My insurance company will not insure my vinyl and CD collection as part of my home insurance policy. It basically is beyond them how to deal with the collection of a couple thousand records.
Looking for suggestions on where and how you've insured your collection and even your equipment.
Hello, Try Lloyd’s of London. If they will insure someone’s body parts, they should insure anything else. Keep a couple digital copies of your stuff in your house. Documents, pictures of product model and version-pressings and wax track, and a picture of the room it’s in and the serial number. Also, Look up the current value or have them valued by a professional. It has to be iron clad. Even show to a lawyer to make sure they can sue the insurance company if you are not fully compensated. If the insurance company has a way out they usually will not pay. Keep digital copies at a family members house, deposit box, and fire proof safe, and possibly in the cloud. It’s a lot of work but if it’s important enough to you then you have to put in the work. Once you do this and have a policy for a few years shop around for a better price.
"The strange thing with that was that our agent didn’t think they’d cover my wiring (interconnects and speaker wires), she was stunned to see how much those cost."
If you need insurance to cover your cables, you are not rich enough to buy those cables.
The strange thing with that was that our agent didn't think they'd cover my wiring (interconnects and speaker wires), she was stunned to see how much those cost.
My insurance company told me that I only had to declare it if any one component was over their specified valuables limit and since the turntable arm and cartridge are taken as separate items my equipment as separates fall below their limit, don't know if that helps, I'm in the UK so don't know what happens in other countries.
I agree with many here. One must really read their insurance policy to see exactly what is covered and what isn't covered. The insurance companies are not stupid. They know exactly what they are doing. they don't want to pay out anything if they can avoid it. Their job is to separate you from your money. period.
so, a rider would possibly be required.
However, be aware, that to insure certain items, not originally covered under your homeowner's or renters policy, you may have to get each and every item professionally appraised and valued. Comic books, art, you name it.
but, I worked with the Emergency Operations Organization for years and we were taught that after disasters, many people found that their could not get paid from their insurance company for one really important reason. They had no evidence that they actually remembered or even owned the items they said were lost.
So the recommendations from the insurance companies were to make sure items were listed as covered under the insurance policy and second, take pictures and make list of everything. Clothes, furniture, art, music equipment, etc. keep those pictures and list somewhere safe. Think about it. You lose your home in a fire. and you lose all of your possessions. Do you honestly think you can actually remember each and every item you lost? I know I won't. I go around my home with a camera and take photos, write lists, keep receipts, etc.
Even then, the insurance company rep will do whatever they can to deny your claims. But, at least you have documentation to back up your claim.
On a home owners policy if you want coverage above and beyond you have to add scheduled coverage. This is a rider that you would list your album’s on and pay an additional premium for the coverage. Your equipment is going to be covered under the standard furnishing within dwelling schedule. Insurance companies will insure almost anything if you want to pay for it. Just be aware that multiple petty claims will lead to your coverage being dropped. Think of your home owners policy as Catastrophic coverage only.
Thanks for bringing this up. I sent our insurance company a spreadsheet of all my equipment, the model and serial numbers and the "replacement cost", so they would have it in their records. The strange thing with that was that our agent didn't think they'd cover my wiring (interconnects and speaker wires), she was stunned to see how much those cost.
My system has all digital sources. Over the years I've recorded all my purchased music (CDs and downloads) onto an external hard drive. That drive gets regularly backed up to two different cloud accounts (Google and Carbonite) and copied to an identical external hard drive, which lives in our fire safe. I can't imagine how long it would take to rebuild the library on that drive, hence my "over the top" backup strategy.
Why insure your vinyl collection? It has taken me nearly 60 years to build mine and I don't have another 60 years to rebuild it. What use is money to replace art?
Why would I want the insurance company to give me $35,000 to replace all my records? Huh. Good question. The answer to the question doesn't have much to do with whether I would actually replace them all or not, because I couldn't.
Why insure your vinyl collection? It has taken me nearly 60 years to build mine and I don't have another 60 years to rebuild it. What use is money to replace art?
fuzztone, I've tightened a LOT of catalytic converter bolts.. Robbers foiled in the midst of their capers.. Alarms going off and them booging.
Who would have thunk? Steal your fancy muffler.. the new regens are 15K.. YUP.. for a burner.. AND then you got to clean the stupid thing.. Big ol 15K ashtray, believe it or not.
