Protective measures

[StarMist]

See, this is what I'm confused about. My agent told me that my collection would be covered under personal property loss in my basic policy - no extra stuff needed. This doesn't seem right, but that's what I was told.

If it's not assessed beforehand you'll never recoup what it's actually worth, ie current/prospective future market, nulling any steals you've accumulated over the years and in general the idea of your collection as an investment. All you'll get is what's on your receipts. To be frank you ought to have a standard all purpose policy on it in case of fire, water damage, what have you; an appraisal from a game/toy-shop owner would probably be the only route to be certain the presumable appreciation's accounted for (obviously you'd over insure as far as possible).

[Baloo]

See, this is what I'm confused about. My agent told me that my collection would be covered under personal property loss in my basic policy - no extra stuff needed. This doesn't seem right, but that's what I was told.

It also depends on the company.

[WarmSignal]

I live in the suburbs so generally not much trouble around here, I guess I just take the chance of someone breaking a window and taking everything I've got. Then again, a criminal probably wouldn't go to the trouble of stealing most of it. Probably just the modern consoles and LCD TVs... that as well as jewelry and guns, that's all they really go for.

Years ago, a thief broke into a house down the street and stole some things, among them was a kids N64, the criminal was so dumb they cut the cords from the back of the system and took it.

[sketch]

If my collection is not covered by my insurance policy, then I have no protection I suppose. My policy is pretty basic and for a fairly low amount ($2,500 I believe). It's basically enough for me to get some basics back if I got fleeced (clothes, pans, dishes, a computer, a tv, you know, the basics). I don't own much of value.

My collection isn't really worth much. Outside of MUSHA, the rest are commons. My neighborhood is pretty safe, but yeah, any place can get robbed. As with my dvds, blurays, and cds, I'd have to start my game collection from scratch (honestly, I'd probably just switch to emulation if someone stole my Genesis stuff).

[TheSonicRetard]

A dog. Seriously. While I'm a dog lover in general, I primarily got my white lab for protection, namely against theft. I've raised him to be an indoor dog (although he gets plenty of exercise and plays outside a lot, don't worry) and whenever I'm gone, I feel a lot better knowing that my dog is at home keeping my stuff safe.

I don't have the exact stats with me, but research has shown that owning a dog is an extremely effective deterrent to theft.

[xelement5x]

Yeah, I'm getting to the point where I get a bit worried occasionally thinking about being burgled or having a fire, but I haven't really gotten the chance to review/document everything yet. Part of the problem is that everything is kind of hodge-podge right now since we're doing remodeling and a lot of the retro games are just in boxes. It makes me sad that I have so many cool games but no way to display them

I've got firearms as well so I'm not worried about being robbed while I'm at home, but my wife and I both work all day so really anyone could come in and rob me, but I'm assuming they'd take the PS3/360/Wii before they found or even bothered with the retro stuff.

I have been thinking about getting a blacklight pen and marking some of the more valuable stuff though, those are very good for proving that a stolen item was yours if it gets sold back to a GameStop/Pawn Shop or something.

[David J.]

It's on my insurance, plus my apartment requires a keycode or pass to get in, so... yeah safe enough.

[Obviously]

I'm more afraid of fire than burglary really. I'd be devastated if I lost my collection but in the end they're just things. I'd get over it. There's not much I can do to protect from burglary beyond locked doors. I don't really live in an area where that kind of thing is usually a concern though.

I'll have to figure out some kind of storage system when I'm ready to move. Right now I'm living with my girlfriend in my parent's house while I recover from illness so my collection is unceremoniously stacked in the middle of a bedroom.