Sugarbrie,
That is an excellent question. I hope this helps. I have a ton of vinyl that's really valuable. I really don't care what it's worth except if it is gone and I wouldn't settle for purchase price if anyone wanted to buy them. The library is too huge for me to do anything more than photograph it. This is not an ordinary collection by anyones standard except the community here at Audiogon. This collection has been appraised by a local professional and insured for a set dollar figure. Waste of money? I don't know, but worth it for the peace of mind. There are tons of horror stories about insurance adjusters and all I want to do is avoid the potential greif. Additionally, most homeowners policies have a maximum dollar figure for personal posessions at 150% of the residence insured value. My vinyl exceeds that amount. The next question is about vintage equipment and even reasonably new equipment that isn't available new. Just imagine the arguement you would need to make about your stuff if it's now a pile of ashes. For myself it would be difficult to fight for a settlement after such a huge emotional loss. In all fairness, most insurance adjusters dealing with a home loss settle quickly and fairly. Little fraud occurs in this area so they are much more open to loss than say, a car loss. The only example I have for you is a friends 1958 D28 Martin guitar which was stolen from his living room. It was eventually replaced with a new D28 minus deductible after a court battle. He wasn't made whole by his coverage since he paid over $4000 for this instrument eight years prior to the loss. Price of the new D28 was around $1800 and it will take at least 20 years for it to reach it's maximum potential. Geez, you can't even find spruce today to compare with that used in the original, so it's doubtful the instrument will ever age as well. The only way to know is after the fact and I'm going to err on the safe side. To each his own.
