Insurance

[decovision]

I was wondering how to go about insuring my collection of televisions, radios, fans, etc. I would imagine that getting someone to perform an appraisal could be difficult since I live in a medium size town in Arkansas. I have contacted my home owner's insurance, but they were not much help. Does anyone have insurance on their collections, and can provide advice?

Thanks,

Eric

[Steve McVoy]

Any insurance agent should be able to help, including your homeowner's policy agent. You will need to get an appraisal done, but that can be done using photos rather than having someone visit you. It needs to be someone who has expertise in early television, however.

[Bill R]

When I was looking for insurance for my concert pa equipment, I had to have an "inland Marine" policy. My regular homeowners agent wase of no use. It requiired someone that wrote specialty, or business type policies. Most independant agents should be able to help though. My regular agent only sold one carrier and they didn't offer it. If you have people comming to look at your collection, you should consider a liability policy as well.

Bill R

[Chad Hauris]

For me personally any special insurance would pretty much be worthless...all the stuff I have doesn't really have any monetary value other than historic or sentimental. Even if I could get monetary reimbursement it would probably be almost impossible to find some of the TV's and such I have to make an exact replacement.
I would think that under your homeowner's policy it would cover your collection unless it includes extraordinarily valuable items...your insurance agent should definitely be able to give you more advice. I would go visit them again.

[kx250rider]

Unfortunately, I have PLENTY of experience on this one... I had a house burn down with several TVs in it in 1988. So since then, I have kept up to date on the best way to handle the insurance issues.

First, reagardless of what coverage you have, you must take PHOTOS, PHOTOS, and MORE PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And keep a perfect INVENTORY of all your TVs, parts, manuals, knobs, remote handunits, and every single item. Store those photos in several places; such as the internet, and a copy to a relative who lives far away. That way, if the unthinkable happens, you still have your photos.

COVERAGE: A standard homeowners' policy will cover the TVs in most cases, unless you have hundreds of them. Your policy has a contents figure, which either covers up to a specific amount, or "total replacement", which will pay to buy the equivalent of what you have now. You can also buy a floater, which is an add-on for specific items such as guns, computers, jewelry, etc. Those are costly, but if you have a some prewar $10,000 TVs, I would look into that. Otherwise, you should be OK with a standard policy as long as you have PHOTOS, PHOTOS, and MORE PHOTOS. That way, all you have to do is go on eBay and find the last few sales of similar TVs to yours, and prove their value. Also, you can get a quote from a known vintage TV dealer such as Harry Poster on getting you some replacement sets. But if you can't prove what TVs you had, with photos or some sort of documentation, even a $10,000,000 floater will do you NO good.

*** CALL your insurance agent for qualified advice, because I am only quoting what I have been told and have experienced***

Charles

[decovision]

Thanks for the info, I will look into either a Floater, or a Inland Marine policy if my agent can't provide help. I think that the apprasial will be tricky since I have an eclectic collection and will need more than one appraisal.