Carefree_Dude

Whats the best way to assess the value of a lego collection for insurance purposes?

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Several days ago I had to evacuate my home due to wildfires. Its very likely I will lose my house, and everything in it, which includes all my legos. When I make a claim, what is the best way to determine value of it all and present it to insurance so I can replace what was lost? 

 

 

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How terrible.

You can look up value on bricklink for used or brickset for newer unused sets. But it will be down to your insurance company rules, what sort of evidence do they require. Do you have proof of purchases (online credit card statements or similar) or photographs of the items in situ and are these acceptable? Did you declare a value for the collection when taking out insurance and so on.

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6 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

Manage your collection at rebrickable.

Huh? That is for yourself. Without any proof of reality. You can put in whatever you dream of.

6 hours ago, MAB said:

How terrible.

This is really terrible. Not only with regard to LEGO items. So many, many other things are at threat ... my goodness.

I am 100% with @MAB. This is the way it needs to go legally. Taking photographs now may even help later on.

But once again: This is more than terrible. Hope you and your family and in case your pets, all the living beings can resort to a safe place, in case.

Man. I wish you all the very best.

Thorsten

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7 hours ago, MAB said:

But it will be down to your insurance company rules, what sort of evidence do they require. Do you have proof of purchases (online credit card statements or similar) or photographs of the items in situ and are these acceptable? Did you declare a value for the collection when taking out insurance and so on.

This is key.  Photo proof of the items in your home may be enough, along with a matching inventory, but it depends on the insurance company.  As for value, that's where keeping the catalog someplace like rebrickable may help, unless you're going to keep your own spreadsheet or something.

It's particularly important to make sure you actually have coverage for your Lego.  Most policies will cover it as general "personal belongings" but that category generally has a limit to the value covered.  That is, if "personal belongings" are limited to $10,000 total in your policy which would go towards all sorts of random things, but your Lego collection is worth $20,000 but that's still the category your insurance company will put it in, you're out of luck.  Since my Lego collection's value was above any of the applicable included coverage, I had to add separate coverage for "Hobby Items" or something with the Lego specified in that category of its own.

I truly hope things turn out OK regardless and that you won't even have to go this route.  I'm so sorry for the situation you're in.  :cry_sad:  Be safe, and take care!

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35 minutes ago, JintaiZ said:

@Toastie, rebrickable shows the current value of your collection.

Yes it does, but it doesn't in any way prove you actually owned those sets so it's no good for an insurance company. What you need is something like photos of your collection or receipts from the purchases.

As for the actual value... I don't know how insurance companies operate worldwide, but where I live, the basic principle is that regardless of the original price the insurance covers the price of a replacement. So if you paid 100€ for a set and it's only available for 200€, they should value it at 200€ for the insurance purposes. On the other hand, many items are worn out in use so they are valued lower, depending on how long they have been in use. For example, I once broke my glasses by accident, and the insurance would've technically covered them, but they were so old already that the insurance company considered them to have no value at that point. Same goes for example for old cellphones and computers. I don't know how Lego is treated regarding this though.

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4 hours ago, howitzer said:

Yes it does, but it doesn't in any way prove you actually owned those sets so it's no good for an insurance company. What you need is something like photos of your collection or receipts from the purchases.

As for the actual value... I don't know how insurance companies operate worldwide, but where I live, the basic principle is that regardless of the original price the insurance covers the price of a replacement. So if you paid 100€ for a set and it's only available for 200€, they should value it at 200€ for the insurance purposes. On the other hand, many items are worn out in use so they are valued lower, depending on how long they have been in use. For example, I once broke my glasses by accident, and the insurance would've technically covered them, but they were so old already that the insurance company considered them to have no value at that point. Same goes for example for old cellphones and computers. I don't know how Lego is treated regarding this though.

You're right. Maybe you can take a picture of your collection or anything like that.

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If you have more modern sets, then Bricklink is the way to go... However, for sets before 1980 that becomes problematic, since many older sets have "N/A" in the Bricklink price history field, thus making it useless for determining the value of older sets.

In my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide I have a 400 page "Insurance Pricelist" that covers all sets from 1949-80.  This will help out for filling in the blanks for older LEGO sets.  My guide has price info that any normal "collectible" guide would have... for 4 conditions: VG  EX  MIB  MISB.  The VG value would be for a set without the box.  My collectors guide Insurance Pricelist has a 400 page document in US dollars and also a separate one in EUROs.

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4 hours ago, Carefree_Dude said:

So in an ideal situation I should have a photo and Inventory of every set I own?

Inventory, absolutely.  As for photos, what you'll likely need for the insurance company is proof of purchase and/or ownership.  So if you don't have receipts for every set, you want a photo of them in your home or somehow identifiable as yours.  Ideally you'd have all 3 (inventory, proof of purchase, current(ish) photos).  Always best to check with your insurance company, and also verify if you'll even have appropriate coverage if you have a large/valuable collection under part of your existing policy or if you need to add some kind of additional coverage to be safe.

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On 9/11/2020 at 7:33 PM, Carefree_Dude said:

When I make a claim, what is the best way to determine value of it all and present it to insurance so I can replace what was lost?

To the insurance it very likely has no value beyond the original purchase price. IMO no point to make a fuss about it beyond that unless you have a dedicated "art" insurance that would account for actual market value. They're not gonna pay you extra money just so you can re-buy a UCS Star Destroyer from ten years ago for a few thousand bucks, anyway. The rest will depend on the specifics of your insurance contract(s), naturally. Here in Germany insurances up to certain amounts of money usually won't care much and simply consider it a lump sum payment. Things only tend to get hairy when you want a full reimbursement to the last penny. You could probably claim 2000 Euro worth of "various LEGO" with no issues, but would have to prove every last detail if you exceed this limit. A sufficient amount of photos certainly helps and having original receipts is never a bad thing. You might also want to generate an overview list when each set was released at what price.

Mylenium

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12 hours ago, Mylenium said:

They're not gonna pay you extra money just so you can re-buy a UCS Star Destroyer from ten years ago for a few thousand bucks, anyway.

This depends entirely upon the policy.  if it's a "replacement value" policy, then them paying a few thousand bucks to get back what you lost is exactly what it'll do.  However, the rest is accurate as has been noted above: most policies will not do this and the Lego will just be included in some other lump portion of the policy unless you have a separate rider with higher limits and replacement value coverage that specifically relates to the Lego.  So if it's a small collection and fits under whatever sub-category of lump coverage you already have, you probably don't even need inventory or photos, but otherwise you really need to talk to your insurance carrier to figure out what you need.

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