Re-Thinking Comic Book Protection

These words are so true. Hope for the best but always prepare for the worse.

• Matthew
  
  You have just helped so many people with those few simple words. They are powerful and sadly I wish more would follow them. Just because you prepare for the worse does not mean you are negative and want those things to happen. It shows you care enough to prepare for it so that all the variables you can control will be put in such a way to help you get the best possible outcome. Thanks for the comment!

When I was much younger, My father took me to a comic show and bought me a copy of Avengers 1 in NM condition. The book was 20 dollars at the time. Was looking for JIM 83 but no one at the show had it. For reference Amazing Fantasy 15 was a 50 dollar book. My point is years later there was a fire in my building. We had water damage and even though my comics were bagged and boarded. Most were destroyed. It was winter time and was able to break through the ice that now covered my comics that were covered in it. Amazingly my Avengers 1 survived. I had it graded a few years back. It came back a 7.0 Not bad considering what it went through.

• Robert
  
  I loved this story because I am glad that if any book survived it was the one bought by your dad. No insurance can ever cover the loss of the book because it would only cover the financial and not the sentimental value of that book in your collection. I only hope you have your books covered now because if that is one book in your collection bought at a time when those were the prices I can imagine some of the books that may be in your collection. I also never thought of ice damage before until now. Thank you for the education.

My wife works for an large insurance agency and I've had this discussion with her a few times. You can't get "comic book insurance" but you can increase the portion of your personal loss coverage to include your collection. All home insurance policies have a portion built-in to cover for lose of personal items like your clothing or electronics for example. It's usually pretty low. The minimum. I implore everyone to sit down, do the math and add up all your personal belongings you'd need to replace—including your collection. Then call your agent and increase your coverage. As humans we are cheap when it come to insurance but the moment you need it you won't regret paying those extra bucks for better coverage! I'll bug my wife again for more info or to clarify but that's what I remember. I have a pretty modest collection and this topic crosses my mind often.

• Arinya
  
  I want to thank you for your post because now it has made me think not only of collectibles but also for household goods and personal items. If you find out let us know because you may help prevent someone on these boards from suffering an even greater loss after the initial tragedy.

  • So if you own a home you can include your collection in your personal lose but you can get an additional piece of coverage that Beau mentioned called Personal Articles Policy or PAP for short. But like Beau mentioned you would need to get your high end books appraised. I wonder if CGC qualifies? I think we'll be calling soon to find out appraisals.

    • Keep us informed. These posts may help people protect their collections.

I’m an insurance agent and do cover my collection through a personal articles policy with State Farm. They will cover the collection if you itemize it and provide values in grade from an official price guide. Recently, however, for higher values comics, they began asking for appraisals. Makes it a little more difficult

• Beau
  Thank you for posting! Now the boards know another company that handles that type of insurance but also that they might have to get another appraisal to go with that one based upon the value of the books. It might be difficult but you just gave us a road map from an industry insider on what we have to do to get more information. Thank you!

Of course I've thought about it, but I'm not sure who is best to get a policy with. Recommendations?

• Riley I can't not give legal advice here but I can say what I would do if I was in your shoes. I can tell you to contact your insurance company first and ask them a hypothetical. Tell them you were thinking of getting into comic collecting and if you bought a collection say of $(insert your figure here) then would it be covered under my current insurance; what would I have to do to get it covered under my current policy; and if not where would you recommend I go. They should have someone who they know and work with in the industry who can then help you out. I have heard of a few policies that will insure limited amounts under current homeowner policies, but only if you follow their guidelines. HOpe that helps.

Great article. I'm looking into insuring my collection. About 3K books and growing, so not huge but not small either. Several that are worth 4 digits (some Tales of Suspense and such). Already spoke with my insurance company (USAA) and they said that while they don't insure collectibles, they do work with another company with whom I can get a discount as a USAA member. Now I just have to figure out how much I think my collection is worth (in the midst -- a years-long battle -- of re-reading everything, boarding, bagging, boxing, and cataloging everything), and then go ahead and set up my new account. I should just go ahead and do it now for a random amount (maybe $10K) and then update it later, just so I am insured.

