Renter/Homeowner's Insurance and Toy Soldiers

[vurumai]

I have a plastic, metal and resin addiction. I've been doing The Hobby for almost a decade now and have spent about $1,000 a year or more every year. That ends up being the most significant investment of anything in my home. Add onto that the 3 hours it takes me to paint a mini or 40 hours to paint a vehicle and there is a significant time investment as well as paint and hobby supplies.

Recently, I got renter's insurance an,d while talking the the nice lady, we ran into a roadblock about my toy soldiers. Their retail value is easy enough to estimate and keep track of. What is harder to estimate is their value. In the event that my collection gets completely wiped out, what is it worth? I know what it is worth to me but no one is going to pay that amount. If these were baseball cards or antique swords, I could easily find an appraiser to tell me what their value is. But given the subjective nature of painting and art, it is very difficult to have an objective value placed on them.

Does anyone know how I could go about getting a reputable value for my work? Whom do I take this to?

I've included some samples of my work from my blog below to give an estimation of the level of painting that I put into each mini. More and better images can be found on my blog: http://tinymetalmen-vurumai.blogspot.com/

[eman1_2]

Beautiful stuff.

Maybe one of the advertisers here could tell you what they would charge to paint to that level? Use that to value the collection? Tough one - I have always just assumed if my house bruned down, I would just have to start over.

[s_o_r_r_o_w]

This is a huge problem.

Most common insurers simply will not cover "unusual" collections--and it doesn't take much to be unusual. If you look at your deductibles for electronics, CDs, and DVDs, you may be shocked to learn that only 100 or so of your CDs are covered. Getting expanded coverage for a large collection of even common things like CDs and DVDs seems beyond the capacity of many insurers.

I still have had no luck locating a more specialized coverage provider.

The problem is not assessing value, not really. Most insurers are quite willing for you to identify the value of something, so long as you pay the premium for the coverage (diamonds notwithstanding). The issue is how to fit your $20,000 collection into their actuarial tables for risk.

[MagickalMemories]

A friend of mine recently had to do this for his home owner's insurance.
He's got thousands of models, all painted to professional standards. Fortunately for him, he keeps good records and was able to go through most of it and find what he paid for it (almost everything he has is commission work done to a very high standard). For the stuff he doesn't have records for (gifts from others, a few pieces we painted, like terrain, etc.), I think he looked at comparable quality works from commission painters - it's replacement value you want, after all.

I would suggest that you find a commission painter who paints to the (beautiful) level you've got going on there and using his prices.

Eric

[wookieegunner]

Another option may be to insure them seperately. There are companies that specifically deal with insuring collectables so they might be a better fit. Don't know anything about this one, just linking as an example: http://www.collectinsure.com/aboutUs.html

[vurumai]

That's messed up. If I am understanding you correctly, the models that I painted are worth retail maybe but if I had someone else paint them and kept receipts, I could get that value?

[Bahamut_Dragonlord]

If you can get them covered by insurance, it is typically the replacement value that is used to value things. So, I would argue that the are valued at retail plus some commissioned paint work for your guys. Maybe you could get some quotes for valuation from some of the more well known painters for reference. That is to say they will even recognize them as such, which probably varies considerably between insurance company. I had a very good experience with State Farm when I was robbed and aside from some value caps from jewelry they covered everything I could list that was stolen.

[kturock]

That's messed up. If I am understanding you correctly, the models that I painted are worth retail maybe but if I had someone else paint them and kept receipts, I could get that value?

Welcome to the world of insurance. Not all policies cover NEW replacement cost. Some cover cost of the exact model. So if it's available at a lower price, that's all you get, not new. I had a car broken into. Everything was replaced, but a lower, prorated price. Different laws in different states and different companies.

You should have an information line in your area, like 211 or such, call it and talk to someone about insurance laws/rules in your area. Different agents will give you different answers, maybe not all the truth, but their companies rules.

[MagickalMemories]

That's messed up. If I am understanding you correctly, the models that I
painted are worth retail maybe but if I had someone else paint them and kept receipts, I could get that value?

Not exactly. I'm saying to use that commissioned piece cost to value yours. Whether you painted them or someone else did, the quality and value should still be the same.

Eric

[Klahtoo]

Try another insurance company. For my collection, the first company wanted an itemized listing of everything and the value of the items. My next company asked how much insurance I wanted, and insured me to that level. That was as a renter. As a homeowner now, I have replacement on the home and a larger amount (compared to rental insurance) for contents.

[HarlequinZero]

I would see if the insurance company would let you hire a reputable commission painter as an appraiser as that's the person who would best be able to determine worth. The only problem I'd foresee would be determining if the painter could qualify with the insurance company as an appraiser.

[Norseman]

In my flooded basement debacle... I lost a lot of my magic collection. I basically took book value of what i had. They didnt require a lot of info, I got a few grand for it. Mind you that was home owners insurance. They did tell me that i would need to take out a separate policy for anything like my warhammer collection. Probably about $30,000.00 I have not done it yet, but they did say i would need records and specifics for the collection and appraisals. They said photos would help.

You could use blue tables quote sheet to figure out a value. I am sure this would suffice as a appraisal.
http://bluetablepainting.com/index.php

I plan to take photos of everything and log everything in a spreadsheet. Just an FYI this sort of insurance is damn expensive.