Comic Book/Collectibles Insurance

[passion4comics]

Insurance companies are notorious for not paying. That’s how they make their profits. I just submitted an application to CIA and I’m still in their underwriting. You can’t insure a 1k book for 10k and expect a 10k payout if something was to happen. Expect them to pay FMV and GPA would be a good gauge/argument for FMV. You don’t need receipts. This was already tested in the courts. You need good documentation. Photos, CGC registry numbers, spreadsheets, etc to show you were the owner of the property that you insured. In the case of a fire at least there will be some evidence of the original insured books even if they are charred. If the event of a theft, this is where the photos and documentation come in most of all.

 

The quote I received so far is (around) $0.0025 per dollar insured which is a damn good price (I hope I did the math right). What people don’t realize when using their home policies and a rider is that usually the companies that will offer these riders will charge a higher home insurance rate. Then insure you collectables on a rider for about the same price as CIA. In my case, by switching to CIA, I could shop around for a home insurance company that I don’t need to get a rider from, and save $800 just on my home insurance before we even get into an additional rider for comics.

 

CIA has an option to automatically up your total value by 1% each year, but with comics, prices can jump 30% or drop 30%. Since you’re not insuring one comic, I would just keep a tally each year and make sure you are not over or under insured. For raw books, I have no idea how to insure them and show FMV other than going by Overstreet and keeping records of each comic in a spreadsheet.

 

I can tell you horror stories from fiends and work colleagues about the big insurance companies that start with A, G, and the worst was S. Having the S one is like having no insurance at all and this is backed up by 3 people I’ve known over the years. With a collectable like comics where their values can be subjective, I would go for CIA.

 

[mintcollector]

I use CIA. I never had a problem...however, I would caution anyone not getting a receipt or recording what they pay for an item, date of purchase, and the seller. How can you collect or invest in something if you don't know what you paid? You need a record of this if you go to sell regardless; just for income tax purposes alone.

 

 

[CAHokie]

Topics and discussions like this are why I joined the forum. This is invaluable information that can't be found elsewhere easily. My homeowners insurance said I could get a policy with them but would have to list each comic issue by issue and its value. I am considering only insuring the major ones because listing values of thousands of $3 comics would take a long long time.

[shadroch]

Every couple of months, I spread out my high value books and take a short video of them, with that days newspaper in the center to show the date. I then video the rest of the boxes from a distance.

The key is to store the video someplace else.

[telerites]

Every couple of months, I spread out my high value books and take a short video of them, with that days newspaper in the center to show the date. I then video the rest of the boxes from a distance.

The key is to store the video someplace else.

 

I appreciate all the comments. I'm sold.

 

Shad - you may upload the video to a site for added recovery measures. I have scans of my slabbed books in 3 different places - Photobucket, Myslabbedcomics, and the registry. Overkill, I know but I started with Photobucket and continue to use it even though it sucks now. Myslabbedcomics allows me to more easily track what I have.

 

You used to be able to upload video to Photobucket but since they've butchered it, I'm not sure anymore but there are other places and file sharing/storage sites.

 

 

[oakman29]

I use CIA and it's fairly easy compared to dealing with homeowners insurance.Luckily I haven't needed to make a claim.Maybe someone who has had to make a claim could chime in and tell us how it worked out for them.

[Comic_Con]

Rather start a new thread, I thought resurrecting this thread would be useful to keep all the info together.

 

Has anyone used Collect & Protect Insurance? They offer USA and UK insurance (I need a UK policy)? Any experience would be appreciated, what info was required, how easy were claims etc.

[saspwe]

My comic collection got hit last year and I was insured through American Collectors Insurance for $25,000 (my yearly premium was $125). The thieves stole 13 short boxes (out of 25) I had next to my bed and did not locate the other 75 boxes I had in a locked interior room closet. Most of my expensive stuff is locked up, but I had only have one book over $2,000 in that closet. Most of the stuff near my bed was lower grade material and new books with a lot of variants mixed in.

 

I immediately called all the local comic shops near me and reported the break-in. A couple of hours later a local comic shop owner called me and told me someone was trying to sell material that I told them was stolen. He refused to buy it from the thieves. Then I called the next nearest shop and they informed me the thieves were in the store in front of them at that moment. I rushed over but barely missed catching them. Didn't get a plate number either as the store employees had never thought about this type of situation and how they should react. Both stores had video camera systems (CCTV), but neither one was functional at the time. Bummer!

 

Anyway, the police were doing surveillance on some suspicious people loading white boxes into a hotel room near the freeway. They busted the crew because of the stolen vehicle they were driving and ended up returning 7 of my boxes, luckily some of the more expensive ones. I had a general hand-written list of all the boxes and a few notes on some of the more expensive items that were inside each. It was really hard remembering everything that I had put inside each box, but I was more familiar with the material next to my bed than the stuff in the closet.

