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How do I get my stash appraised?


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I've been told by my insurance company that I need to get my stash professionally appraised so it can be covered by my homeowner's policy. I'm not sure where to begin on this, however. Do I need to hire an appraiser who knows about models, or would any appraiser do? If I need a specialist, does anyone here know where/how I could find an appraiser who knows about scale models?

For the appraisal, do I need an inventory of my stash, or will the appraiser make one? Should I include my built models? About how much should I expect to pay (I'm in northern Virginia, if that helps)?

I f anyone has gone through this process before, I would really appreciate hearing how it went. My stash is fairly large (north of 300 kits and 1,000 AM items), so I imagine this will be a big undertaking.

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Do they need an actual appraisal or just an accurate inventory? Clearly, the latter is key to the former and is something you can do.

I've inventoried all my AM, am nearly done with my books, and will do the kits next. I keep the inventory in Google sheets, so I can see what I have while in the LHS using my phone or while at home using a tablet, phone, or desktop.

Edited by dnl42
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Good luck with that. Other than figuring current retail prices for in production kits, there's virtually no way to value them. It would be an ENORMOUSLY time consuming prospect if your stash is very big.

Having lost my entire stash to a house fire in 2013, I can tell you that it wasn't my biggest priority in life.

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I've got my stash saved in Scalemates, so I can download it into an Excel spreadsheet. I have input the prices I paid for some of the items, but not all. I just took a look and it seems I've got about 1,500 items total (kits and AM).

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I actually do have my models insured. It turns out that since they are not built for a business nor am I insured as a Business, I can only get them insured for their face value, and my time cannot be factored in. Hence, even built models can only be insured for their face value as an unbuilt kit. At least, that is what my insurer has told me.

Sean

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I guess it depends on what kind of home owners policy you have and such, but when our house got flooded we had a set limit on the covered amount on contents and as long as the value of all contents lost added up to that amount then they just paid us the full coverage value. All we had to do was give a list of contents lost and average market value of each. The adjuster looked over the list and photos we provided to them and established that we did in fact exceed the covered amount. For any items which value was greater than normal appearance, like real expensive kits, I just had to provide any evidence of its high value, like a squadron page printed or something. I don't know that I would do a full appraisal unless absolutely necessary. I would just keep records of the real expensive kits and average costs the rest X the amount of kits you have.

Bill

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I would suggest beginning with a complete inventory of your kits and aftermarket in an Excel file, including the retail value of each item based on what you paid or what the items are worth.

I don't think an average appraiser would understand how to value the items we have. Instead, I’d recommend contacting one of the major secondary market dealers, such as Rareplanes Detective, and asking him if he’d be willing to review your list and provide a notarized letter that the items are assessed at the values indicated. (I wouldn’t expect him to review each and every item, but merely a spot check of a number of them.) Of course you’d would need to compensate him for his time, whatever that might be. Going forward, keep, scan, photograph every receipt of every item you purchase.

Steven Brown

Scale Model Soup

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I would suggest beginning with a complete inventory of your kits and aftermarket in an Excel file, including the retail value of each item based on what you paid or what the items are worth.

I don't think an average appraiser would understand how to value the items we have. Instead, I’d recommend contacting one of the major secondary market dealers, such as Rareplanes Detective, and asking him if he’d be willing to review your list and provide a notarized letter that the items are assessed at the values indicated. (I wouldn’t expect him to review each and every item, but merely a spot check of a number of them.) Of course you’d would need to compensate him for his time, whatever that might be. Going forward, keep, scan, photograph every receipt of every item you purchase.

Steven Brown

Scale Model Soup

Steve--Thanks! That's an interesting idea--I'll talk to my agent to see if they will accept a letter from Rareplanes (or someone similar) in lieu of an appraiser's report.

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I had a similar thing when we did ours. a guy who owned the local hobby shop set a basic market price based on what he thought he could sell each kit for and that was the value. Didnt matter that I spent more that some of the values he put, he signed it on headed paper and that was it.

Its not unlike getting other valuables assessed, sometimes insurance companies insist of spercific people or companies sometimes somebody who is in the industry and does not have a bad reputation will do.

You really need to ask them if it must be anyone inparticular or if somebody like the owner or manager of a shop selling models will do.

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You can also request insurance for a declared value, which means you set a value on the collection and pay the insurance premium. This is done quite often on art collections and classic car collections. Just be aware the premium can get pricey.

HTH, Dave

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