Given the value and significance of our collections, I believe it’s essential for us to prioritize security measures. I’m reaching out to seek your insights and best practices on a few security-related matters that concern many of us in the collecting community.
Maintaining Confidentiality: With the increasing value of our collections, I’ve chosen to limit the knowledge of their worth to only a select few, namely close friends and family. This discretion serves as my primary defense against potential theft. Additionally, I refrain from showcasing my collection on social media platforms like Instagram to minimize exposure. However, I do engage in selling cards on eBay, with items typically ranging from 20-30k in ask price. I am aware that those people who buy from me, see my address and hence know where such a collection could be possibly found. Any advice on how you cover this Achilles’ heel? For the record: I do not store many of the most expensive cards at home (but a thief does not know this, obviously).
Handling In-Person Inquiries: Occasionally, I receive requests from potential buyers to meet face-to-face for inspection and payment. While I recognize the advantages of this approach, particularly for high-value transactions, I’m hesitant when dealing with unfamiliar potential buyers. Consequently, I’ve consistently declined such requests to maintain anonymity and minimize personal risk, especially when dealing with cards valued in the four to five-digit range.
Secure Trading Practices: For those of us who opt for remote trades, I’m curious to learn about risk-minimizing strategies. Conducting trades without meeting in person presents unique challenges.
Your insights and experiences on these matters would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.
I have all my packages shipped to a remote warehouse on an out of service shipping pier. From there they are hand delivered by my private courier, Giuseppe, who owes me a life debt. Giuseppe is blind and should not be driving a car, but he turns the GPS up really loud and follows the instructions the best he can. This ensures me a level of security that far exceeds a mere PO Box.
Additionally, I never do business under my real name, which is Harrison St. Whimple. Since my real identity is a secret, nobody will ever know Giuseppe just drives around in circles and delivers the package back to the same abandoned warehouse at the pier, where I actually live.
For number 2, I always come across the advice of making deals in public places in broad daylight. Usually when there is safety of community, crowd etc. Places like local card shops or public parks and even spaces near police stations will be much safer to do in-person dealings. The most important thing is to use your own judgement concerning your own safety. Incase you don’t like the meeting arrangements made and you have the right to decline, regardless of what was agreed.
As for number 3, in my personal opinion will comes down to trust. I have done a few trades with people via E4 online (remotely) and also with folks I have met in person via E4. I have felt comfortable doing trades with these people because I have interacted with all of them through the forums. Also, a lot of talking and interacting prior to the trade as well. Things can obviously go wrong, but at that point I trust my guts and feelings about the person. If I am wrong about it, then I chalk it up as a learning experience for me.
Note, the trading aspect online is only for low end stuff and your risk tolerance. High end items would fare much better via selling.
For number 2 - whenever I have a high value piece of guitar or recording gear to sell or trade, I ask to meet at my local police station.
That’s worked well for years. It’ll instantly spotlight a ne’er-do-well and it makes both legitimate parties feel safer. I had a woman thank me after a transaction once and tell me it was her first time buying on craigslist and she was super nervous until I asked about the police station meetup. Highly recommend.
For 1 I dont really talk to anyone about my collection irl so the only one who is aware that im constantly getting cards is the mail man but im going to be getting a p.o. box since im approaching the part of my collecting where its going to be a little more pricey.
For number 2 its simple for me. I just dont. I dont sell anything and i usually buy my stuff online or at a local shop. I avoid people in public.
3, im learning to trust more but im slow moving with that, i guess that will come in time.
I’m a big fan of phone calls. You tend to get to the point quicker, they serve as an excellent ice breaker and it’s a good way to feel out what kind of person you’re dealing with, both prior to and during the time when you make commitments.
I’ve always preferred inviting people home or being invited home to others. Or inviting myself for that matter. I’ve found that people tend to be on their best behavior that way, it may be a little tense for the first 10 seconds but then the cheer of physical human interaction kicks in and the result is a more pleasant experience for everyone. There is a lot of subtle value to these things, word travels. And the people with most value in their homes have always been some of the most inviting.
However, in the rare event that I’m iffy about the other person, public spaces are excellent. Ideally something laid-back with plenty of witnesses like a busy gas station, outside a shopping mall, a public transport hub, parks etc.
This isn’t Pokemon-specific but I thought I’d share anyway.
Agreed on a PO Box. This will solve most of your problems. For everything else, don’t use your real name, and purchase collectibles insurance which can cover items in multiple locations and while in transit (driving). Lastly I would buy one or more safes for your house which will prevent your cards from walking out the door (easily).
Thanks for the advices, I have just opened a PO Box.
Buying insurance misses the point, obviously: It would be the same to recommend wearing a helmet to avoid bike accidents. I was more interested in prevention that compensation.
Not sure how insurance works where you live, but I recently looked into it a bit, and there aren’t too many options for insuring a collection like Pokémon cards in my country. Most insurances in general work by the principle of purchase price, and if something happens (e.g. fire; theft; etc.) you get a maximum of 40% of the purchase price here in my country, with some formulas lowering it even more depending on how old it is. This works fine for furniture and televisions and such, but for a collection it’s rather useless, since purchase prices are almost always lower than current value. And how about valuable cards that come from booster packs, or trophy cards someone won themselves, or trades?
There are probably some collection-specialized insurances available, but even then you’d likely have to keep track of every single purchase price and market value for every single card you own (or the cards you’d want to insure I should say). With how wavy the market prices are, this is just extremely impractical for just the high-value items, and plain impossible for all items combined.
It’s possible that the US is the only place with an established policy practice around collectibles. Seems unlikely, but possible. It seems more likely to me that people just have so much of their net worth wrapped up in their cards that they don’t feel they can afford the proper insurance.
You are correct that making an insurance claim is predicated on knowing what you are in possession of.
You are incorrect that insurance is inherently linked to the purchase price. The majority of cards won’t require that type of documentation.
For those high ask prices, I would just send to pwcc or psa and list them through their vaults. If you want to sell them with less fees and an even wider audience, ship to @gottaketchumall for his BIN consignments through eBay vault. This avoids a lot of the security issues unless you really prefer to have the cards in hand at all times
ne’er-do-well