out he was right later on). The alarm system was finished the day after the theft......

Luckily those events took place before I started collecting much petro and a lot of my tools weren't moved in there yet. Fast forward eight years and now it looks like a small museum with petro everywhere, two collector cars , and a host of other valuables. I had the same agent come out and look it all over a and tell me what we needed to do to make sure it is all covered. He added $100,000 to my contents and personal property coverage and said we should review it every year or two if I keep adding items of value. I don't remember the exact cost of adding that, but it wasn't a lot,I'm thinking $150/year or so. He didn't require an itemized list but we did take pictures that he put in my file. The thing is, I feel safe as long as he is around but....what happens if he's not and something happens? I am in the process of getting everything itemized and on the computer not only for that reason but for my own reference (my memory isn't as good as it used to be for some reason).

The same agent writes for Hagerty Insurance who he has underwriting my collector cars. They also offer collectible insurance for the petro so I trust he would write my petro with them if he thought necessary. At this point I trust his judgement given his track record over the years. My point in this long post is this....KNOW THE AGENT THAT WRITES YOUR COVERAGE ! Even the best policy can be compromised by a lousy adjuster or an agent from somewhere that has never met you before. Details are important and its our responsibility to know what we have but the guys that will make it right after the fact is priceless.....Lets hope none of us ever have to learn that the hard way.....GB.

Very good wake up call. I plan to call my agent today. Thanks j

Very good points, Gary. I too have known my agent for years and he is familiar with collecting. The reason the costs you have stated and I was quoted is because they are not stand alone policies, rather they are riders to existing policies.

The art I produce is insured no matter where it hangs until it is sold. State farm just added a rider. In my case the standard practice is to insure the wholesale cost which is %60 of what I price it (and what I would get in a gallery as they keep %40 of the sales price). The policy also cover liability for anyone who trips over their own feet in my studio.

This is State Farm. Nationwide would only do it through another company and the price was not reasonable.

It never hurts to shop around, but I was glad it was an insurance company I had for years and know them. We ended up adding our house (on Nationwide) to State Farm (our car insurance--long story).

Trust Me!!!! get insurance,,a few yrs ago my neighbor had a fire who lives next to me and it burned ABOUT 40% ON MY GARAGE..I lost about 10 flying -A- signs.plus the smoke damage to my collection and my cars..it was a wake up call to say the least!!! never thought it would happen to me....I`m extremely lucky that I didn`t loose everything...so do it NOW!!!
TXS Alan