Does anyone "insure" their flashlight collection?

The Subject say's it all....

As I started to pull all of my lights out to take some pictures, and after the house less then a block from our house was struck by lightning and had $250,000 in damages, I thought maybe it wise to "make sure" that we are covered for all of the things we own.... including my collection of lights.

Do any of you do this? - *I have a small amount comapred to some here.

Thanks!

Re: Does anyone "insure" your collection?

My home and lights are protected by Glock, Rock River Arms, Remington, Colt and a few other powerful friends of mine. All of these home protection items have multiple friends and these frineds run faster then most. :naughty:

Ok, now that I'm done playing around I personally do not have any insurance on my lights. But what I did do was take individual pictures of my lights along with there serial #'s.

Then I created a very detailed list and added the pictures next to description of the lights and saved them on different devices and secured those devices in my rather large gun/rifle safe.

I dont know if it will help me if I ever had my lights/weapons and other devices stolen but it's the least expensive way I could think of to somewhat secure my items.

With the amount of high dollar items I have seen since my short time being on (CPF) I'm sure some people have there lights insured.

Re: Does anyone "insure" your collection?

My flashlights are covered under my homeowners policy whether they are stolen/damaged at home or when I'm out and about. I don't have specific coverage mentioning my flashlights, but all of my personal possessions are covered in the same way, but the relatively high deductible ($250 IIRC) keeps me from making frequent claims for small stuff.

Re: Does anyone "insure" your collection?

My renter's policy only requires that I specifically list items that individually cost over $1500. My insurance agent said that I should take pictures of my possessions that are unusual or moderately expensive (like a $300 flashlight) to support any claim I might have in the future. An insurance company won't raise an eyebrow at a TV or stereo that was stolen, but when you start listing things like:

flashlight - $300
flashlight - $200
flashlight - $150
etc.

I think they start thinking "fraud". It's probably worth looking at your policy or asking your agent to see what they like to see.

Re: Does anyone "insure" your collection?

My entire collection of four "Deal Extreme" lights, a 30 year old Mini Mag, and a red Fauxton from Quality China Goods is insured for $100,000 by Lloyd's of London.

Seriously...."homeowners" will cover anything above and beyond my $500 deductible. Which is to say if just my flashlights were stolen.....I have no coverage.

- regards

My entire flashlight collection is worth about €50, and I intend to keep it under €100 for the foreseeable future.
I seem able to resist the temptation to get newer lights better than most CPF people.

With such a low value there's no point in insuring anything, really.

Re: Does anyone "insure" your collection?

NeonLights said:

My flashlights are covered under my homeowners policy whether they are stolen/damaged at home or when I'm out and about. I don't have specific coverage mentioning my flashlights, but all of my personal possessions are covered in the same way, but the relatively high deductible ($250 IIRC) keeps me from making frequent claims for small stuff.

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Same with me, but how to explain the insurance-agent a 1000+ € Flahlight-collection :laughing:.
I think, I'll take some pics within the next days.
Best
Jens

Re: Does anyone "insure" your collection?

schrenz said:

Same with me, but how to explain the insurance-agent a 1000+ € Flahlight-collection :laughing:.
I think, I'll take some pics within the next days.
Best
Jens

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Shouldn't be too hard to explain. In case of theft at home or away, I have most of my receipts as well as pics of many of my flashlights. If there was a loss due to fire, well, I'm guessing that my higher quality lights would still be around after a fire, although much worse for the wear, I would at least hope my Surefires would be identifiable after going through a house fire.

Most homeowners policies have limits on contents and personal items coverage. My "toys" - guns, fishing tackle, tools and flashlights as well as other common personal items (not to mention my wife's shoes and other girl stuff) - would quickly go over that amount, so I've bought an additional coverage rider for greater coverage. Not too expensive.

And take pictures of everything. Even your open tool and tackle boxes.

If you start adding up new replacement costs of all of your common personal items, you'll be very surprised.

As many have said, most decent homeowner's insurance policies cover theft/fire/accident/acts of God, etc. for any household contents up to the limits of liability for contents. However, there are some specific limitations on items such as cash, commodities, redeemable bearer bonds & other financial instruments, artwork, precious stones/jewelry/metals, furs, silver flatware, etc. etc. You can then buy extra rider coverage for most of those items.

It is essential that you have complete photographs/video of EVERYTHING that you intend on having covered, and the wise man will make sure those images are not stored only on the computer hard drive that was just stolen or burned up.

