Yes, they could be insured in a comprehensive cover - house car etc. up to a certain limit which is very low or separately at high cost. With condition that if lost in some way you loose, getting little back. Either way you loose if you do not take care of safe storage yourself. If your collection is destroyed in some catastrophy, sit in a corner and cry in your bretzels. If the latter was the case it would be the least thing to cry about.
I used to get advertisements for stamp insurance that bought into the Linn's 'Amos' system and got the subscriber list... it has been some time since seeing any. My home insurance company will insure them with the house policy (contents) up to a certain value, but the biggest issue is telling them what you have and the value. One of the reasons I struck out some time ago to classify and inventory my collections... that way I have proof of replacement value.
Replacement value !! Who would decide that and what % of value would the insurerers offer. May you never need to do this excerise.
True enough... but the replacement value could be based on the industry accepted and recognized Scott values. Secondarily you can show recent auction results to come up with fair market value... either one of these options would be better than some self-assessed minimum value. There are many ways to come up with a figure. % of value offered would be directly related to the amount of premium you would want to pay... also directly to the value you claim the items to be worth. Other factors are also involved such as previous claims on that company and longevity: I have had the same insurer for over 40 years, no claims, and they pretty much believe me when I tell them something.
Hugh Woods offers insurance on stamp collection in both Canada and the United States to members of the RPSC and the APS respectively. I do have my collection insured with Hugh Wood.
I also think it is possible since anything now seems to have insurance or can be insured. Good to learn about stamps insurance in this thread.
Absolutely. However the bigger the loss (in current value) the more is the disappointment. There is also a difference of a 20 000 stamp collection to say two scarce stamps valued at $20.000.00 The stamp collection may be easily be replaced whereas the scarce stamps may not. The named stamp collection is run of the mill stuf of value increase of 10% per year whereas the scarce items may jump to 30% every second year and if traded on auctions even more depending on demand and if scarce well the price goes up. Who negotiates the pay out or do you take what you can get ?
The insurance compensation is whatever the fair market value was on the day of the loss up to the insured limit. I don't believe there are any policies that would cover the up potential of a more scarce item. I understand that the Hugh Woods policies that APS suggests for owners make the collector catalog those very valuable stamps and list them independently. I don't know the reason for this, perhaps this is a way for the insurance company to keep the policies current with respect to premiums and replacement costs.
I think those high value stamps are most probably the ones that are being insured. I wonder how much is the insurance for stamps and how it is priced?
The coverage amount is specified by the collector. He/she tells the insurer what value of coverage they are seeking, say perhaps coverage of $5000. Unless a stamp exceeds a certain dollar amount a generic description is all that is required like "collection of United States stamps". Premiums are paid yearly and range in price depending on coverage.
One of the reasons for the independent cataloging of individual stamps is so that their actuaries can also monitor the market for those items. For example: C3a's come on the market very spontaneously and rarely... value is all over the board. If the actuary sees the value go up, they may notify you of a shortage of coverage. If it goes down, they will rarely tell you so that they can collect the higher premiums... go figure!
I keep a full inventory of my collection using Excel spreadsheets. This is very handy for several reasons. First off, when I'm at a stamp show or even perusing an auction catalog, it's simple to check whether or not I already have a given stamp. Secondly, it gives me a really good basis for deciding how much insurance I need, and gives me a good basis for making a claim should I ever need to. Finally, should I some day shuffle off this mortal coil without first selling my collection, it will be of some use to my heirs should they want to approach dealers to sell the collection.
I do the same thing for the same reasons. My spreadsheets also include references to sources (where I bought the item) and associated photos as available, and since I have so many different collection sortings (mint, used, topicals), the album I placed the item in.
Ah okay. So no matter what is the value of the collection, the collector will be the one who will tell how much it will be insured.
Pretty much yes. But if you claim some very high number, the insurer may want proof that the item exists: picture, etc.
Yes, SATX Collector got it right. An individual stamp that meets the threshold value will need to be photographed or the collector may need to produce an auction invoice.