I was in a fire and everything burned up. Just because your belongings were insured for X $$$, it doesn’t mean squat on what you might get from the insurance company. To issue a claim against that insured value, you have to specify how many forks you lost, how many pairs of pants, and which albums burned up. I had musical instruments that burned up and to prove what I had, I had pics and in some cases, paperwork in an offsite savings box that proved my claim. In 1978, I tried to insure my audio equipment and they told me I couldn’t because the ratio of audio equipment value against the value of the house was not as great as what they required, I couldn’t insure my audio equipment
“Wow”! as a 41 year insurance agent I’m a bit shocked but not totally. To those of you that think you know about everything, including insurance, you know little about my industry/career and you are wrong (oldhymec).
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What part shocked you? That the agents when my stuff got stolen, didn’t know their A$$ from a hole in the ground or what? I was treated like some kind of a nut UNTILL, I contacted my lawyer.
Don’t tell me how insurance people are. The CLOWN that wrote the original policy 35 years ago, was good at one thing.. Sending me notices how he would like to review my policy, it may need some attention. BUT never once showed up before or after the kid stole the gear. The field agent was assigned because I requested someone that knew what I was talking about..
the 80/20 or in this case 90/10 rule applies. 10% of the people do 90% of the work and in this case had 100% of the knowledge.
I’m serious, the original adjuster had me at 5,000.00 the revised list was OVER 50K.. How friggin’ misinformed can an agent BE? SHE (not my agent) had a check cut with 75% noted as "could not find comps". BUT sure wanted me to sign off their lazy little bit of work.. Under two weeks.. It took me TWO years to find all the stuff, and STILL didn’t get reimbursed for the master tapes.. THOUSANDS.. and the same with the NOS valves, there was 50K in valves in the foot locker alone..
This was a real pisser. The tube EQ was a prototype from Dave Manley, really one of a kind.. 3K maybe.. Valued at 100.00 new and depreciated 90%. It was worth 10.00 dollars. It had appreciated to over 6K, but trying to explain that to a DUMB person made it hard.. To say the least.. THEY KNEW.. Dummy!!!
I think I got 15K 30 sets of quads NOS GL KT88, Mullard EL34s Set after set of RCA 6L6 BPs and at least 300 signal valves. It was part of my nest egg.
There was a separate foot locker of used valves. IF I wouldn’t have had pictures of the end of the foot lockers "TWO". BTW the agent was a valve head too. He had 3 Melody 6L6 rigs..
THE WHOLE time the guy that wrote the policy sits in his office while I figure out WHERE the heck my stuff went... One cop helped me, and I help him. The gun got peoples attention.. Scared the kid too.. they didn’t fit him up for the gun, but it could have cost him YEARS.. He was 19 yeas old from MD and had "Form". They could have stuck him for 20 years... Local traffic stop, The 8 - 10 Reel to Reels were in the back seat with my name on them..
Replacement, kinda.. there are time limits to get totally reimbursed and if you can’t find a replacement.. you get 50-90% reduction AND the ol bums rush..
Insurance agents, as agent go, Gregg was a STAR, the three that proceeded him were WORTHLESS.. To busy doing it wrong, to get it RIGHT. It was simple, they would not listen, AND didn’t want to learn..
If anybody has any insurance questions please ask me. Happy to help.
Yes, I have a question. My home owners policy has a “Contents” coverage of $353,000. If my house was to be totally destroyed along with the contents am I going to have to provide proof that I had $353,000 worth of contents or is the insurance company just going to write me a check for the coverage amount I paid for? I didn’t request this amount of coverage. It was arbitrarily put on by the insurance company.
State Farm insurance has a policy that will cover audio gear and related items including a music collection so check them out i have used them for over twenty years in this fashion.
“Wow”! as a 41 year insurance agent I’m a bit shocked but not totally. To those of you that think you know about everything, including insurance, you know little about my industry/career and you are wrong (oldhymec). Yes vinyl can be insured. Anything of a intrinsic value potentially can be insured. The carrier only cares, can they make $$$ and is the item “properly” valued.
The carrier wants a proper valuation from a reputable source. I have insured vinyl collections, audio hardware, and crazy stuff for decades.
Simply, proper authenticated appraisals/ valuations are required. Then insurance coverage is available . By the way, this kind of coverage is “All Risk”. Everything is covered including dropping it, losing it, mysterious disappearance etc. I sell policies very inexpensively with no deductible. Consult your local “Good Neighbor” agent.
If anybody has any insurance questions please ask me. Happy to help everyone here!
"...where and how you’ve insured your collection and even your equipment."
I multiplied music into, I think, 12 hard drives/microSD cards and left them in different locations (cities, countries, and continents). Even in cars. Talking about getaway vehicle. Includes digitized records.
If equipment goes, let it go. It is just a bunch of electronic pieces.
