I’m in the process of moving and decided that this would be the best opportunity to complete a home inventory of my stuff for insurance purposes. Being an individual who has always valued mobility, I don’t have many items with probably 65% of my total ‘stuff’ assets being books and clothing. My big ticket items are my ski and trekking gear probably followed by electronics/appliances and photography items.
I’m having difficulty coming up with present value prices for my items. I’ve had a number of articles for quite awhile (trekking gear, for example) but they still function just as well as if they were brand-new. I also can’t really remember what I originally paid for a lot of my stuff. My books are probably worthless, but I can get an idea of figures using Amazon.com (used prices etc.).
Is there any sort of formulas or ballparking that can be used to value personal items?
At the end of the day, my stuff isn’t worth that much and in the case of an insurance settlement, the provider would most likely just glance at my list and scoff. I haven’t looked at plans yet, but I want to get the list done while I am moving.
Still, I would like to have an idea of the prices, just for the sake of completeness.
After previewing a number of specific home inventory softwares (both desktop and online versions) I’ve settled on using MS Access given it’s flexibility (I can easily insert my Google Book list in .xml format).
having gone through a couple of insurance claims for thefts involving my business. They will look at what these things are selling for online and then do a standard depreciation on them. Whatever is left after that, they cut you a check for. Depending on your insurance company, they may reimburse you more if you send them receipts showing you replaced it with the same item.
The phrase " Actual Cash Value " opposed to " Full Replacement Value " is key here. Examine the very fine line print in your policy.
Full Replacement Value insurance is always significantly more expensive. It also allows you to do what it says- replace with full value insured, for new gear. When I owned a significant package of motion picture equipment valued at $ 92,000 it was insured at full replacement value. I couldn’t afford that early on.
I suffered a loss. And was insured for replacement value on a used piece of the kit. Prevented me from upgrading with the loss. Painful. I then found a way to pay for full replacement value. A few years later, another bit was stolen while in transit with FedEx ( stolen by an FedEx employee, weirdly ). I got a check for a brand new bit a few days later. No argument. No haggling over depreciation. New one costs $ 13,500? Done.
The bottom line here is you have no reason to bother trying to figure out what your stuff is worth today. Just inventory the items by name, part number and if applicable, serial number.
The only prices that will be relevant will be the ones in effect when you actually have a loss.
What you *do *want to do is look closely at the fine print on your policy to see what specific items they exclude or limit coverage for. Then ensure you get enough extra coverage for that stuff.
e.g. a typical homeowner’s policy might limit their reimbursement to $1000 total for all consumer electronics, regardless of how much stuff you own. Imagine having 2 PCs, 2 laptops, 2 smartphones, an IPad, a media server, a home theater with surround sound rig, 3 routers, 4 TVs, all the relevant accessories & cords and stuff and discovering after the fact that your total reimbursement is $1000 after the entire lot is destroyed or stolen.
That’s a surprise worth avoiding.
Many HO policies include limits like these which have not kept up with the profusion of electronics in the modern household. Other common limitations are on photography gear, musical instruments, original art, power tools, etc. Darn near anything which has highly-concentrated value.
The solution is to buy extra specific coverage for just those items. Yes, it costs extra. But that way you’re actually covered, not just mistakenly misbelieving you’re covered.
This is exactly right. if you recall what you paid originally, jot it down. Photos and or video is a good idea. Store a thumb drive with everything on it (including pdfs of the policies and other important papers) someone separate (in case of fire).
Once a year I photo everything in my house. I open every drawer, cabinet, whatever and take a quick shot. It takes about 200 shots to get it all, and I just archive it away in case I need to refer to it.