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

[CBratron]

How do people go about insuring the collection anyway? Do they just increase their contents insurance or are they specifying it separately?

Look at your policy and what it says about special collections. Some insurers limit payouts for non-household items and some don't cover them at all. You may be able to add a rider to the policy to specifically insure the collection. You will probably need to get your collection appraised and documented.

Just talk to your insurer. They'll know more of the specifics and options.

[Fungal Infection]

I had my DVD/bluray, videogames and toy collection insured but needed to specify the overall value. eg. Robot toy collection $25000 or videogame collection (400 games). Most policies will only cover set amounts unless specified so make sure you actually tell them you want to insure certain items so you are covered. For example, I know NRMA's standard policy will only cover you for $2500 in jewellery if you dont tell them otherwise. Accordingly, this will increase your premium but atleast if anything does happen, you are covered.

[Raider]

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?

[Jenko21]

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

[griffin]

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)

[Raider]

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.

[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.

[griffin]

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

[liegeprime]

We have a thread somewhere regarding insuring our collections here.... not very adept at finding it in search but Im sure somebody here could post a link eventually

I know what you mean,
I kept my Spreadsheet list up to date when I was starting coz of excitement - G1 and all that alone is a bit too much, then I have separate sheets for every other line, but after the 1000s mark, nay the 800s I just couldnt be bothered anymore. Ive included it in the insurance for my contents with NRMA but admittedly it underinsured as I dint get it properly assessed at the time I applied, it has grown exponentially since. We really should try and get a good valuer and prolly some insurer specializing in things like these - or antique insurers - I wonder at times when I watch Bargain hunt or Antiques roadshow - they often recommend an insurance price for an item and makes me think - who are these insurers and where can I get in contact with them - Australian equivalent. Coz yeah G1 alone is gonna be pricey....

[GoktimusPrime]

Whichever method people wanna go with, try to be consistent within their own method. e.g. Devastator (G1): does he count as 1, 6 or 7? Up to you, but I reckon whichever rule you choose should be applied across the board for all your gestalts, regardless of whether you purchased them individually or in a single box set. Maybe if you keep the box sets sealed... but otherwise if they're opened, I say count 'em all the same way.

If it's for insurance , best to LIST EVERYTHING... while some may be counted as accessoies for a figure - I always counted Sixgun as an accessory figure for Metroplex, if you have him

Yeah, I suppose for insurance purposes you might want to catalogue them like TFU.info does... Sixgun, Scamper & Slammer aren't counted separately from Metroplex, but the page on Metroplex clearly lists/documents every accessory that he comes with - those robots, the building bit, the missiles etc.

ALthough, I do deviate from UCM to form my own personal counting especially with minicons - most count them as "accessories" but I personally count them as a separate entity altogether cos they dont often need the larger figure anyways - as with the new sets of scout PCCs the basic scout is 1 figure coz even if they dont have the minicon - they're still a basic figure in both modes - mebbe gunless of whatever but still by itself a complete toy you can play with - a plane or a snow plow or a truck.... gunles robot mode but still a full robot. Same with the minicon - it may be a gun, or a drill but then Megatron is a gun and he's counted a s1 figure too. So I count the minicon as a separate entity. BUt this same logic I don't apply to Actionmaster partners.

UCM counts Mini-Cons separately dude (Article03). As you said, Mini-Cons have independent play value... you take Jetter - on his own he transforms from a robot into a supersonic jet. He doesn't need any other Transformer to be enjoyed with as a Transformer toy. The fact that he can merge with the rest of his team to form the Star Sabre and Powerlink with Autobots/Decepticons is a bonus feature.

I used the UCM to count my toys while at the same time using my own method. I no longer use the UCM though.
If a Toy has sentience it's counted as 1 as in headmasters (Hasbro - not that I own any) or targetmasters. Drones don't count as 1, only their control bot as in PCC.

Heh, I used to use the Sentience method too when I was a kid. (back when I maintained a checklist on a Commodore 64, then later a 286 PC (with a VGA monitor! Made me the envy of my friends who were still using CGA and EGA monitors... then my godbrother got a Super VGA monitor and blew my mind away ) *rewinds.tape*

ROTF Devestator (supreme not legends) count as 1 even though each vehicle has it's own name. They don't have their own robot mode.

Agreed. You'd have to be pret-ty desperate to jack your collection count up to count those separately IMO. I couldn't be bothered making a poll about that set because there's only 6 of them - and considering that results are rounded to the nearest hundred in the primary poll, it's not really going to affect the results. There are gaps in the UCM like this where stuff slips through - but the numbers are so small that they wouldn't affect poll results anyway.

For me Headmasters and Targetmasters (and any other of that evolution) always counted as 2 as their partners had their own personality while Targetmasters had their own alt mode that didn't need the main bot like the Power/Headmasters did. Yes they are just a gun but so was Megatron.
Pretenders count as 1 but Actionmasters count as 2.

Hmmm... but are Action Master weapons/vehicles sentient though? My understanding has always been that they're not... at best they may have advanced A.I. but aren't actually sentient/self aware (at best they might be like say Jarvis in the Iron Man/Avengers film franchise -- artificially intelligent but not sentient).