I have an extensive mineral/fossil/gem collection here at home and they’re currently spilling out of every room in my house (and amazing problem to have I must say). I justify all of my purchases by saying they’re for my business I’ll be opening when I graduate from GIA here soon, haha. I’m in the middle of organizing it all, but I get sidetracked and distracted easily (ooh new shiny rock syndrome).
I digress… the reason I’m posting in here is because I have been thinking for a while now that because I live in California, I need to get insurance to cover damage if an earthquake or theft happens. Does anyone have any experience with this? Ideally I’d get something to cover my collection as a whole because I have WAY too many to itemize piece by piece anytime soon to insure.
Any tips, advice, or companies they’d recommend? I’m a single mom, working, full time student, and disabled veteran… so an answer of “just appraise and inventory it all” isn’t exactly a realistic answer because that will take me months and months if I’m being honest. Im hoping to receive some advice other than that, but if not I’m still welcoming it all! 🩵
Take and label photos of the collection (you’ll need to do that anyway to sell on the web) and go to your insurance agent and see if you can raise your household insurance or sneak in under a “fine arts” rider. People can insure art, and furniture and these collection may come under the same coverage. Also, they really are antiques, eh?
get a separate rider from your current insurance company. it would cover things like jewelry, expensive musical instruments, faceting equipment and ( you need to ask ) your gem collection.
Welcome to the “Club”. Pass on the insurance, it’s not worth the premium, trust me. The question becomes: "do you need the money (?) or can you just hold as a collection?
valuable collections are very expensive and difficult to insure. They need to be appraised to set the replacement price. Homeowner’s insurance usually sets a percentage of the home coverage to be devoted to personal property. Getting a rider to cover valuables will cost a lot, a whole lot!.. the best bet is to talk to your insurance agent first before looking elsewhere. If they are good and knowledgeable about insurance (many aren’t… they just try to sell as much insurance as possible) they might be able to steer you to coverage alternatives. Good luck, it won’t be easy nor cheap…you might find that it’s not worth it.
. I justify all of my purchases by saying they’re for my business I’ll be opening when I graduate from GIA here soon, haha. I’m in the middle of organizing it all, but I get sidetracked and distracted easily (ooh new shiny rock syndrome).