 

Surprisingly American Collectors let me approximate the number of variants in each box and what it would cost me to replace each item. For the estimate I provided them, I used ComicBookRealm.com because I think they have the most accurate prices relative to Overstreet and it is a free resource. For the 6 short boxes I estimated each was jammed with125 comics for a total of 750 stolen books with a replacement value of just over $3,000, since much of the material was recent newly acquired books that I paid $3-4 a piece for. I sent them my estimate and all the police records and they sent me a check for the total amount without any hassles whatsoever. I then turned around and invested that money into a video system with 4 cameras on the house now.

 

Later when my policy was about to expire, I tried to get the collection value doubled (to $50,000), but had trouble contacting them about it and the policy accidently lapsed. Now they refused to re-insure me because of the earlier loss and I am having trouble getting insurance on the collection again until 3 years passes. But the bottom-line is that American Collectors was easy to deal with until I let my policy lapse (which was my fault). I would definitely use them again, if and when I qualify.

[Lethal_Collector]

I told myself when my collection hit about $25,000 again that I'd look at insuring my books. I got a quote from CIS for $160, which IIRC is an annual cost, so $13/mo. isn't bad.

 

A couple question for current CIS members, what do you do if you want to add more books to get covered (conversely, drop books). 1) Is there an online form to fill out submitting the changes? 2) do you just pay the difference in the increase for that year?

 

Thanks in advance guys!

 

 

 

Jerome

[shadroch]

I just raised my policy up $15,000 this month. It couldn't have been easier. Called, left a message , got a return call- was given a quote of about $45.

Policy addendum came by mail, and an invoice came the next. Just be aware the policy and any changes don't kick in until payment is received.

I was also given a quote of $2 per thousand for my upcoming move, if using a licensed mover. If driving them myself, they'd be covered by the policy.

[marvelmaniac]

I told myself when my collection hit about $25,000 again that I'd look at insuring my books. I got a quote from CIS for $160, which IIRC is an annual cost, so $13/mo. isn't bad.

 

A couple question for current CIS members, what do you do if you want to add more books to get covered (conversely, drop books). 1) Is there an online form to fill out submitting the changes? 2) do you just pay the difference in the increase for that year?

 

Thanks in advance guys!

 

 

 

Jerome

 

The insurance company does not require a "detailed" list of your books/collectibles, it is up to you to keep detailed records of what you have however, you can send updated lists to the insurance company whenever you want and they will add it to your records.

None of this will come into play until a claim is filed.

You can add or reduce the amount of coverage at any time during the policy period.

 

I sent an original list of all books and collectibles to the insurance company in 2009 and then I send an updated list of all books purchased in the next year so I have sent lists of books added in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013...

As I purchase new books they are added to the list of that years books and photo's of the books are taken.

Right now I am in the process of Re-Grading, Cataloging and Photographing all of my books individually.

I have done about 1700 since July and have about another 800 to go.

(I am not doing certain newer (newer to me is 1990's) or lesser titles (Spider-Man Spin-Offs, Volume 3 of Silver Surfer, etc.)

 

All pics and lists are stored on my computer and two flashdrives.

[Lethal_Collector]

Good info guys, thank you!

 

I have my books stored locally, on the cloud (2 formats) and on a website so I should be covered.

 

Updating my books with them once a year is a good idea too.

 

 

Jerome

[Modernagecollect]

You could in fact insure your modern comics at face value or higher if they were key issues. You would just provide an overall number of books and value, as long as none are worth more than $5,000 a piece, in that case you would need to specifically schedule those issues. Comic book insurance is tricky, but you can get a free quote on our site, http://comicbookinsurance.weebly.com

[Lethal_Collector]

So this month I started to insure my books. I chose the American Collector's Insurance because they are cheaper. My plan coverage is $35,000 and it about $140/yr. Whereas CollectInsure was about $180/yr. However, I did not choose the optional coverage to insure the books when being shipped (I'll just insure them myself with the shipper should I need to ship any of them). ACI did require me to itemize any books valued at over $2,000, which was very simple.

 

There were some great suggestions in this thread, so I went on a man-hunt to find all the paypal receipts I could for my books to show proof of ownership.

 

I then went into my Google Drive and made a sheet that itemizes each (graded) book I have that I want covered by insurance (the raws I have are mostly drek, or waiting for them to heat up).

 

I also have columns for the books published date, grade, cgc serial #, value, yada yada. I then added a link to the Comic Book Title column that will open a shared PDF receipt that is also in my Google Drive.

 

Then I added a picture column. Because I already have small scans and large scans of all my slabs, I just created linked images in the sheet so you can see the scan in the doc, but also when you click on it, it will take you to the large scan of it so you can clearly see the info and whatnot.

 

It was a fair amount of (semi-enjoyable) work, but now just about all my books have receipts (couldn't find receipts for 3 like slabs, but they are far cheaper slabs so no worries, but I still have their scans as proof, should that help if I file a claim).

