This September we have already had record rainfalls in the Tri-State area due to a series of storms. The whole Summer of 2021 has been a wet one, but the recent succession of tragedies brought on by flooding downpours have been unprecedented. In NYC several people, including an infant, actually drowned in their basement apartments because the water rushed in and they had no exits. No one has ever heard or thought about that happening before. Many of the hardest hit areas weren't even in flood zones, so people didn't need and didn't have any flood insurance that would have paid for the damage. Some people lost everything they had and were lucky to get out alive.

In that scheme of things, our card collections are fairly unimportant, but it should at least be a reminder that water will destroy as surely as fire and you may not be covered for it. If you have your cards stored in garages, man caves or below grade levels of your home, consider moving them to higher locations in the house. Don't think it can't happen because it never has. If the house floats away there's nothing you can do, but don't leave your collection in the first place that's likely to go.

Most card collectors don't have specific insurance on their collections, just general coverage, and general coverage won't honor floods without separate policies. It was something I was thinking about while watching these poor people on TV still throwing their ruined life's possessions in the trash days later. It seems like it's never what you worry about and always what you don't expect that gets you. So just try and be careful.

This brings up an old topic about do you have your card collection properly insured?

I'm sure most people do not and assume ( wrongly ) that it will be covered under house and contents.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
This brings up an old topic about do you have your card collection properly insured?

I'm sure most people do not and assume ( wrongly ) that it will be covered under house and contents.

Absolutely, unless you have the $20,000 cards in the vault, you probably don't have separate insurance for your cards. House and contents coverage has limits and you have to prove to the insurance company what you lost and how much its worth. Try doing that with a large card collection of indeterminate value that you probably have no receipts on.

If it's water damage and there is no mention of that in the standard policy, and you don't have flood insurance, its all not covered regardless of what you can prove.

Insurance is great until you try to make a claim and all the fine print pops up.