One notable thing for those living near rivers and coasts is to get a separate flood insurance policy. Water damage to personal contents from hurricanes, river/lake flooding is not covered under most homeowner's policies. There are also exceptions to what the national flood insurance program covers, but things like electronics and flashlights are covered.

I have no insurance of any type because I do not have the money for it; best thing I can do is to hope like h-e-double-hockey-sticks that nothing bad happens. :green:

Very good point about the flood insurance.

Why would you ever insure anything like that. Think about it, people spend so much money getting the "gold" insurance policy on their computers. 125 bucks. People spend about 3,000 dollars insuring THEIR 20,000 dollar car. People spend the extra what... 50 bucks to insure their ipods? People spend so much money worthlessly on insuring items that don't need it. How many of the items are bought and whats the percentage of them being brought back Think about it, if the company's providing the insurance lost money on them... then they wouldn't offer the insurance on them.

stephenmadpotato said:

Why would you ever insure anything like that. Think about it, people spend so much money getting the "gold" insurance policy on their computers. 125 bucks. People spend about 3,000 dollars insuring THEIR 20,000 dollar car. People spend the extra what... 50 bucks to insure their ipods? People spend so much money worthlessly on insuring items that don't need it. How many of the items are bought and whats the percentage of them being brought back Think about it, if the company's providing the insurance lost money on them... then they wouldn't offer the insurance on them.

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Ummmm.....what? It sounds like you are not understanding sensible insurance guidelines. I'm guessing you are young if you are looking at paying $3,000 to insure a $20,000 car. The electronic items you refer to (and many others) are covered under general homeowners policy.

LuxLuthor said:

Ummmm.....what? It sounds like you are not understanding sensible insurance guidelines. I'm guessing you are young if you are looking at paying $3,000 to insure a $20,000 car. The electronic items you refer to (and many others) are covered under general homeowners policy.

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I'm not just talking about the destruction of the item due to a natural disaster I'm talking about how people spend so much extra money just to insure their laptops and such. If you consistantly don't insure those items, and put the money in the bank, if something does end up happening to one of those items, then you most likely can just buy another with the money you saved not buying the insurance on everything. But if nothing happens then hey look you just saved yourself a ton of money, go spend it on something you want...

Also, I'm getting really REALLY tired of people saying, "Oh your just too young to understand" Car insurance differs depending on your location. Some states/countries cost more than others. So I'm guessing you're pretty ignorant if you didn't know this. Whenever I buy a car I will never insure my car unless it's really cheap and my car is really expensive. It makes NO sense to do that whatsover. If the chances of you getting into an accident and making an insurance claim were more than 49% then car insurance would either cost alot more or they wouldn't offer it. They have to be making money off of it or they wouldn't offer it.

Well, your're going to have to get a little more angry, cause it's obvious you don't understand the basics of insurance.

I agree with the service policy stuff on individual items. Unless the cost is far less than 10% of the value of the item, it generally doesn't make sense.

To insure a $20k automobile for a teenager for $3k sounds about right. The big cost there is not the comp/collision, but the liability.

Some say they don't need liability because they're judgement proof (i.e. don't have money or property) are misleading themselves. A liability judgment can follow you for a long time. If you win the lottery, guess what -- you give it to the folks who hold the judgement. If you get a good job, you start paying....

You really need to learn something about your topics before you start demeaning people who don't agree with you and generally know a lot more about the subject.

My lights are tools. They're documented as such, and are covered with the rest of my tools under my business insurance.

Most states require auto insurance by law. Even in the states that don't require it, it's just plain a good idea. While I wouldn't bother insuring a $500 car for anything(where the deductable alone is going to be the price of another car), driving around without insurance for damage and injuries caused to other people really isn't smart at all.

:buddies:

stephenmadpotato said:

I'm not just talking about the destruction of the item due to a natural disaster I'm talking about how people spend so much extra money just to insure their laptops and such. If you consistantly don't insure those items, and put the money in the bank, if something does end up happening to one of those items, then you most likely can just buy another with the money you saved not buying the insurance on everything. But if nothing happens then hey look you just saved yourself a ton of money, go spend it on something you want...

Also, I'm getting really REALLY tired of people saying, "Oh your just too young to understand" Car insurance differs depending on your location. Some states/countries cost more than others. So I'm guessing you're pretty ignorant if you didn't know this. Whenever I buy a car I will never insure my car unless it's really cheap and my car is really expensive. It makes NO sense to do that whatsover. If the chances of you getting into an accident and making an insurance claim were more than 49% then car insurance would either cost alot more or they wouldn't offer it. They have to be making money off of it or they wouldn't offer it.

