Fire insurance claim for my vinyl

[Steve 57]

Hi I'm completely new so apologies for any mistakes. Has anyone any experience of pricing their vinyl for an insurance claim. We had an extensive collection of 400 vinyl albums also cds and. Cassettes The insurance have asked us to price them on a new for old basis. We thought 10 pounds per album was fair as they were in excellent condition, ages ranging from late 60s to present.    Does that sou d fair. Thanks. 

[Tommy]

3 hours ago, Steve 57 said:

Hi I'm completely new so apologies for any mistakes. Has anyone any experience of pricing their vinyl for an insurance claim. We had an extensive collection of 400 vinyl albums also cds and. Cassettes The insurance have asked us to price them on a new for old basis. We thought 10 pounds per album was fair as they were in excellent condition, ages ranging from late 60s to present.    Does that sou d fair. Thanks. 

You can catalog everything to the best of your memory using Discogs.com, that will give you a low/medium/high estimate of your collection. I’ve got ~370 records and my collection on average is worth about 10,000 USD ($27 per record) according to discogs

[Derek™]

49 minutes ago, Tommy said:

You can catalog everything to the best of your memory using Discogs.com, that will give you a low/medium/high estimate of your collection. I’ve got ~370 records and my collection on average is worth about 10,000 USD ($27 per record) according to discogs

With that in mind, do you have insurance on them?  Faced 2 California wildfires yesterday last year that hit way too close to home.  Thinking it’s time to finally insure my collection since it’s getting “up there”.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Derek™
Tried to talk and type at the same time. Whoops.

[shenanigans]

Catalog them on discogs. I added some renters insurance for mine. Discogs says average value is ~$30K and the insurance company has a link to my discogs on file.

[Dusted_By_Space]

9 minutes ago, shenanigans said:

Catalog them on discogs. I added some renters insurance for mine. Discogs says average value is ~$30K and the insurance company has a link to my discogs on file.

we had it added to our homeowners insurance and they also asked for the link after I explained what discogs was. They also asked for photos of my collection as well.

[shenanigans]

3 minutes ago, Dusted_By_Space said:

we had it added to our homeowners insurance and they also asked for the link after I explained what discogs was. They also asked for photos of my collection as well.

Yeah, I originally just had a deadformat, but they asked for something indicating values so I moved everything into discogs.

[unknown pleasures]

If you have any home or renters insurance you can usually add them as a separate rider. Just explain it to your insurance rep and they’ll get you what you need and tell you what will work - Discogs is the de facto nowadays, I believe. 

 

Unless you have a massive collection this is probably the easier, simplest and cheapest way to insure them.

 

Works for anything collectible: comic books, bird calls, lunchboxes, Happy Meal toys, etc. 

 

EDIT: Misread that you already went through insurance and you’re only looking to calculate the value. As mentioned, Discogs is the way to go since it does the legwork for you once you input your collection. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by unknown pleasures

[OneThreeOneTwo]

8 minutes ago, unknown pleasures said:

Discogs is the de facto nowadays, I believe. 

Good to know it's given legitimacy by insurers like this.

[Roandy55]

As previous posters have suggested, discogs would be place to go as figures are based on actual sales and the median figure would probably be accurate, plus it's extensive and everything you had would as likely be there, however it sounds unfortunately as if having lost the items you have no way of knowing what they all were apart from memory. Unless anything was sufficiently salvageable to enable identification.

[lexicondevil]

Yeah, the only thing that sucks about discogs is if there is no sale price history it assigns no value.

[Lugubrious]

So the insurance company bases the pricing of the collection based on what the items are selling for on Discogs, as opposed to what the original purchase price was?

[Derek™]

2 minutes ago, Lugubrious said:

So the insurance company bases the pricing of the collection based on what the items are selling for on Discogs, as opposed to what the original purchase price was?

This is correct.  Because the $20 record you bought in 2001 may be worth a lot more now than it was 18 years ago, due to rarity or aftermarket values over the years.

[batnoises]

Fuck this makes me want to catalog my record collection. I have a fairly large collection with a ton of valuables and I’d hate for it to go to shit in a fire. I’m so lazy I barely got around to alphabetizing the collection though... then again that might make this whole process easier.

[batnoises]

9 minutes ago, Lugubrious said:

So the insurance company bases the pricing of the collection based on what the items are selling for on Discogs, as opposed to what the original purchase price was?

Of course, the point is to be able to replace your collection. If your $15 record from 2005 burned to a crisp and you were given $15 compensation for its destruction, and the thing sells for $230 now, how would you get it back?

[Roandy55]

My bad, the OP did actually say the insurance company had asked for them to be priced on a new for old basis.

