Page 1 of 1

insuring your collection

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:25 pm
by Sid Burn
I was wondering if anyone here insures their collection in case of fire or damage? If so, what is the process you had to go through to get your bots insured?

Was there an appraisal? Or did you estimated your collections worth and insure it for that amount?

Any thoughts would be helpful.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:43 pm
by Bigchin
When I was setting up home insurance on my first flat a few years ago, I asked about this stuff (although in my case it was my Back to the Future collection rather than Transformers). I was advised to take photos of everything and put it on the insurance as a rough value, that way if anything happened I was covered and their 'expert evaluators' could then look at the pictures and decide if it was worth over and above that amount. So that's what I did.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:28 pm
by God Magnus

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:31 pm
by Sid Burn
Thanks God Magnus, I emailed them to see if they have anything for Canadians, and if not could they provide a canadian alternative.

Do you insure through them? what is the process like?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:27 pm
by SnapTrap
Do you still live with your parents or on your own?
If you live with your parents, ask them if they have homeowner's insurance and what it covers. Most likely they do and you should be covered.

If you live on your own and rent, look into renters insurance. I looked into this and it is pretty affordable (for me it was around $120 for entire year). It covers all of your stuff for fire, theft, etc. It is great if you live in an apartment and some idiot who lives in your building ends up burning the whole place down.

Next take pics of your collection and keep a list and a rough idea what the value of the figures are so if you need to ever make a claim, you can get money back from your insurance company. Open up a new photobucket or similar account to store these pics and the list (if you can't store the list there, email yourself a copy). This way if your computer is destroyed and you can't recover the data you can get it from any computer with access to the internet.

If your collection in storage (like Public Storage), get the insurance that the facility offers to protect your collection.

I asked the agent these questions when I was buying renters insurance when I lived in Western NY. The other advantage of renters insurance is it covers all of your other valuables, not just the collection.

Hope this helps.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:57 pm
by Sid Burn
I appreciate all the help

I will see if I can alter my home insurance since that collectibles insurance agency doesnt cater to Canadians.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:35 pm
by Zeds
SnapTrap wrote:Do you still live with your parents or on your own?
If you live with your parents, ask them if they have homeowner's insurance and what it covers. Most likely they do and you should be covered.

If you live on your own and rent, look into renters insurance. I looked into this and it is pretty affordable (for me it was around $120 for entire year). It covers all of your stuff for fire, theft, etc. It is great if you live in an apartment and some idiot who lives in your building ends up burning the whole place down.

Next take pics of your collection and keep a list and a rough idea what the value of the figures are so if you need to ever make a claim, you can get money back from your insurance company. Open up a new photobucket or similar account to store these pics and the list (if you can't store the list there, email yourself a copy). This way if your computer is destroyed and you can't recover the data you can get it from any computer with access to the internet.

If your collection in storage (like Public Storage), get the insurance that the facility offers to protect your collection.

I asked the agent these questions when I was buying renters insurance when I lived in Western NY. The other advantage of renters insurance is it covers all of your other valuables, not just the collection.

Hope this helps.


This is exactly what I did. Having about 4000+ TFs and counting one cannot and should not take any chances.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:56 pm
by Sid Burn
As you add to the collection do you insure if for more each year. How do you accomadate the growth of a collection through home insurance?