You Might Be Glad You Did!

Just recently I received an email from a lady whose home was burglarized. Her vintage Barbie dolls and their clothes were stolen.  She didn’t have any pictures of her items, nor did she have them scheduled on her homeowner insurance.  She turned in her claim and her insurance adjuster was quoting current “store” prices for her dolls, not vintage collectible values!  Since my husband is an insurance agent I thought this would be a good topic for me to address.

First and foremost, take pictures of your collection.  As they say, a picture is worth a 1000 words.  Not only should you take pictures of your Barbie collection, but you should take pictures of everything in your house.  It’s easy in the digital age!  Just open up your cupboards and drawers and start shooting.  How much easier will it be when it comes time to make a list of everything you lost in a house fire or the items that were stolen, if you’ve got pictures?  And yes, you will be required to make a list.  This goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway!  “Store the pictures in a different place than where you live!”  I actually have a second copy of mine on my phone, because my phone goes everywhere with me, and when I update my pictures my phone is updated at the same time.

If your collection is valuable, then you definitely should insure it.  Read your insurance policy and see how much coverage you have on fine arts, jewelry, and collectibles without scheduling your items and you’ll probably find that there isn’t that much!  Make a list of your items with values and send it off to your insurance agent to add to your policy.  It’s that easy!  Although I must mention, I had to change companies because the company I was originally with didn’t want to insure my collection.  They didn’t think Barbie’s were a collectible!  Isn’t that amazing?  Fortunately my husband is an independent insurance agent, and he was able to search his other companies for one that had no problem at all insuring my prized possessions!

This may sound like very basic information, but it’s always a good reminder for those of you who are planning on “getting around to it”.  Don’t plan to, get it done.  You just might be glad you did!