To add further to my last post depending on your insurance policy at home, I would say that becomes your price point. For instance mine is for each individual item a very low max £2500/$3270 per card. This could be increased however depending on your policy to include the really expensive ones. It might be cheaper increasing your home insurance to cater for the expensive items than storing them in a safe deposit box which may involve not having control of the humidity/environmental etc conditions.
The question is why are you considering insurance etc is it because of the risk of theft or the risk of damage? You could build a safe hidden in your house somewhere which will negate the necessity for insurance or a safe deposit box.
I agree. Anyone stuffing a single $500 card into a safe deposit is just trying to convince themselves they have something bigger than what they really do. Do you stuff anything you have worth more than $500 into a safe deposit?
How about this, you lock your car up in a high security garage and take a bus or uber over to the garage just to get your car out (assuming you’re not in Chicago, NYC, or SF where that model actually exists). I mean heck, if it’s worth more than $500 better lock it up!
His exact words were, while reading off my policy, "Collectables, including trading cards, are covered underneath my homeowners policy (I would need to pay my deductable). He said each card could be itemized, but the card would have to be appraised at its value, like people would do for jewelry.
Like I said, I’m naive and new to this as I didnt have much in terms of value. So I just made the call to see what my policies said. I should probably call back and sort it all out again.
What if you’re stuffing 20 cards with a $500+ dollar value each? I’m not talking about placing a single $500 card in a sdb. I am looking for a good cutoff. I have cards in 5 figure range also that automatically get locked up. I’m just looking for what you guys consider a good cutoff. So far the only answer I have gotten is 10k which seems a wee bit higher than I can stomach.
This is a really personal question, meaning there isn’t some size fits all answer. I keep most of my stuff in a climate controlled storage locker. It’s not for any reason except I don’t want people to have my address and come looking for my personal items. If I was worried about fires I would have opted for a safe.
So for me it’s a theft issue, and I just put a lot into the unit because it might as well be used, it’s literally located next to a post office so it’s not inconvenient, and It’s within a reasonable driving distance. So, there isn’t a price point for me that makes a difference.
As as far as your concern, it’ll be up to you on what makes sense. It’ll depend upon if your own feelings. I recommend taking your cards putting them where you can see them, and start removing cards that you plan on keeping at home. If you do it this way you’ll be making the decision purely off your own intuition. Which means you’ll be deciding which cards to put into the locker without fully knowing why you chose which cards, but eventually you’ll make sense of it.
If you want to know more about this process, the best book I’ve read on the subject is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.
Would be a good idea to split your collection between the bank and home storage. Deposit boxes are not generally insured and thus if a flood/tornado/Fire/robbery hits the bank you can kisss your collection goodbye. I can also confirm vaults are not climate controlled, however the bank building usually is and thus the safe will be the same climate as the rest of the building. So not much worry there.
In 2008 my city was flooded and he bank vault downtown was hit. Essentially a lot of things had to be thrown out or cleaned/restored which would be impossible with cards.
I was curious if the bank would insure your declared value, and build that into your cost? If the bank got held up, burned down, flooded, etc… how is that any different than if your those things happened to your house. My guess is it’s not, and a bank is much more likely to be targeted while at the same time I’m sure their security is a million times better than your house.
I’d ask that agent specifically, “How much of my 100,000.00 Pokémon card collection can you cover against loss/theft?”. It’s best if you have that info now? Plus, it may be something many of us would be interested in knowing.
Not only don’t banks offer insurance but they even discourage keeping things of value in the boxes lol. Keeping cash in the boxes may not even be legal or at least not allowed.