As noted it needs to be excluded to not be covered. But there are also coverage limits for certain types of things. Vinyl may be considered a "collectible" and those items generally have fairly low $$ limits.
If your collection is super valuable (like 6 figures) then there are specialty companies that insure high end collectibles on a collectibles policy. No clue about Vinyl but seen these policies for wine, jewelry etc.
The time to ask all insurance questions is when you are purchasing coverage, not when you have a claim. Most home insurance policies will consider albums as contents but if you have some very rare out of print albums, you might have to specify them separately as an insured peril to receive their actual value in the event of a loss, otherwise, the insurance company will just replace them with an ordinary new reissue.
Sounds like a JK Simmons commercial, extended cut. All I got from them was a replacement for a Paramount bike that was lifted from the garage. Those were the days. Before they started jacking the whole car or at least the catylitic while you’re sleepin’.
I’m speaking from experience. My gear was stored in overseas foul weather containers for 16 years. Mcintosh C22 a pair of MC240 with consecutive serial numbers a Micro Seiki TT (ALL tricked out), Manley tube EQ, Otari RtR, a crate of RtR tapes and a tricked out direct head play back unit made by Manley at the time. A LOT of time and effort was saved there when the kids got their own places..
I go out to look one day, the lock is broke in the garage, Hmmmm!
Sure enough the shop was tore to pieces.. and the containers were gone.
Try explaining to an insurance person what a VALVE is. There was a foot locker FULL of NOS valves... FULL. 15k there alone.. 3 SME 3009/3012 tonearms. They think you’re crazy..
THEN
A guy that worked for the insurance took note AND took over the case. I was smoking hot by now and had contacted my lawyer. I had worked out who did the deed.. YUP the neighbor kid I helped RAISE.. I didn’t see that coming.. NONE of the stuff was recovered EXEPT they found a box with 8 - 10 master reels in it... The KID thought they were cool.. 364 days he served.. They found a loaded 38 that had KILLED someone in the car with him..
The claim went from 5k because they wouldn’t look for prices to over 50K..
They took notice then.. I didn’t know it BUT I had replacement cost insurance. All new Mac gear. I replaced it all.. LESS the RtR tapes.. Just no way to get the ones I remembered having... Long gone..
Farmers...Gregg was Great.. Two years he stuck with me in spite of my own (BAD) self.. Took a while to cool down.. 3 years...Kid broke my heart.. last one I’ve tried to help, until last year.. We'll see..
The old mechanic guy is right. Keep your mouth shut and take good photographs of your record collection and system. HiFi gear depreciates fast. If you have a very expensive system you want to have a "replacement cost" plan." The insurance will then pay for whatever it costs to replace the damaged equipment with "like" equipment.
There are exclusion in any policy, BUT they have to name the exclusion. Money, jewels, stamp collection, there are a few. BUT if it's not named in your policy as an exclusion it is included. In other words you should have kept your mouth shut and protected your collection the best you can.. IF there was an issue of burst pipes or, (God forbid) fire, it is covered.. They may not have a way to value it easy but there is a way non the less.
YOUR job is to keep an accurate inventory.. With pics of EVERYTHING you want insured... Everything you leave out or think is included, LOL may not be.. The PICTURES are for you NOT the insurance... They need to be in a safety deposit box. The insurance company can take their own pictures...
You have a lazy insurance person.. The purpose of insurance is just that.. To insure what you are NOT willing to loose. They insure 8 tea cups, but you only drink out of one at a time...THEY replace only ONE... Silly way of thinking.. Insurance is a VERY corrupt business, I mean think about what they do and HOW BIG they are.. Not for paying out. They prefer you protect within reason and insure for a reasonable amount.
If you had a shoe collection, you think they could find a way to value it? Silly as HECK on the part of the agent.. Change AGENTS and companies..
They are there to serve YOU not the other way around.. With NO claims on a policy and you doing your due diligence there should be NO problem with a policy covering your stuff.. DON'T be unreasonable and don't be so SMART about how expensive your collection IS... You were bragging up a storm.. With your collection all polished up..
Rethink your approach.. Be honest. Do you really think a LP or CD collection is a REAL target any more or less than they use to be? I think less.. To the uninformed thief of today "IT'S TOO HEAVY", BUT more so for a second story man.. How many of those are still around..
They may be after your shoe collection TOO... My oh My... Just kidding.. Don't be showing that off to the insurance guy either...:-)
Added locks and security only HELPS your cause..
Beware of DOG on the other hand, does not! You're actually admitting you have a dog to be AWARE OF.... Guilty before you ever step in court, by your own admission..
That is just what an insurance man told me. Omission can be explained, admission CANNOT...
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