Should you insure your collection and system?

displayname

displayname

Well-Known Member
We've been having a discussion on another thread about if or when it makes sense to insure your system and collection. We'd love to hear from people who are considering policies, and what others who are already covered.

How is your policy structured? Separate, or rolled into your insure? At what point do you consider insuring? What types of questions should you be asking your broker/company? Etc.

*Because some of this conversation is about financial values and wealth, I ask that people remain very respectful about people's positions in life, and their privacy. If someone is uncomfortable discussing hard numbers on the value of their coverage, system, home, etc, please do not push them. Likewise, if someone is in a position where coverage may not make sense, we should be respectful of that as well. I want this to be a space of learning and respect, not of pressure or demeaning tones. Thank you N&G!
 
I’m curious to see how it’s covered by my policy now...we are just starting a homeowners policy for a new house. The personal contents policy is pretty sizeable and would more than cover the discogs value of my collection and gear (and other stuff in the house) but wonder if there’s a specific list of items the insurance company needs as contents? Or if god forbid something happens, if something like a discogs list would suffice for replacement cost? Someone awhile back had said that their insurance company accepted their discogs list when it came to replacement value...
 
My collection/gear is by far the most expensive corner of our house. There is still an ongoing conversation with my insurance agent, as it stands, they say to keep accurate "records", hahaha, of the collection and equipment and that "should" suffice. But I'm still pushing for a way to separate this from our blanket Home Owners coverage. All that being said, a flood would be devastating to my little corner of our home, a fire would be awful, in the end outside of photos and a few personal items, things can be replaced, but, the bulk of the records I have would be hard to replace due to either scarcity or value. He's supposedly looking into it, but at a certain point and or collection size, you do need to look beyond it being part of the umbrella policy if at all possible.
 
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Just to toss out some things to do, I export my collection from Cogs regularly and save it with a value. I've taken this to my insurance agent and he says it's perfect for placing a claim but to avoid "issue" there should be some fair market values attached to it. The export does not include values, but, if they are able to verify the values against your report/export by logging into your account, again, there "shouldn't" be an issue.
I save the file as a Zip and rename it "MMDDYY_EstimatedValue" = 031221_00,000 and toss it on a flash drive along with some other important stuff, just in case :)

I still think that with the most accurate tracking, insurance companies being what they are, you would almost need photos of every single item to avoid any question, this particular "what if" has been posed to him, so we'll see if I ever get a concrete answer.
 
AnthonyI said:
but at a certain point and or collection size, you do need to look beyond it being part of the umbrella policy if at all possible.
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This is where we are. I need to look into our total coverage and just have an honest conversation with our guy about it. I did tell him "sizable stereo and vinyl collection" and he said it should be convered no problem. But my main concern is if the insurance suggested a standard formula like "x$ per sqft," well this can go well over that.

We got separate coverage for my wife's engagement and wedding rings added to our home owners (is it called a rider? I forget the terms). But the big benefit of that is it covers loss outside of the home, like if they are lost or stolen elsewhere.

I think for us the big question is, does our homeowners policy cover enough to replace the system and collection? If not, do we simply add more coverage or add separate coverage.
 
As a fun side convo. The worst happens to your stuff, but everyone is safe. You have full coverage for median value of your collection + system.

Do you A) try to hunt down and replace your full collection, or B) max out your system basically rolling the value of your record into gear, and slowly start your collection again from zero.

I think most people would do a mix, replacing prized albums and gear. But let's say you can only do one or the other. Personally, I'm going option B.
 
displayname said:
I think for us the big question is, does our homeowners policy cover enough to replace the system and collection? If not, do we simply add more coverage or add separate coverage.
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We did the same with my wife's rings, as to the quite above, my guy is very vague when it comes to this being an actual good solution because, at least in my situation, this "Corner" screws up that formula they want to use, no matter how much your coverage is set to.......not to mention, how much more that ends up costing you because you're literally insuring your entire home based on one "small" section of it, if that makes sense.
 
I've added specific single item coverage into my policy on my turntable and speakers as they both exceed the normal single item cap in the policy. The same goes for jewellery we own. This also covers them outside of the house, so it would be useful in the event anything happened when taking my turntable for a service or upgrades etc. The records would be covered as part of the overall umbrella contents coverage, and the other elements of the system come just under the single item cap, for now at least.

I think it's important to ensure you've got adequate coverage on your kit, but ultimately a lot of what we collect has an intangible value that cannot be replaced through an insurance claim.
 
displayname said:
As a fun side convo. The worst happens to your stuff, but everyone is safe. You have full coverage for median value of your collection + system.

Do you A) try to hunt down and replace your full collection, or B) max out your system basically rolling the value of your record into gear, and slowly start your collection again from zero.

