Insuring your airsoft armory
 

I am finally considering insuring my airsoft collection but I'm not sure how I should go about it!
I spoke to our home insurance provider & they said I would have to get an appraisal of my entire collection but how would one get an honest evaluation? Airsoft pricing within Canada has changed drastically since I began collecting in 06' and I would hate to see any piece depreciate in value.
Any tips or suggestions?

Pieces WILL deprecate in value, with prices going down. For example a brand new WE SCAR that was worth what 600 new 1 year ago is now worth 375-400. As for insuring, mine is included in my house insurance, and is 'valeur a neuf'. Just make sure you keep recent pictures of all your collection, and links to Canadian retailers selling the brands.

try and find retailers selling your gear and screencap their prices ? i dunno
good luck with it. Hopefully your gear isn't too customized or it may be hard. Do you have any of the original receipts ?

Insurance will only cover cost to replace items. They will not give full face value for anything you own. Best way to do it is take pics have an airsoft room and insure the room for the value of the stuff. As far an depreciating in value other than art or jewelry it happens... Do diffrent than a computer just because you bought it for $1000 does not mean 3 years later they will give you even a fraction of that.

Insurance is always a battle to get what you think you deserve.

Insurance is for "replacement cost" or" Actual Cash Value" ( resale value)

Depreciation in value due to changes in market condition can not be preserved with insurance.

So a gun that you purchased 3 years ago at $600 but now available for $300 has a replacement cost of $300 .. this is it's worth for insurance value.

Items that are no longer in production .. and no longer available, you would have to provide evidence of the purchase price. and the current price of items of "like kind and quality" if they exist.. there is some room the haggle on the insurable value of these items.

but I feel your pain.. I have guns I paid $1000 for that can be purchased for 400 now

It should be covered under your home insurance.

depends on the amount you have.. if it's deemed a "collection" and your policy requires "collections" to be endorsed on your policy.. then it may not be.

READ YOUR POLICY

Also .. if you keep your stuff away from your home... it may not be covered, If you use it for business .. it will not be covered

As for quantity, my airsoft collection amounts to over 78 pieces...it has a significant dollar value attached to it and I would hope it will qualify as a 'collection'!

I already asked my agent about this and you have to pay big coil for "Extra" coverage for it being a collection & and you need the receipts. It's a pain in the ass,thats why all my stuff is locked up! House policy usally only covers a small amount,ie. flat rate of say 10-15,000 of total content and that can varie on the deductable you have.

The depreciation appeared to take effect around the same time as the introduction of cheap crapsoft and clearsoft in recent years. Items that were $500 plummeted in apparent value to $250, Things that were $700 became $350. At first the new item prices may look enticing but you have to wonder if its the same quality product as the originals from half a decade ago.
Since then people get replies like "Hay guize xcuse mai spellin eye wanna bi yur aire sof but imma onla gonna paye dis twenty dolla billz becuz eye can git it cheap now from canadien tyr".
http://www.condometropolis.com/blog/.../low-offer.jpg

Kevin, maybe you should sell half your collection, take nthe money and go buy Hawaii.

I hear it nice there all year round.

On a more serious note, my homeowners insurance covers all my legal firearms, they prescribe no limits. Luckily, I don't have any illegal ones to worry about. They cover them for replacement value. So, if they are stolen or my house burns down, they will have a large bill toay, which is 75% of the value of my house, or about $300K anyway for contents. If my entire gun collection (which it is not as I don't have any two guns which are the same) was claimed, it would be many tens of thousands of dollars. After reading the riders, it was not necessary for me to get extra coverage. I have offsite documentation of what I own.

+1....under your home insurance and YOU give them the total value written down....


By the way...long time since we chatted...still have my modded MUR real steel and PTW's from me?....

Substantial collection value does not mean shit, when my house got broken into there was some high prized airsoft items that got replaced as face value (without the Canadian markups) I lost quite a large chunk of money that I invest in my stuff. Depending on your insurer they may insist that you make all the possible prevention such as safe storage, They made me store all my valued airsoft items in safes, if you deal with Allstate they can insure practically anything but they will use overseas website price guide as their replacement guide so ie. that $2500 Inokatsu M60 will only get a $1500 replacement value if you lose it, or that uber leet FCC custom PTW that cost you $3200 will only get a replacement value of $2000

Some insurance company will not deal with replica arms they will require you get a seperate policy for it, i had to change mine to All state because of that (Guarantee company of North America) They will cover real fire arms but when it comes to Airsoft they balked especially when they ask for documentation of the items involved. At All State all they asked for is the value, documentation that it is legal items in my possesion and pictures.

Reading this thread and learning about insurance is interesting...
Except when I found that I don't have anything worth insuring for.

:(