How do i go about insuring my gear?

[obriethe1st]

As the title says how would i insure my stuff?
Now some may laugh but i woke up this morning having had a very realistic dream of having all my game stuff and onlythat stolen.I swear i woke up shouting 'bastards' while shaking.
So have any of you guys got any tips how to value my games and systems for insurance purposes?

[TrekMD]

You can get insurance for collectibles.  You do need receipts as well as pictures of what you have so you can, at least, be reimbursed what you paid for the stuff should anything happen.  I have an inventory of all the games I own along with pictures of everything and I save it all online. 

[obriethe1st]

Cheers for the reply Trek. So i presume all my digital reciepts from paypal for my purchases would be ok?Do you happen to know any links to reputable firms that offer these services?I can tell you i was convinced the dream was real and to be honest i had never thought about insurance before.

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

Does your house insurance not cover it?

Only high value items (over £1500k) needed to be listed for me, everything else is just covered in my general amount.

And I don't need receipts, they'd just replace like for like up to the value I have insured.

[obriethe1st]

Cheers Wiggy well im currently not living in my own place and soon i will be again and wasnt sure if old games and consoles  would be covered as i have just realised how much gear i have collected over the last few years.And i dont think i had them covered before as i didnt have many older systems then apart from the ones i had as a kid.

[TrekMD]

At least in the US, even if you have house insurance, it is recommended you have a rider for collectibles.  Digital receipts work.  I actually use a service called Slice that collects all my online purchases and saves them and the receipts. 

[sloan]

I asked my homeowners policy agent about this some time ago. It was going to require photos and cataloging of every item. Thousands of items and it is not going to happen, to say the least.

[obriethe1st]

Thanks people i think il look at some different companies policies as im in no immediate hurry and find out which will be the best deal for me.I have some searching to do to find a good deal but thanks for the replies and it gives me a starting point.

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

This must be an american thing, certainly I only needed to declare high value items above x amount, which I had none lol

I do know for stuff like antiques whose value is not easily determined I may need to provide a valuation. That might be similar to why they asking for receipts.

[obriethe1st]

To be fair wiggy i have never had proper home insurance as i have never had much of value and it was only pennies a week on top of rent,however after that dream and  looking over all my systems and games i thought i had better get something sorted as soon as im in my new place.

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

Will it be shared?

I've had insurance in the past both student and none student for shared accommodation where generally its everything inside your own (lockable) room that is covered.

[TrekMD]

Insurance companies in the US are all about charging you money.  When it comes time to pay, they try to find any and every excuse to not pay.

[obriethe1st]

Sorry for the late reply wiggy but no it will be my place so not shared and i know depending on where you live also influences how much the insurance companies charge.To be fair apart from my games and systems i dont actually have anything worth much so i thought it might just be better insuring those.