Also, my books don't travel anywhere which is a plus. And though this won't help with a house fire, I am boxing them all in BCW's plastic boxes (I like the look and they are much more sturdy and will last much longer (forever) than cardboard shorts) and putting them all on shelves, with the lowest at least 4"-5" above the floor. So protection from water, though in our basement we're set up so this is almost impossible to happen.

• I will have to look at referring some of my clients to your insurance company. Do you know how many times people ask their insurance company and are told that they do not sell collectible insurance and that is the end of it? Two nice pallets might do trick to get those books off the ground. Good size collection too as no one would laugh over $4 k in stacked dollar bills! Now you know too what to do when you go.

I have had insurance cover parts of my collection twice. Both times used only the basic "collection" that is part of normal homeowner's insurance. The first time a run of Avengers 100-199 was stolen from the back of my car when I took them to the hospital for a friend with cancer to read. I got the full $5,000 that the basic insurance covered. I came out ahead in that deal (it was about 20 years ago). The second time was far worse and I lost, 17 longboxes were stolen out of my house. Full retail on those books was about $100,000 (massive runs of Thor, Sgt. Fury, Avengers, FF). Again insurance covered, but only the $5,000. That one hurt...a lot. Since then I have looked into insurance for comics in Canada a few times but, sadly, it is not something that is readily available and even when you can find it they are wanting upwards of 3% / year to cover it. What I am currently doing, as a work around, is to have the insurance company recognize each title as a collection (so an Avengers comic collection, a Thor comic collection) as opposed to an aggregate "comic collection". At least this will give each "collection" it's own $5,000 on the basic homeowner's and it is also on record with the insurance company BEFORE any claim is made. As for flood insurance, make sure you check you have it on your policy AND check what it says about a sump pump, because if you have to have one and it doesn't work...claim denied.

• I again hate to hear how a collection like yours was lost. That is history. You are correct that sometimes getting insurance can be difficult but I loved your work around in dividing the whole collections into mini lots. I will have to review some clients' insurance policies to see if they can do the same thing. Most of my posts will requests comments from the readers because you will learn from everyone posting something new. Great job on the mini collections though as it could be the difference between a major loss or at least being made somewhat whole after a disaster.

I had a flood 2-1/2 years ago. 5 feet of water in the house. Thousands of books were washed away which was old inventory from a comic store I had in the mid 1990’s. My personal collection was on a Book self wall. Everything from new mutants down to x-men got wet. Anything A thru M did not get wet. Glad I put Giant Size X-Men under G. I had no insurance. My first advise to old collectors would be SELL and buy a mutual fund. Second Cut down your collection to the true books you want and if they have value then consider insurance. On a side note I had a customer tell me he lost his collection in a divorce so Prenup might be in order for some people.

Aloha
Joe

• From one Joseph to another great advice. For older collectors the downsizing or liquidating a collection is always an option. I feel bad for you with the inventory lost. I hope too that your Spider-mans were in the A section.
  
  To comment on your side note I have watched as collections are divided in a divorce and the spouse takes their share and destroys it out of spite.

  • yes, Amazing Spiderman was under A. Sadly I had acquired a large collection a few months prior that never got put into the collection and sat on the floor. Some Avengers and Iron Man. Including a nice copy of Iron Man 1, but that is life.

    • Joe.. I feel for you!

I am working through this right now. Just finished up my inventory of all 3400 books in my collection and I reached out to my long time comic book dealer to have him go through my collection and give me an appraisal of everything. We have agreed that books that aren't keys from the mid-80s through today are pretty much worth cover price ( or $2.00; whichever is more) and then we are going to start working through all of gold,silver, and bronze age comics that are worth something that haven't been slabbed by either CGC or CBCS. This will be a long effort, but it will be will well worth it in the end.

• Joseph Costa
  
  Just make sure the insurance company will accept your dealer as a good appraiser. I have had to qualify a few people who conducted appraisers as experts. Remember Insurance companies do not have a lawyer..They have teams of lawyers who can make the best appraiser the worst witness LOL. I love though the process you described because most do not know where to start and just give up. Your process is a very accurate one that in determining what books to insure and how to break them down. I have clients who should really start to do what you are doing and I have told them to go through them all. Your way is much better and more time saving...I have always said joe is the smartest person in the room. I am glad you are here on these boards, Keep the great ideas coming joe and the rest of you!!!!

