Author Topic: How do you value your collection?  (Read 10022 times)

Offline eatbrie

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How do you value your collection?
« on: June 09, 2010, 03:13:20 AM »
Someone was asking me the other day if my collection was insured.  I answered that it wasn't and that I had no idea what it was worth anyway (nor did I really care, to be honest).  But as I am quickly approaching 5,000 pieces, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't.  Have any of you guys dealt with this before?  Everything else I own is insured, house, furniture, fine art, but posters...  I draw a blank.

T
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guest8

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2010, 06:17:27 AM »
My collection is no where near yours .. But Ive been asked that as well .. Outside of saving all of my receipts, I dont know of any way to "value" something of this nature .. and that might not reflect actual "market" value .. (you may have gotten a deal or just really wanted a piece and was willing to over pay)

If you do look further into this please keep us posted, Im very curious as well !

Offline ddilts399

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2010, 08:18:04 AM »
You can insure for replacement value, here is what I was quoted about a year ago. This was from a collectibles insurance firm. I was quoted as a dealer thinking it would be cheaper, which is probably ass backwards of what I should have done in hindsight.

Coverage Level (All locations)|  Term|  Transit Coverage| USPS Mail Coverage| Premium (including taxes)| Policy Fee (if applicable)| Total
 
100,000 |6 months |Full |No |$824.00| $55.00 |$879.00
 

sooooo, basically 9.00 for every 1000 of coverage per 6 months.

Cost really doesnt seem that bad, but I could not bring myself to insure this stuff when it costs more to insure than my house and vehicle combined.


Offline holiday

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2010, 09:59:18 AM »
www.collectinsure.com 

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Dread_Pirate_Mel

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2010, 10:04:36 AM »
Doesn't general household insurance cover ALL interior possessions?  I have a $20,000 apartment policy, which costs $150 a year and which I'm assuming covers my poster collection and frames.  I'll have to actually read my policy (bleh).

And here's something interesting.  The United States temporarily has NO ESTATE TAX.  So now is the time to "kick the bucket" if you want to enrich your heirs:

Legacy for One Billionaire: Death, but No Taxes

Offline supraman079

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2010, 11:43:09 AM »

And here's something interesting.  The United States temporarily has NO ESTATE TAX.  So now is the time to "kick the bucket" if you want to enrich your heirs:

Yeah, but it won't last long. It is about to be changed to a Hefty 55% tax. Government policy has to pay for all the Spending between the last two Presidencies.

Also you better read you insurance policy. Most of the time they are going to want you to have receipts or something showing what you bought these items. If you can keep them online that would be good. Also, most insurance companies will make you get them appraised after a certain point. A lot of times it is due to the amount of money involved and when you are talking about a lot of a certain item then it becomes a collection which you will need additional insurance or even a different coverage by another company. When you read your policy make sure you go over these main sections:

LOSSES INSURED
LOSSES NOT INSURED
CONDITIONS
ADDITIONAL COVERAGES
EXCLUSIONS

Many home owners policies have caps. They may cover you on personal property, which is usually found under coverage B, up to a percentage of your coverage on the house but there are limits depending on the situation. Say you have a 150,000 limit on personal property. Well it depends on what happened and where. Some coverage can be found off property and some can't. Say jewelry got stolen on property. It might be covered up to $500 or $1,000 as a standard policy limit anything more you better have bought another policy or paid for additional coverage on the particular limit.

You also need to make sure you know what kind of loss we are talking about. A Fire Loss, which includes most storm related damage is standard with your typical home owners policy.

***Be Informed***   That the majority of people in the US do not have a Flood Policy. If your house gets flooded you are responsible in most cases. This is the biggest misconception in the insurance business. Many people think just because they bought the BEST policy offered by a typical insurance company they are covered on everything. ThAT IS NOT THE CASE. Most Flood policies can be bought separate usually by the government and it depends on the area you live in. Next to the ocean or a large river that has overflowed in the past. But even these flood policies are very very limited. Also, you have to have the area you live in to be declared flooded. So this means that if you house floods due to heavy rains - No coverage found. You have to have an area flooded like a block which will include your neighbors house.

If you do have coverage of flooding on your standard home owners policy it is not really under flooding. It is usually under a Sewer and Backup Extension on the policy. But the insurance adjuster has to prove that this did happen by two things. One you have a sump pump that fails due power outage and two you have a drain in the floor in some spot that water could have backed up though.