I think most people would do a mix, replacing prized albums and gear. But let's say you can only do one or the other. Personally, I'm going option B.
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I think I would go B as well, the fun of the actual collection was chasing most of it down and NOT paying full market value and or current value for it...........which opens up a different can of worms, putting your more "prized albums" in a separate/safer place. ;)
 
Thackeraye said:
Not household, but I’m getting all my stuff insured for the ship from the UK to Australia. They are basing the premium on 3% of total value, so I have some scope to set this based on my call on value.
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I'm impressed you are moving it! I would probably hold on a one box of select albums, and sell off all the gear and everything else. Rebuild once I'm reestablished. BUT I do know AUS pricing for stuff like this is a pretty penny above a lot of the world as well.
 
displayname said:
I'm impressed you are moving it! I would probably hold on a one box of select albums, and sell off all the gear and everything else. Rebuild once I'm reestablished. BUT I do know AUS pricing for stuff like this is a pretty penny above a lot of the world as well.
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Pricing has a lot to do with it to be honest. We’re actually shipping over a load of stuff like this; books etc. Our thinking is that we need to hire a crate anyway, so we might as well take over the stuff that’s ours. My collection is only 550 or so anyway, so it’s not massive.
 
displayname said:
As a fun side convo. The worst happens to your stuff, but everyone is safe. You have full coverage for median value of your collection + system.

Do you A) try to hunt down and replace your full collection, or B) max out your system basically rolling the value of your record into gear, and slowly start your collection again from zero.

I think most people would do a mix, replacing prized albums and gear. But let's say you can only do one or the other. Personally, I'm going option B.
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I love music first and foremost so A all day everyday and twice on weekends. Gear is one of those things I play with to get more out my music, the music is the focus. I can always improve the gear later from savings.
 
Joe Mac said:
I love music first and foremost so A all day everyday and twice on weekends. Gear is one of those things I play with to get more out my music, the music is the focus. I can always improve the gear later from savings.
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Actually, I think I’d go B). Truth be told, as much as I love having my records, a good bunch of my favourite albums are on CD. As long as say the most important 10% were fine, I could maybe live with starting again and getting my really important albums.

It’s maybe a result of being a VMP member for 4/5 years: I have a handful of albums I appreciate but don’t love?
 
As for the insurance my insurance company told me to up my total contents insured value by the cost of the collection and gear. I only had to declare items of either valued at over €5k.
 
Thackeraye said:
Actually, I think I’d go B). Truth be told, as much as I love having my records, a good bunch of my favourite albums are on CD. As long as say the most important 10% were fine, I could maybe live with starting again and getting my really important albums.

It’s maybe a result of being a VMP member for 4/5 years: I have a handful of albums I appreciate but don’t love?
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Yeah I mean I’m not sure that I’d replace everything that I currently have on vinyl either but then I’d also be looking for stuff that I have on cd now that is also on vinyl because I’m guessing my CDs are also going up in smoke in this hypothetical fire and starting from scratch would, if nothing else, be a good way to hone in on a single physical medium and use hi rest streaming/downloads for the rest.

My primary focus would be on getting my collection to where I wanted it to be and I’d get the best gear possible for my remaining budget.
 
Joe Mac said:
I love music first and foremost so A all day everyday and twice on weekends. Gear is one of those things I play with to get more out my music, the music is the focus. I can always improve the gear later from savings.
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I'd probably upgrade my system a little bit but would definitely repurchase all those KG pressings haha. I couldn't imagine completely starting over though...there are definitely a bunch of albums I wouldn't repurchase. There's also a lot that I probably just couldn't find anymore or would feel weird spending the current asking price on.
 
MikeH said:
I'd probably upgrade my system a little bit but would definitely repurchase all those KG pressings haha. I couldn't imagine completely starting over though...there are definitely a bunch of albums I wouldn't repurchase. There's also a lot that I probably just couldn't find anymore or would feel weird spending the current asking price on.
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Yes I couldn’t see myself spending the €1100 that the Five Years Box recently went for. I’d be hunting the 2016 pressings of the individual albums lol! Those Beatles monos though, they’d eat a fair bit of my insurance money...
 
Joe Mac said:
Yes I couldn’t see myself spending the €1100 that the Five Years Box recently went for. I’d be hunting the 2016 pressings of the individual albums lol! Those Beatles monos though, they’d eat a fair bit of my insurance money...
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Discogs currently has my max (and median) value at a pretty crazy price so I'd probably pick up that Beatles mono box too.
 
MikeH said:
Discogs currently has my max (and median) value at a pretty crazy price so I'd probably pick up that Beatles mono box too.
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Yeah as mad as it seems the box is probably a cheaper option for the monos on the secondary market than having them individually like I currently do! That Blood on the Tracks One Step is beginning to explode now too, it’s been a year now since it began to get scarce and that Max value keeps rising every time i check it!
 
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