collection protection advice

[James C]

evening all ,i was just after some advice on how to insure my military collection ,ive never gave it much thought before ,but as the years have gone on and ive accumulated more and more items ,i thought best to have some form of protection ,is it common to just increase the house contents insurance ? any help or advice would be great i can then get the ball rolling ,also im based in the uk ,wether things work differently in other countries i dont know ,but it might be better for me to hear from our uk members on this one ,cheers james

[Gunny Hartmann]

Hiya mate, i've heard people say it's covered on house insurance, but itemise and record all the values!..

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi James, you need to have it all catogued and photographed first, but I suspect you are more than there with that. Store a copy of this with a relative or friend. No good having it at home if the house burns down.... Do not count on Household Polices.

Try here:

Military Collections Insurance

Private Collectors

Cheers, Ade.

[Anzel]

I concur with Gunny. As we all know, photos are great with the list of items stored in a safe deposit box or outside your home.

[douglas2496]

I have taken a specialist insurance policy with a regular household insurance company, as the value of my collection is greater than that covered by ordinary household contents. I just contacted them telling them what I have, and they said the collection would need its own cover. They asked me to provide an estimated value for the collection and a general description of the sort of items I have, but not an itemised list. I was particularly please that they did not make a fuss about insurring guns, munitions etc. It was all very straight forward and not very expensive.

[James C]

many thanks paul, doug ,anzel and thanks for those links ade , i think your right about having a few photographs already its all been sound advice ,im just wondering on evaluating a particular item ,as my collection is mainly headgear im a bit out of touch on what a certain helmet would be valued for ,is there a rough guide i can draw information from please

[Woolgar]

My collection is photographed, catalogued, separately insured and kept at a family members house

Nick

[Gunny Hartmann]

many thanks paul, doug ,anzel and thanks for those links ade , i think your right about having a few photographs already its all been sound advice ,im just wondering on evaluating a particular item ,as my collection is mainly headgear im a bit out of touch on what a certain helmet would be valued for ,is there a rough guide i can draw information from please

Post the helmet mate and i'm sure somebody can value it, after all we know you are a true collector and not after making a quick buck like some people!...

[James C]

thanks nick and great idea paul i will post up a few lids or maybe add a question on an old thread as i have started quite a few on individual helmets over the years ,cheers again james

[navyman]

I have cataloged, described, and photographed every item in my collection. The information is kept on two computer USB plug in devices one of which is a working copy and the other a master copy which I update as I make new additions to the collection. Thanks to this thread I've realised that a fire could result in the loss of many years of research, hard work, and expenditure. I now realise that the sensible thing to do would be to lodge the master copy with a relative. As to insurance I have taken out contents cover with my bank but this, although better than none will only cover me for items worth no more than £1000. It seems that I will have to arrange for extra cover specifically for my collection which I intend to look into ASAP.
I'm grateful to the forum for reminding me of the importance of this and would urge other serious collectors to do the same if they have not already done so.
I will be interested to hear of any other precautions taken by members to protect their collections.
Best regards,
navyman.