Odd question of the day

[Northwest29]

It's the newbie again,

How many of you keep track of the cost for each deck, brick, collectible that you purchase so that you know what your total invest is at any given time? Or do you just buy and not track the costs - cause you just don't want to know. (-:

Anybody insure their sizable collections?

[bhong]

I don't keep track of the cost of my collection partly for my own sanity ....  But I've got a rough idea of what the cost of each decks are though most of my collection is modern decks so it's a bit different. As for the rarer modern deck, it's hard to say what the value would be as part of that is always by supply and demand, how much someone else is willing to actually pay for that deck may vary a lot. Even the value of more regular decks will vary too as things vary a bit on the 2nd hand market, too. For example, a deck of Monarchs cost 7$, but you'd still have to find someone willing to pay that price yourself.

[jupiter3]

I do keep track of costs when I enter new acquisitions in my database.  I also add the costs of storing and protecting (plastic cases, temperature and humidity controls, display cases...) each deck.  I have considered seperately insuring my collection, but I currently don't have the cash on hand for that.  My current homeowners insurance will cover about a quarter of my collection.   

[bhong]

I do keep track of costs when I enter new acquisitions in my database.  I also add the costs of storing and protecting (plastic cases, temperature and humidity controls, display cases...) each deck.  I have considered seperately insuring my collection, but I currently don't have the cash on hand for that.  My current homeowners insurance will cover about a quarter of my collection.   

I'm sorry for side tracking things, but this does beg the question, how much does your collection cost that your home owners insurance only covers 1/4 of it?

[Rob Wright]

I do keep track of costs when I enter new acquisitions in my database.  I also add the costs of storing and protecting (plastic cases, temperature and humidity controls, display cases...) each deck.  I have considered seperately insuring my collection, but I currently don't have the cash on hand for that.  My current homeowners insurance will cover about a quarter of my collection.   

I'm sorry for side tracking things, but this does beg the question, how much does your collection cost that your home owners insurance only covers 1/4 of it?

The problem is- it may not even cover 1/4 of it. Unless you have special insurance. Personal property is only covered at Like, Kind and Quality. This means that a deck of cards is just a deck of cards. Every custom Bicycle branded deck would be replaced at a value of standard Bikes. Even with special insurance, you would have to prove value of each deck. For some decks, that would be easy. Others not so easy. Consider a deck you bought from a private seller for $50, $100, or $200. That might be what it is worth to you. No business receipt, and an appraisal would cost more than the deck. No way to prove value.


For some other ideas on cataloging collections- Categorizing & Inventorying Your Collection I've started to fill out the excel sheet that Sparkz created. 

[PurpleIce]

I do keep track of costs when I enter new acquisitions in my database.  I also add the costs of storing and protecting (plastic cases, temperature and humidity controls, display cases...) each deck.  I have considered seperately insuring my collection, but I currently don't have the cash on hand for that.  My current homeowners insurance will cover about a quarter of my collection.   

I'm sorry for side tracking things, but this does beg the question, how much does your collection cost that your home owners insurance only covers 1/4 of it?

The problem is- it may not even cover 1/4 of it. Unless you have special insurance. Personal property is only covered at Like, Kind and Quality. This means that a deck of cards is just a deck of cards. Every custom Bicycle branded deck would be replaced at a value of standard Bikes. Even with special insurance, you would have to prove value of each deck. For some decks, that would be easy. Others not so easy. Consider a deck you bought from a private seller for $50, $100, or $200. That might be what it is worth to you. No business receipt, and an appraisal would cost more than the deck. No way to prove value.


For some other ideas on cataloging collections- Categorizing & Inventorying Your Collection I've started to fill out the excel sheet that Sparkz created.

Sorry, but i also need to just ask, then how do they (insurance companies) justify the cost of each deck? E.g. Say a Jackson Robinson's unbranded black reserve note was on KS at $75, and now on ebay or in the open market is retailing at an average of $250. How do they justify the cost of that deck? They can't possibly judge vintage decks based on normal decks now too do they?

Anyway, back to the topic, i am supposed to keep track but i don't always have the time. I do keep the invoices or emails so i can update when i am free.
Being a collector, you would want to collect as many unique decks as possible, so another way is that i have (or try to have) a limit on the amount i spend per deck or per month. If it's an average deck i have a limit, and if it's a must have deck i have another limit i would pay for.

[Don Boyer]

I do keep track of costs when I enter new acquisitions in my database.  I also add the costs of storing and protecting (plastic cases, temperature and humidity controls, display cases...) each deck.  I have considered seperately insuring my collection, but I currently don't have the cash on hand for that.  My current homeowners insurance will cover about a quarter of my collection.   

It is possible to add a rider to a homeowner's or apartment renter's insurance policy.  You can tell them how much coverage you want, they'll tell you how much extra to pay.  However, regardless of what amount of coverage you buy, you have to be able to do two things when making a claim.

First would be to prove ownership, that you actually did possess the decks in the first place.  Like most people, you won't get a receipt for every single transaction you make for a pack of cards - photographing and cataloging the collection goes a long way there.

