An effective premium rate of 8.4% of risk is a total spank. If you have a collection with a value of less than $100,000 the rate should come in at 2.5% of insured value and should be able to be added as a pretty straight-forward endorsement to your homeowners policy. Bear in mind that is in a nice straight forward world where everything you have is branded Schwinn. Once your collection is north of $100,000 the field of carriers that will even consider insuring you narrows very quickly. I have been going back and forth with Firemans Fund, Chubb, and Lloyd's of London (all 3 have programs for collectors, although not cycling specific) for more than two years attempting to develop a means to insure my own collection.
The major issues that I have faced when attempting to insure my own collection have been:
Value - Finding comparable prices for a 1968 Schwinn Paramount is one thing. Finding a true value for a 1918 Alcyon is another. There is the concept of insuring to "agreed value." However, insurance carriers are reluctant to insure obscure things like vintage bicycle racing material for the simple reason that they don't want to give you motivation to set your own house on fire simply to collect on a collection of otherwise overvalued items.
Custody of Insured Item and Inventory Control - Do you buy and sell much? If so, this can be a problem.
Security - Do you have multiple alarm systems including motion detectors, cell back-up and video?
In the end, if you have a homeowners policy and the amount of additional insurance for your collection represents less than 10% of the value of you home, its reasonably easily to find insurance and find it at a rate of 2.8% or less.
I started out looking for insurance that would cover every last item of my collection. The price of the potential premiums motivated me to rethink that strategy. I have refocused my goal to a situation wherein I will carry insurance for single items with a value in excess of $5,000. Everything else essentially flies blind with no insurance.
I would be quite interested to know the experiences other people on the list have had both attempting to secure and also actually securing insurance for their collection. (Rate paid, documentation requirements, policy restrictions, etc.)
Brett Horton San Francisco, CA
Peter Naiman wrote: With the move to the Midwest, I've asked my home insurance carrier for a quote on coverage for the cycles collection. My carrier came back with a quote of $84 cost per $1000 which is outragious. Just curious as to whether others have looked into, or have coverage and any suggestions as to a good insurance carrier for collectables.
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