Pipes and insurance

[unadoptedlamp]

Does anyone here carry special insurance for their collections?

I was doing some rough math and figured I have somewhere around USD$8k in pipes and tobacco. I haven't meticulously calculated everything, but I thought... what if my house catches on fire? Is this going to be an insurance nightmare?

Right now, my collection is in Canada, which bumps that up to somewhere around $16k in Canadian funds, once customs duties, etc. are applied to restock everything.

That probably falls under the "If you have a nice diamond necklace in your house, it's good to catalogue it." that you get from the insurance company. I haven't done this.

What really makes me wonder is sometimes, I travel to Brazil, where I also have house insurance. Someone could easily swipe $5k of pipes off a shelf and I'm not sure the insurance companies would be so smooth with replacing that without some hassle.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone here has thought this out and made some kind of arrangement to make sure the insurance would cover the costs. Is tobacco something that can even be covered? I always assumed so, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[dmcmtk]

I would think this would be a question for your insurance company regarding collectables...?

 

[unadoptedlamp]

Well hell, dmcmtk, I hadn't thought of that! What I was interested in, however, is knowing what experiences other forum members might have had in this area.

I don't want to come across as a jerk, but for example, where I live, I have earthquake insurance. Talking with other people, who have similar concerns, informed who I insure with and what questions to ask. You would be surprised at the variability once you have a little knowledge. At least in regards to earthquake insurance.

 

[sandollars]

You can get anything insured for money. The question is; will the premiums be commensurate with the risk?

My policy gives me a fairly large payout for "personal items" if lost damaged or stolen which I pay a small additional rider for. My pipes most definitely fall under this umbrella. Take photos, stick the photos in your safe or safe deposit box. That's as good as it gets IMO.

 

[unadoptedlamp]

Sandollars - That's kind of the rub. I have a unique piece of software I use for my work (which I travel with to insecure places) and the premiums I was quoted -from everyone who would talk to me- meant that it only had to not get stolen for one year. It's a $15k USB stick... I couldn't believe it. But they were all saying the same thing. "Sure, no problem, that'll be $15k a year"

I have a nagging suspicion that tobacco and pipes is going to be a real pain in the ass. And some people here have extensive collections and hoards of tobacco. I wonder if it's really insured under most common policies.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

A good question for your agent. Read your policy. See what $ amount you have for contents. Carefully look for exclusions. In simplest form, a homeowners policy covers everything by default except for things specifically excluded within the policy.

The next part of the equation is how to prove it in the event of a claim. You should take good photos and document each item. Purchase receipts would be very helpful.

 

[hauntedmyst]

At one point, I had quite a collection of photography equipment. I wondered about insurance too. I was told as long as I wasn't using it in a business and had it cataloged it would be covered if it was reasonable. You never know what they will think is "reasonable" so take picture and make a digital list for the cloud.