Now keep in mind this is different from flood damage due to storm damage first. That is covered under the Fire policy and it usually Top Down. Where as the scenarios I mentioned above with flooding are Ground Up. Top Down coverage comes from wind damage which blows siding off or your roof off and then heavy rain water comes down in and damaged insulation, ceilings, walls, and what is on the walls (Framed Posters). Now the structure is covered under Coverage A but pictures, posters, TV's, and anything else that can be considered hanging on the wall or next the water will be covered under Coverage B portion of the policy. Personal Property is usually considered anything that can be picked up and taken away from the house in the event of a homeowner moving. If not then it is part of the structure of the house and is covered under Coverage A which is almost always higher than the limit under Coverage B.

Sorry for being a bit lengthy but hopefully this was informative to many people who took the time to read it. If you have any questions call your insurance company to have them clarify the policy language and don't be alarmed if your agent can't give you a direct answer. One, usually they don't know and two, it is usually not in their best interest to interpret the policy due to possible lawsuits.

Chad

Offline paul waines

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2010, 12:47:16 PM »
Well over here in the U.K. back when I relised I was paying quite a bit for posters. I thought I had better look in to it, as I had several thousand posters myself. I was told by a couple of insurance companys that I would have to have an independant valuation done at my expence, which would have to be up dated each year (at my expence again). The premium to be paid would be based on the final valuation and type of cover required.

Needless to say I never got this done as the cost of a valuation, and then the actual insurance would be out of my price range.
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Offline Ari

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2010, 11:19:51 PM »
List every item, forget what you paid, its what they are worth when lost/stolen/damaged. if you have a list get a dealer friend to (and pay them) value the collection on their letter head, we do it all the time for coins. But they may/probably will have to state they SAW the items.
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Offline erik1925

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2012, 07:32:34 PM »
The question of value and insurance was recently brought up and discussed on MOPO. A member's collection, which he had stored away from his home, literally went up in flames, when an adjacent business caught fire and was completely destroyed, as well. Per his post:

"I lost 6000 square feet of items and 6 large semi trailers full of collectibles, etc. I had over 2000 movie posters in the building as well as other movie memorabilia. Other items were antiques, autographs, 80,000 books, 40,000 vinyl records, sports memorabilia, etc. Since I didn't have insurance, my only hope is a lawsuit against the building liability since they had the fire sprinklers shut off. I did have some of my better posters out for a show and some in another truck."


A truly monumental loss. All that being said, have more collectors here on APF added / checked with their policies to make sure they are covered for loss or damage to their poster collections? Or even tried to determine a value of their collections in the event that something like this happened?









-Jeff

Offline MoviePosterBid.com

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2012, 08:10:11 PM »
this is how I value my collection



here is how my ex-wife valued my collection


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Offline theartofmovieposters

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2012, 09:24:02 PM »
As Ari says, I have, (very out of date now) a list of what I actually own.
I've nominated a dollar amount on my home contents insurance of what it would cost to replace them, not what I paid.
I just update this figure every year to cover any significant additions.
Ves

Offline 110x75

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2012, 10:55:14 PM »
I've nominated a dollar amount on my home contents insurance of what it would cost to replace them, not what I paid.

How much for the crappy A&C meet the invisible man?  :)
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Offline theartofmovieposters

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2012, 11:23:04 PM »
How much for the crappy A&C meet the invisible man?  :)

1,000,000.00.  It was hard to place a value on that one, that's for sure ;)
Ves

Offline Neo

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2012, 12:48:52 AM »
Thanks for sharing that story, Jeff.  Very sad to hear that guy lost all that stuff, and him not having insurance for it.  Terrible.




Offline Neo

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2012, 12:50:21 AM »
Rich, excellent choice of pics to make sense of things.  laugh1

Offline Silhouette

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2012, 03:22:01 AM »
Doesn't general household insurance cover ALL interior possessions?  I have a $20,000 apartment policy, which costs $150 a year and which I'm assuming covers my poster collection and frames.  I'll have to actually read my policy (bleh).

I'd agree with that. I checked with my agent when we moved state and they said it was covered under 'home and contents' unless I wanted to specifically nominate individual items for insurance if they are over a certain value, can't remember what value but it's like jewelery, unless it is really valuable then it's covered - just have to define the value of 'really valuable'.

Also as most in this forum here do - keep a record of them away from your property (eg website/photobucket).