 

Hopefully I never have to file a claim

 

 

Jerome

[Iceman399]

I've yet to find an affordable insurance plan here in Canada. I tried one place based on a fellow boardies recommendation and they wanted more (3x) than my house insurance for a plan worth less than 1/3 of it.

[Sqeggs]

So this month I started to insure my books. I chose the American Collector's Insurance because they are cheaper. My plan coverage is $35,000 and it about $140/yr. Whereas CollectInsure was about $180/yr. However, I did not choose the optional coverage to insure the books when being shipped (I'll just insure them myself with the shipper should I need to ship any of them). ACI did require me to itemize any books valued at over $2,000, which was very simple.

 

There were some great suggestions in this thread, so I went on a man-hunt to find all the paypal receipts I could for my books to show proof of ownership.

 

I then went into my Google Drive and made a sheet that itemizes each (graded) book I have that I want covered by insurance (the raws I have are mostly drek, or waiting for them to heat up).

 

I also have columns for the books published date, grade, cgc serial #, value, yada yada. I then added a link to the Comic Book Title column that will open a shared PDF receipt that is also in my Google Drive.

 

Then I added a picture column. Because I already have small scans and large scans of all my slabs, I just created linked images in the sheet so you can see the scan in the doc, but also when you click on it, it will take you to the large scan of it so you can clearly see the info and whatnot.

 

It was a fair amount of (semi-enjoyable) work, but now just about all my books have receipts (couldn't find receipts for 3 like slabs, but they are far cheaper slabs so no worries, but I still have their scans as proof, should that help if I file a claim).

 

Hopefully I never have to file a claim

 

 

Jerome

 

Can I hire you to do this for me?

[Lethal_Collector]

So this month I started to insure my books. I chose the American Collector's Insurance because they are cheaper. My plan coverage is $35,000 and it about $140/yr. Whereas CollectInsure was about $180/yr. However, I did not choose the optional coverage to insure the books when being shipped (I'll just insure them myself with the shipper should I need to ship any of them). ACI did require me to itemize any books valued at over $2,000, which was very simple.

 

There were some great suggestions in this thread, so I went on a man-hunt to find all the paypal receipts I could for my books to show proof of ownership.

 

I then went into my Google Drive and made a sheet that itemizes each (graded) book I have that I want covered by insurance (the raws I have are mostly drek, or waiting for them to heat up).

 

I also have columns for the books published date, grade, cgc serial #, value, yada yada. I then added a link to the Comic Book Title column that will open a shared PDF receipt that is also in my Google Drive.

 

Then I added a picture column. Because I already have small scans and large scans of all my slabs, I just created linked images in the sheet so you can see the scan in the doc, but also when you click on it, it will take you to the large scan of it so you can clearly see the info and whatnot.

 

It was a fair amount of (semi-enjoyable) work, but now just about all my books have receipts (couldn't find receipts for 3 like slabs, but they are far cheaper slabs so no worries, but I still have their scans as proof, should that help if I file a claim).

 

Hopefully I never have to file a claim

 

 

Jerome

 

Can I hire you to do this for me?

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I gave the insurance company a link to view the sheet and had them add the link to my file, easy peasy.

 

I don't know if it would work logistically to have me do it, but if you really want me to, shoot me a PM buddy we can try working some Google magic

 

Here's a screenshot of my final product, so clicking on the first column will give you a link to the receipt pdf and clicking on the picture(s) will give you a link to a larger scan:

 

Here's the secret sauce to put in the Title and Picture columns:

 

TItle:

=HYPERLINK("https://drive.google.com/open?id=blahblahblah","Amazing Spider-Man")

 

The thing to notice here is the second section in quotes is what the cell will actually display.

 

Picture:

=HYPERLINK("http://www.acespad.net/comics/images/Original%20Scans/Amazing_Spider-Man_667_Dell'Otto_Variant.jpg" , IMAGE( "http://www.acespad.net/comics/images/Signature/Amazing_Spider-Man_667_Dell'Otto_Variant.jpg", 3))

 

A couple things are going on here. The first item in quotes is the link to the bigger picture file. Next is the link to the smaller picture file (which is the one that gets displayed in the cells), it helps if they are all the same size so you can fit the cells around them nicely. My small pics are 140px x 225px (W,H). The number 3 at the end means to show the picture at its true size.

 

 

Jerome

[StarkEnterprises]

I've been thinking about getting my collection insured. I'm in the UK so need a UK policy. There's a company called Value My Stuff who are UK based and do cover comic book insurance.

 

https://www.valuemystuff.com/en/categories/comic-books

 

Does anyone have any experience of using them or could perhaps suggest another company to take a policy out with?

[Modernagecollect]

Many companies will allow blanket coverage and allow changes throughout the year, either up or down which would in turn effect your premium amount. If it's not a significant purchase, it's usually easier to make changes at renewal.

You guys might benefit from checking out our site, www.comicbookinsurance.weebly.com, we quote with multiple carriers and specialize in comic book insurance policies.

[Modernagecollect]

Awesome spreadsheet!