Quote

The new for old basis of settlement is now the standard basis for settling home insurance claims. This basis provides for the property that is damaged to be replaced as new with no deduction for wear and tear

As pounds were also mentioned I am guessing OP may be from the UK, so I'm not sure if it is be different in the US. Unfortunately it still leaves the apparent  problem of having no exact record of the items.

[angryalan]

13 minutes ago, lexicondevil said:

Yeah, the only thing that sucks about discogs is if there is no sale price history it assigns no value.

Popsike might help in this case. IF the item was ever sold on eBay and it was over $10.

[holland623]

5 minutes ago, EGsynergy said:

Fuck this makes me want to catalog my record collection. I have a fairly large collection with a ton of valuables and I’d hate for it to go to shit in a fire. I’m so lazy I barely got around to alphabetizing the collection though... then again that might make this whole process easier.

I was intimidated when I finally decided to catalog the collection, but the barcode scanner in the discogs app expedited the process. It wasn't perfect, but it definitely helped

[aopps42]

1 minute ago, kcblackrob said:

I was intimidated when I finally decided to catalog the collection, but the barcode scanner in the discogs app expedited the process. It wasn't perfect, but it definitely helped

I will say that the app does help some, but moreso if there aren't a ton of variants and pressings.  For stuff with a ton of pressings I found it a lot easier to just catalog it the usual way.  Still need to get the rest of mine on there, probably have 80% or so of it done.

[holland623]

20 minutes ago, aopps42 said:

I will say that the app does help some, but moreso if there aren't a ton of variants and pressings.  For stuff with a ton of pressings I found it a lot easier to just catalog it the usual way.  Still need to get the rest of mine on there, probably have 80% or so of it done.

100% agree - I have some No Idea releases that I had to straight-up guess at which pressing it was. y'know 'raspberry grey mud' isn't always listed. (not picking on them, but they always seem to be one of the harder to decipher for me)

[Steve 57]

Thanks guys for all this help. It seems unanimous to go to discog for a giude. Yes I am from UK but new for old works same way here. I let you know how it ends up. 

[meatrocket8]

5 hours ago, Steve 57 said:

Hi I'm completely new so apologies for any mistakes. Has anyone any experience of pricing their vinyl for an insurance claim. We had an extensive collection of 400 vinyl albums also cds and. Cassettes The insurance have asked us to price them on a new for old basis. We thought 10 pounds per album was fair as they were in excellent condition, ages ranging from late 60s to present.    Does that sou d fair. Thanks. 

I got a quote for mine. I used the the numbers on Discogs. I pay about $20 extra month.

[Tommy]

1 hour ago, EGsynergy said:

Fuck this makes me want to catalog my record collection. I have a fairly large collection with a ton of valuables and I’d hate for it to go to shit in a fire. I’m so lazy I barely got around to alphabetizing the collection though... then again that might make this whole process easier.

Once you start you may realize its actually pretty fun and you'll find yourself revisiting some old records you haven't spun in years. Once you got em all in its pretty easy to keep on top of each time you buy a new record

[Derek™]

2 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Once you start you may realize its actually pretty fun and you'll find yourself revisiting some old records you haven't spun in years. Once you got em all in its pretty easy to keep on top of each time you buy a new record

Not only this but it’s incredibly satisfying to have a collection that is 100% relevant to your current tastes, or as close to 100% as possible.  At least for me, anyway.  There’s stuff I pre-ordered over the years that just didn’t live up to the replayability I was hoping for, or artists I sort of “outgrow” as time goes on.  It’s really nice to throw those out for sale and free up shelf space while simultaneously funding new purchases... and that’s all way easier to manage with a catalog that you update frequently.

[Metal Mike]

I'm no expert here, but this is something I've been meaning to do for a few years now. 

 

The only thing you should probably check with your agent is if your coverage is for replacement value vs. market value.

 

I have plenty of pricey test pressings and OG 1st pressings of stuff. I'm not 100% sure how this applies to this sort of item, but I would want to know if I made a claim, would I be paid on the market value on what I lost and not the value of a recent reissue as a replacement copy.

[unknown pleasures]

The other thing to remember when estimating the value is you're not going to get it down to the exact dollar or cent. Even if you did, it would be different tomorrow or next week or next year. You just need a close enough approximation to give the insurer an idea of replacement cost.

 

And you better believe regardless of how much or how little work you put into your estimate, if the time comes when you need to file a claim they'll be going over the figures themselves in great detail, especially if you're claiming the collection is worth a significant amount of money.

 

As someone said earlier, photographic evidence is a must, the more detailed the better.

Edited April 22, 2019 by unknown pleasures