As an aside: $20K contents insurance? Sounds very light, sure that is correct? Have a look in your wardrobe, add up the replacement value of your biz shirts, suits, shoes and other clothing, easily $5K, plus the value of your linen and manchester. sheets, pillow cases, duvet and cover x two (most people have spare!) plus a King size bed - there's another $5K. Suddenly it adds up and we haven't even done the really important things: TV and Stereo. Under insuring personal effects is a heart and wallet breaker
David


Offline Ari

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2012, 03:27:04 AM »


As an aside: $20K contents insurance? Sounds very light, sure that is correct? Have a look in your wardrobe, add up the replacement value of your biz shirts, suits, shoes and other clothing, easily $5K, plus the value of your linen and manchester. sheets, pillow cases, duvet and cover x two (most people have spare!) plus a King size bed - there's another $5K. Suddenly it adds up and we haven't even done the really important things: TV and Stereo. Under insuring personal effects is a heart and wallet breaker

I know I am scruffy, but if I have a thousand bucks invested in clothes and bedding, then I'll cry.

Apart from books and posters and various collected things, all my real life stuff went with my marriage. Feels kinda free (just the junk holds me back).
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Offline Silhouette

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #17 on: March 02, 2012, 03:37:39 AM »
I know I am scruffy, but if I have a thousand bucks invested in clothes and bedding, then I'll cry.

Apart from books and posters and various collected things, all my real life stuff went with my marriage. Feels kinda free (just the junk holds me back).

You have to count that machete you keep on your nightstand as part of the bedding...
David


Offline Ari

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #18 on: March 02, 2012, 03:38:32 AM »
in that case, I AM RICH! (actually it cost $5 from Chinatown ;) but its worth a lot to me.
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Offline 50s

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #19 on: March 02, 2012, 04:25:47 AM »
I have a $20,000 apartment policy, which costs $150 a year and which I'm assuming covers my poster collection and frames.

If I do my maths, for 1000 posters that's $20 a poster. Factor in other house contents and the posters then come down to about 1 cent each. I reckon Mel is being realistic.  ;) I do like Go Ape

 

Offline Simes

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #20 on: March 02, 2012, 06:54:36 AM »
I have my collection as a named item within the Household insurance.

There were a few companies that didn't cover it, most notably Lloyds Gold service top of the range thing which wouldn't entertain it no matter what I did or how I valued it.  That said, another company had no problem with it.

As for listing, it is all on a spreadsheet with rough figures assigned based on rough ebay guess-timates.

Dread_Pirate_Mel

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #21 on: March 02, 2012, 08:11:13 AM »
If I do my maths, for 1000 posters that's $20 a poster. Factor in other house contents and the posters then come down to about 1 cent each. I reckon Mel is being realistic.  ;) I do like Go Ape 

But Steve, Gigi tells me my insurance policy is just right....


Offline jayn_j

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #22 on: March 02, 2012, 09:36:51 AM »
this is how I value my collection



here is how my ex-wife valued my collection



I would think that during the divorce and asset split agreement that it would have been exactly the opposite. :)
-Jay-

Offline eatbrie

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #23 on: March 03, 2012, 07:06:19 PM »
But as I am quickly approaching 5,000 pieces...

Wow, my opening post was in June 2010.  19 months later, I'm approaching 7,000 pieces.  I need to find myself a new hobby :)

PS: I had a big party at the house last Saturday.  I told one of the guests that I was collecting movies posters.  He looked around and couldn't see any, Just Laura in the hallway.  He was a little bit baffled.  Then I took him to my office adjacent to the garage.  He still couldn't see the posters.  Then he notices the drawers flushed to the wall... and got it :)  It helps to be OCD.

T
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Offline stewart boyle

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Re: How do you value your collection?
« Reply #24 on: March 03, 2012, 07:17:39 PM »
Wow, my opening post was in June 2010.  19 months later, I'm approaching 7,000 pieces.  I need to find myself a new hobby :)

PS: I had a big party at the house last Saturday.  I told one of the guests that I was collecting movies posters.  He looked around and couldn't see any, Just Laura in the hallway.  He was a little bit baffled.  Then I took him to my office adjacent to the garage.  He still couldn't see the posters.  Then he notices the drawers flushed to the wall... and got it :)  It helps to be OCD.

T
OCD I understand..I was just browsing Betamax on E-bay and was very tempted to update my Cassette collection...thankfully I backed away and closed the browser....

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