Insurance & Securing toys - tips, questions and options (browse whole topic)

I was thinking over the weekend what I would do if my house burnt down and amongst other treasured items I lost my entire Transformers collection.

I checked my home and contents insurance and it only covers $3k for all my collections and anything else deemed artwork. Not much when my collection is worth way more than that.

So now I'm in the market for insurance. Has anyone looked into this before and consider purchasing insurance for their collection? If so, did you simply up the cover for Collections on Home & Contents Insurance or is it better to go with more specialised Insurance? Or am I just wasting my time and being overly cautious?

This is a good point, i was thinking about this to and was thinking id most probably get laughed at over the phone but its taken me a good 2 years and a few grand to get to were im at and i dont want my wife cutting sick over all the coin I've spent to get there lol

Previous topics that have talked about insuring collections or recommended insurers....
(one day I will merge these into a super-reference topic for members to use or point newbies to who are asking about insurance)

One (full topic)

Two (full topic)

Three (full topic)

Four (full topic)

Five (full topic)

Six (single post only)

Seven (two posts only)

Eight (from post #19 only)

Well now I just feel like an idiot... I'm going to go stand over in the corner... I did a forum search but gave up finding a topic after checking a few pages of the results. Sorry for the repost and thanks for the list of topics griffin. That will be a massive help.

Don't worry, it took me 3 or 4 searches and several pages of results just for those eight links.
Since people keep asking about it from time to time, we do need something permanent posted somewhere, so I'll sort and merge the posts in those topics onto one... and probably post it in the Matrix or Intro section.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Don't worry, it took me 3 or 4 searches and several pages of results just for those eight links.
Since people keep asking about it from time to time, we do need something permanent posted somewhere, so I'll sort and merge the posts in those topics onto one... and probably post it in the Matrix or Intro section.

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maybe we need an "unfortunate real world issues" section.

Posts and topics now combined into one thread, moved to the Resource section.

Thought I would quickly share my experience. My collection has escalated rapidly and is worth quite a bit now so I figured it was time to make sure it is covered in the event of loss or theft.

The cheapest option (and most comprehensive it seems) for me was simply adding extra cover to my existing home and contents insurance. I am with Westpac and after about an hour on the phone with the representative (who professed she was a Transformers fan herself) and her bosses we figured out the best way to insure them.

For the purposes of insurance, Westpac deem them all to be toys. Under my policy (which is the standard) there is no limit on the amount you can claim for toys so long as it come within the total sum insured amount. I ended up adding $50,000 to my total sum insured amount and that ends up costing me only an extra $7 a month! $84 a year for my collection to be covered is damn good value.

I also had to give them a rough indication of the number of Transformers and separate them into series and what value I attribute to them. They recommended I have photos of the collection and any evidence of purchase but otherwise it will still be covered for replacement value.

So if anyone is yet to insure their collection I'd recommend having a look at adding extra cover to your home and contents insurance.

I am also insured with Westpac, I think mine are regarded as toys too since its not a 'complete collection'. I just pray that I never have to use it.

Has anyone here actually had a successful claim for loss of part or all of their collection?