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Stephen, let's be clear that I first said that that you are not understanding sensible insurance guidelines (emphasis on "sensible").

I then speculated that anyone paying $3000 for a $20K car must be a young (as in "high risk") driver. The two statements were not connected.

There are many young people who have much more knowledge and maturity about various issues....so I didn't make any generalizations about that.

You are demonstrating with your posts here--your lack of education/awareness/understanding about getting proper, required, and sensible insurance for things you care about--irrespective of your age, race, gender, culture, sexual orientation, socio-economic status.

Again, if you have a homeowner's general policy that protects against a hurricane, theft, fire, tree falling, lighting, tornado, etc., it covers the various electronics items you keep listing. They are only in a special "additional" purchase category if you have a higher value than covered in that category on your policy. For example, I purchased additional coverage for my wife's very expensive Tanzanite ring, which is now covered for full current replacement cost from any loss (theft, damage, stolen, fire, dropped down garbage disposal, left in a hotel room, etc.). This lets her enjoy wearing it without being in a panic about something bad happening to it...and only keeping it in the gun safe all the time.

I have more than one car, and one of them that has about a $45K current value. It costs me $1800/year to insure it with good overall coverages. Likely a $20,000 car would cost me around $800/year.

If I had a teenage driver, I would get them a $1000 car and only buy liability insurance which they would partially pay for if they want to drive. If they wreck it, they need to replace it or ride a bike.

BIGIRON said:

Well, your're going to have to get a little more angry, cause it's obvious you don't understand the basics of insurance.

I agree with the service policy stuff on individual items. Unless the cost is far less than 10% of the value of the item, it generally doesn't make sense.

To insure a $20k automobile for a teenager for $3k sounds about right. The big cost there is not the comp/collision, but the liability.

Some say they don't need liability because they're judgement proof (i.e. don't have money or property) are misleading themselves. A liability judgment can follow you for a long time. If you win the lottery, guess what -- you give it to the folks who hold the judgement. If you get a good job, you start paying....

You really need to learn something about your topics before you start demeaning people who don't agree with you and generally know a lot more about the subject.

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I understand the topics perfectly, don't lecture me about if I get a job I'll start paying. Go to the cpf myspace and I'm in the top 16 or w/e you want to call it. My default picture is a picture of me in my work uniform. I pay for everything of mine. My parents pay for clothes that are reasonably priced, they supply about 2-3 meals a week, I either cook for myself or order out with my own money, that I worked for. I wanted to do football this year so guess what. I payed for all of my equipment, and the cost to join the team.

I'm alone going to pay for all of my college if I decide to go, I'm defending myself in advance on this one so don't judge me on that one either because my dad never went to college and was a software engineer for 25 years, then a software engineer manager for a very reputable company, then because he got tired of coding he completely changed his career and started his own home improvement buisness: www.definahomeimprovement.com I have big shoes to fit in but I plan to try and take my own route towards music, or perhaps a laser engineer? See his about us in the website if you want me to cite my source, even though its my own knowledge.

Also, I got news for you. I will get very pissed off and demean anyone who tries to judge me by my age. I have every right to be angry with lux and you for saying that I know nothing about the subjects just because I'm only 16. I pay for all of my things BY MY SELF. I very well know what a hard days work feels like and if you still do not believe me then why don't you call some of my fellow managers at the grocery store I work at. I am only 16 years old, and I have people ages 40+ working for me. I know that it is nothing to brag about because its a grocery store, and believe me I have no plans to work there my whole life. I paid for all of my items and I can say for sure that the only thing I have ever paid insurance on is my guitar amp because it was $600 used and the guy offered it to me for only 15 bucks after my negotiations. I know what its like to have something that you paid for and actually care about it because it was your hard work that bought you it.

Diesel_Bomber said:

My lights are tools. They're documented as such, and are covered with the rest of my tools under my business insurance.

Most states require auto insurance by law. Even in the states that don't require it, it's just plain a good idea. While I wouldn't bother insuring a $500 car for anything(where the deductable alone is going to be the price of another car), driving around without insurance for damage and injuries caused to other people really isn't smart at all.

:buddies:

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Hi, sorry for the misunderstanding. When I said

stephenmadpotato said:

People spend about 3,000 dollars insuring THEIR 20,000 dollar car.

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I meant when people insure their own car for damage. Your damn right I'd be scared shitless of crashing into someones trillion dollar mclaren f1 with lots of hookups.