Lighting/display collection insurance?

May 21, 2010
1,256
Minnesota
My main question is how is a lightbars value truely calculated? With the dang near imposible to find bars like the MX7000 with D-Tech rotators and LP6000 with Stingrays. Both are in excellent shape as they were removed from rural fire trucks.

The other items are some 911EP stuff still sealed in the factory packaging. Obviously pretty rare and ya cant just go to the store to pick up more.

How is an individual lights value determined, how often should it be reevaluated and what other considerations are there when getting coverage? What about shipping? Finding bars locally wouldnt be easy and shipping is only going up and up.

I have a modest collection (about 10 fullsize bars plus some dash/deck/visor lights primarily from the 90s) but finding some again would be more then challenging.

In my early 20s I had a special policy on a vehicle. I specifically took it in for Allstate to determine what coverage was needed. They tried denying the claim after it was attempted to be stolen. Had to fight like hell to get paid, dropped those SOBs like a ton of bricks! I am not worried about theft. Mainly fire or severe weather wiping things out but I cant think of everything that could damage them (do they make drool coverage, lol).

Feel free to share your input and advice. I would love things to ponder and have the correct questions and answers if I need to contact my insurance company.
 

jdh

Member
May 21, 2010
1,555
Geneva, FL
That is an excellent question. I have a collection as well.
An example would be, a fully decked out full size edge bar may have cost an agency $1000 (keep the numbers simple)
But what is it worth in a collection. Regardless of what it was purchased for by the collector?
 

894

Member
Jul 14, 2014
1,028
North Central US
The more $ you pay, the more they will insure those items for. Most will allow you to place a value on each item, what you feel it is worth or the replacement cost but any insurance company will then charge you rates, accordingly.
Because light/siren collecting is such an obscure group of items and the values vary so greatly, based on what any one collector is willing to pay for any said item, it is almost impossible to determine any ACTUAL value for any one sid piece. We can all say "that beacon is worth X" but the next guy paid nothing for his and some fool paid $1000 for the unit he has. Does that make them all worth $1000? Obviously no,. So talk to your insurance company, detail what you have with pictures and an inventory list, assign a value to each piece and start shopping for the cheapest rates!

Good luck!
 

gtpts27

Member
Jul 1, 2017
579
Virginia
While this doesn't directly answer valuation question, I have related concerns abput coverage. When I reached out to USAA, my homeowner's insurance company, told me my collection was covered under my homeowner's policy (portion covering belongings) without any additional coverages, addendums, or riders. I was surprised by this so reached out a second time to confirm.

As for valuation, I assume, but do not know, that it is based on replacement value (I should ask USAA). Obviously replacement value is sometimes hard to figure out. How it is determined for irreplaceable objects, I also do not know. I'm sure there's a process the insurance company goes through. With that said, keeping purchase records and pictures certainly can't hurt.
 

gtpts27

Member
Jul 1, 2017
579
Virginia
Of course, the biggest risk to my collection is my wife, a hammer, and me doing something that provokes her... I should probably find out if it's possible to get coverage for that!
 

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