Second, you have to prove worth - what is it selling for in the open market, what would you pay for it if you had to replace it?  For open decks other than vintage, they'd be practically valueless unless you can show there is a market value for it.  For sealed decks, printing the sale page of a retailer who has it in stock or a recently-completed sale on eBay would help with that.

In the end, however. it will depend on your insurer and your policy.  Get an insurer you trust and a policy you understand (hire a lawyer to review it if necessary).

I'm sad to admit that I have no record of the amount of decks I presently own.  But I also don't have renter's insurance, either.

[Rob Wright]

I do keep track of costs when I enter new acquisitions in my database.  I also add the costs of storing and protecting (plastic cases, temperature and humidity controls, display cases...) each deck.  I have considered seperately insuring my collection, but I currently don't have the cash on hand for that.  My current homeowners insurance will cover about a quarter of my collection.   

I'm sorry for side tracking things, but this does beg the question, how much does your collection cost that your home owners insurance only covers 1/4 of it?

The problem is- it may not even cover 1/4 of it. Unless you have special insurance. Personal property is only covered at Like, Kind and Quality. This means that a deck of cards is just a deck of cards. Every custom Bicycle branded deck would be replaced at a value of standard Bikes. Even with special insurance, you would have to prove value of each deck. For some decks, that would be easy. Others not so easy. Consider a deck you bought from a private seller for $50, $100, or $200. That might be what it is worth to you. No business receipt, and an appraisal would cost more than the deck. No way to prove value.

Sorry, but i also need to just ask, then how do they (insurance companies) justify the cost of each deck? E.g. Say a Jackson Robinson's unbranded black reserve note was on KS at $75, and now on ebay or in the open market is retailing at an average of $250. How do they justify the cost of that deck? They can't possibly judge vintage decks based on normal decks now too do they?

I could write 10 pages on how insurance works, but I'll try to condense it. Short of it is- Insurance companies are in business to make money- not pay claims. Vintage decks would be a great example. To an insurance company a deck of Bikes made in 1900 would be no different than a deck made to day. One example I use a lot- Say you have a 200 year old Oak table worth $10,000. If you did not have special insurance on the table. The insurance company is going to replace it with one of like quality- You might get a $100 table from Ikea, and this is not an exaggeration.
Keep records of purchases. You may not get full value, but would do better than someone that didn't keep records.

[Don Boyer]

I could write 10 pages on how insurance works, but I'll try to condense it. Short of it is- Insurance companies are in business to make money- not pay claims. Vintage decks would be a great example. To an insurance company a deck of Bikes made in 1900 would be no different than a deck made to day. One example I use a lot- Say you have a 200 year old Oak table worth $10,000. If you did not have special insurance on the table. The insurance company is going to replace it with one of like quality- You might get a $100 table from Ikea, and this is not an exaggeration.
Keep records of purchases. You may not get full value, but would do better than someone that didn't keep records.

I worked briefly for a health insurance company - Rob speaks the truth, big time.  We processed claims for a decent-sized school system's employees.  I had to do really terrible stuff because of how the company's policy was written.  The one I hated the least was dealing with pregnancy claims.

Imagine you're a female teacher in this system, you get pregnant and go to a hospital to have your baby.  Your hospital visit would be covered because you had a medical condition, pregnancy.  If your baby was born completely healthy, however, coverage was denied for the baby because it didn't have a condition.  Only if your baby was born ill or injured did the child's hospital stay get covered.  Such hospital stays for a healthy baby for just two days or so were billed out by the hospital often as high as $2000-$3000, and parents of healthy children had to pay all of that out of pocket.  It's almost like a "sin tax" for the dubious sin of being a parent.

Granted, this was over two decades ago, but I can't imagine it's gotten all that much better, especially in those areas of the country where a single insurance company is the only game in town, giving them de facto monopoly control over the region.

Having said all of that, when Rob refers to "special insurance", he's talking about a rider added to a policy.  For example, I have a family member who has a noteworthy collection of jewelry - they have a rider added to the homeowner's policy that provides additional coverage for that jewelry, with a slight discount for the fact that most of it resides in a safe that's bolted into the house as opposed to just sitting in a jewelry box on the dresser.

The cool thing about the rider is that you can actually be covered for loss of the possessions when you take them with you.  It's really a feature of the homeowner's policy (or apartment renter's, whichever applies).  When my car was broken into, my car policy didn't cover loss of possessions in the car - but my homeowner's policy, no rider, did cover me, though they do make you jump through hoops to get the cash.

Riders are interesting.  You can add riders for all sorts of things, but it really boils down to the type and amount of coverage you want and are willing to pay for.  If you have something that's of special monetary value (the limits of which are likely defined in your insurance policy), you get a rider for it, you document that you possess it and you keep abreast of the market value - if you ever have to make a claim, you'll have everything at your fingertips (except a police report, if the loss was due to theft).

Make especially certain that your policy will cover the likely kinds of loss you might experience.  For example, no homeowner's policy issued by an insurance company today covers you for flooding caused by environmental conditions (as opposed to a plumbing accident) - since 1968, only the Federal government sells flood insurance in the US, and I'm told it's not cheap.  If you live in an area that's prone to flooding, you should already know all about this and have the insurance for your property.