A Sad Collectors story and food for though.

[gurpswoo1]

Ok I have just called them up and asked a few simple questions.

What type of insurance do you do?

Dovetail insurance do not do independent insurance for collectable items but they cover them on top of their normal house insurance. The reason for this is that the covering cost is likely less than £50 a year. The admin and paper work costs involved would not make it financially viable unless they had a huge turnover of new policies, that's not likely to happen in a niche market.

So you would need to take out new house insurance with them.

So what does it cover?

I told him I was a video game collector, the first thing I noticed was that he didn't laugh, snigger or make any sort of remark or sound. He was completely serious and understood how valuable the items were to us, he has seen every type of collectable including collectable underwear.

The policy is really designed for the collection as a whole, for example if there was a fire, theft or natural disaster. Accidental damaged is also covered but this would be for multiple or higher value items. This is because of the excess.

The access is usually £250, now this is a problem for claiming smaller value.

So in other words, if you do damaged an item then make sure it's either high in value or you damaged multiple items.

E.g. Say you had a VGA graded game worth £1000, you dropped it by mistake and there was a crack in the case.

As the value has dropped because the case is cracked, this is considered accidental damaged. They would cover the whole item minus the £250 excess.


How does a claim work and how do you establish the value.

Dovetail understood that keeping all the receipt is not going to be possible, they determine the value at the claim process, they ask an independent source for either verification or current market value. I informed him that you will be hard pressed to find someone who sell sealed games professionally for market value and the only source I could think of is VGA in the US for an estimate. He did say they would ask other collectors if all else failed.


What's the sort of house or content you deal with?
He said they would normally cover mid to high end houses with a minimum of £10,000 collection. Premiums are usually in the £500 pa mark.


Now it's important to consider that everyone can have a personalized policy with either more or less excess. It's down to your personal situation and type of policy required.


I will continue to research this as I'm interested in this.

Hope this helps answer some of the concerns of the insurance required.

Also for anyone that has not read the link above here it is, it important to know.

Collection Insurance in the UK: Important Information
It may be a particular trait of the British psyche but we like to collect "things" whether they be fine art, stamps, coins or the more obtuse and personal. Indeed, the type of collections we like to accumulate are as varied as the people who do the collecting. Here's some important information about collection insurance in the UK that you may want to note.

Why insure a collection, that has been painstakingly acquired over many years, under a general home contents insurance policy that gives scant regard to the individual needs of a specialized collection? Such policies are aimed at the mass market and do not adequately reflect the unique characteristics of a collection with tailored coverage such as antiques insurance or paintings insurance. I cannot imagine discussing the insurance of a collection such as militaria with a call centre. One mention of the word "gun", albeit decommissioned, is likely to send the person at the other end of the line diving for cover, metaphorically speaking. In such cases, specialist home insurance is urgently required.

Many collections reach a high value very quickly and thus automatically create a cover issue on a standard home contents insurance policy. Plus, such policies do not take into account the inherent risks of an individual collection. For example, the insurance of a collection of paintings should be underwritten differently from a collection of Steiff Teddy Bears. Insurance for collections of memorabilia should be considered differently from insurance for collections of coins.

Specialist high value home insurance agents and insurance brokers, the ones that you won't find on the Internet, understand the needs of collectors and will underwrite each collection on its own merits. It is likely that it will cost less to insure a collection with specialists because they know that an opportunistic thief is not likely to run off with a collection of railwayana when there is a plasma television to be had.

A specialist insurance agent also appreciates that the collection is likely to be very well looked after and well catalogued with a full inventory and valuation, even though it's unlikely that you'll be asked to give specifics on an individual piece unless it exceeds £15,000 in value. These agents also are flexible about additions and deletions because they know that collectors often buy and sell items with regularity. In short, specialist agents and brokers provide insurance for a collection in a bespoke manner.