I unfortunately lost 5,000 comics in Hurricane Katrina that decimated New Orleans in 2005. I left my apartment and it got 1 1/2 feet of water. My books were on restaurant grade metal racks but they were 4 inches off the ground. I lost
all my Spawn comics (4) sets #1-100, Punisher War Journal 1-37, Amazing Spider-Man runs #312-378 with some Newstands editions of all of them, all my baseball cards and comic book cards, and so much more including my parents wedding album. To this day I regret leaving. I could have saved all my comics and photos. So yeah, do whatever you can to protect your comics. Now I have them in a impenetrable local storage unit on the second floor, climate controlled, security cameras, on top of photos, spreadsheets, etc.

• Alex you are correct but remember...better to save your life than save your books. I can always get another rare book, but Alex L...that person is one of a kind!

I looked at getting an insurance policy for my comic books, but the price quoted, as an actuary, meant their assessment of my risk was too high, and I passed. Insurance doesn't save your comics and often, they cannot be replaced. I know I have many rare books with 5 or less copies known to exist. Plying those from another's collection is next to impossible, regardless of money thrown at them. I was hoping the bait-and-switch approach to this article wasn't going where it did. Get a fireproof safe; that's about the best you can do...

• Dave
  
  I have had clients who were able to obtain coverage for rare books and other collectibles that we did not think could be covered. Even one of a kind artworks from great artists. I also have had clients who thought that their homeowner's insurance policies would cover their collections. Insurance will not replace your comics but it can provide you with funds to try to be made whole.
  
  The purpose of my article was because a client went through this with a different type of collection in the past. In attorney/insurance law seminars I have sat in on we are always told to contact insurance companies to find out how to get coverage if it is possible. Your oboks may be so rare that they are uninsurable and that is possible based upon numerous factors. For many cost may be prohibitive as well but I would rather have a person find that out one day too early than one day too late. Imagine standing in a building that had an electrical fire with a client and insurance agent telling them if they had only put this in the form they would have been covered. One day too late! As for safes, they are great but again they are fire resistant to a certain degree and time period and then you are left in litigation with them for product liability case. May I ask was the quote for replacement cost or for insuring the books. I had a client get two quotes on each for a car. One was somewhat reasonable but he could never replace the item with insurance proceeds while the other one was made knowing how hard it would be to replace the item so the premiums were very high.
  
  Finally I did not attend to do a bait in switch approach for the title. For many though insuring your collectibles is as much about protecting them as it is your family. In cases I have probated those collectibles are worth more than some of the mainstream investments the decedent had owned.
  
  PS. I would love to know what type of books you have that only have five copies as I am a golden age lover and find sometimes these boards lack writing on those books. I am like you in that once you find them even if you get funds to buy them you will never ever ever see them again LOL. Thank you though for your comments because it was valuable knowing that even when you do all the right things you might still not be able to protect yourself.

Never even crossed my mind to get insurance.

• Pete
  
  That is why I posted the article. Many people come into my law office and never know what they could have done to protect themselves from many problems until it is one day too late. At least now you know. One day you may need the value of those books to be there for you and then maybe that is the time you will say maybe I should look into it. Whatever you do I now feel glad I wrote that article because it was targeted to people like you who never thought of it.. Your post made my day because I feel justified now...Thank You

I used State Farm at first as I have many very high dollar books in my collection. it was a nightmare providing Excel Spreadsheets to say the least; however, a friend of mine informed me a much better Insurance Company, Collectibles Insurance Services. They will Insure almost anything people collect at reasonable prices. They are easy to deal with and make Insuring your books a snap. Seriously, if you are looking to have your books covered, and I mean covered, in your car, lost at the post office etc., they cover it. Check them out, one of the best decisions I made to protect my investments other than a really big safe lol.

Bryan-

• Bryan
  
  Never heard of this company before but I am glad that you brought them up. Seems they are very industry specific and that is something that would make the process a little easier. Glad that you could provide a comparison between a big company and smaller one. We have had so many suggestions from you the readers on this post that have hopefully has helped someone.