My agent covers mine without a separate rider in my renters insurance. I simply went from coverage for $X to coverage for $X+$Y, where $Y is the value of my collection. Just like with other possessions, they recommend taking photos, and a movie as proof.

-mof

As much as we love our pins, I think it would take an extremely motivated thief to break in and steal them. Maybe if it was while you were on vacation or something but moving pinball machines is a ton of work that doesn't happen too fast. Fire or water damage seem the most likely.

I have a nice collection of machines and I am also an insurance agent. All most all companies will cover the machines under your renters or homeowners policy under the personal property section of the policy. The next step is to see if you have replacement cost or actual cash value for your personal property. Either way if there is damage done to your machine weather it is repairable or a total loss you and the insurance company adjustor will have to come up with a value for the machine..There lies the problem.. If you have a restored machine and lets say its worth $7500 but when the adjustor checks values the machine is worth $5000 that's all you will be paid. The company's job on replacement cost coverage is to replace you with like kind since they can not replace it with a brand new machine because they are no longer in production.. My suggestion on high priced restored machines is to get inland marine coverage that attaches to your home or renters policy. this is an all risk policy and each machine is insured to a specified amount so at the time of a loss that is what you are paid.. there are many things that could damage a machine besides theft. Fire, lighting, wind, water and many other things. My main concern would be fire that is cause from inside the machine. AKA a short in a board or wiring.. Hope this helps..

I have a separate policy with Collectible Insurance http://www.collectinsure.com/

Reasonably priced and appears to cover most hazards. They were easy to deal with for purchase. Don't know about making a claim...and hope it isn't necessary.

Eric

Insurance agent checking in here. I currently have mine under a Renter's policy but it is not the greatest. I am working on building myself a Personal Articles Policy (the rider most people are talking about). What you will need for that is Make Model Year Descriptions Serial # and a ton of photos. With my company, you do not need an appraisal of anything under $5000; which is good for me since TAF is my most expensive. The cost is (ROUGHLY) $1.25 for every $100. So my collections of around 16,000 (arcades and pins) will cost around $200 a year and a PAP covers everything meaning All Risk (that includes woopsies).

EDIT: These will be on a Stated Value policy. Meaning that you and the company would agree on the price of each item during the underwriting process. To build off of what the other agent was saying.

The other issue is that sometimes during a breaking they dont actually steal everything but they do vandalize the property. Having coverage is the smart thing to do, also make sure you have a stated amount (although I think most adjusters would check ebay and retailers for value so you might be fine unless they are all HEP or very high end)

I can tell you from experience when someone broke into my apartment, they stole everything they could but didn't lay a finger on the pins. Sucks for them as there was $4000 in cash in the coin box of one...

If you have a good homeowner's or renter's policy, it should be covered by your contents coverage up to a certain limit. However you may need to increase your limit to make sure you cover all your contents.

I would HIGHLY recommend taking pictures and documenting all of your machines on a jump drive and store with all your documentation in a safety deposit box at your local financial institution. Not in a safe in your house, since if you have a fire, it's a good bet you won't be able to get to the safe or the contents could be ruined. Also make sure you have REPLACEMENT cost coverage on your contents, not actual cash value! That way you are able to purchase the same machine regardless. Actual cash value will depreciate your machines and you would only get a percentage of the value, not the entire amount. Insurance is to get you back to the same place you were before, not improve it. So be honest on your valuations.

And yes I an insurance agent.

I had "personal property" or some type of insurance on my pins before I bought a house. USAA offered it for like $10 a month. Man oh man let me tell you I got all that and then some back when my machine locked up a solenoid and took out 1/2 the board. It was a phenomenal plan. Of course now I have some crazy good plan for homeowners and it doesn't cover pins at all...

For my homeowners insurance they require receipts (except for AC/DC impossible to get) and I told them this. They then said, well get some average prices for each machine online and we can draft you up coverage with those numbers. I have not got any further than this process, but yes it is definitely possible to get insurance specifically for pinball.
I would also recommend many pictures because when I lived somewhere not so lovely, I had my rims stolen off my car and left on blocks. Insurance company did not really care about receipts as much as they wanted pictures to prove that I actually put them on my car. Obviously a bit of apples to oranges in this situation, but if you can prove you played them instead of using them as a coat rack, it might help a bit.

That looks interesting, but the verbiage on the page is fairly loose. Meaning they say that flooding is covered, but not moisture damage. Seems odd.

I have a collectors policy covers up to 150K of any sort of damage, flooding, theft, etc. I think it cost $670 a year.
just for piece of mind its worth it. They have a list of the base collection and are aware of the rotating inventory.
similiar to a policy someone would have for a stamp collection.

Nationwide clearly told me that my machines are not covered under homeowners policy

One thing that stood out to me on this is Mysterious Disappearance is not covered. Now you might be saying well a theft is one thing and a mysterious disappearance is another thing, no problem. However, there is not a set definition of what they consider to be a theft or mysterious disappearance.

Here is a definition for you:

Mysterious disappearance means a loss, the surrounding circumstances of which excluded the probability of theft. Nevertheless, the phrase is so vague and so difficult of interpretation that many companies issued policies wherein it was expressly stated that unexplained loss or mysterious disappearance would raise a presumption of theft. [Lovas v. St. Paul Ins. Cos., 240 N.W.2d 53, 58 (N.D. 1976)].

So that is saying unless you have physical proof of a theft, video/picture ..etc. This company might be able to come back and say it is not covered because this is considered mysterious disappearance.

I'll let any other agent chime in on that subject but that is just a red flag for me. Also on the bottom of the exclusions page it says there are more exclusions that you have to contact them for the complete list. That's a big problem for me.

Note that many policies state that the maximum value of an "electronic device" is $2500.

You often need a separate rider for expensive cameras, guitars, pinball.....

There are a ton of limitations on all policies. Please be aware of all of them. Almost every household luxuries are broken down to specific number. If jewelry, guns, furs they all have certain numbers.

I know the company I represent certain items need to have evidence of theft such as breakin, tracks(tire,footprints).. this is only for items that are easy to hide and say it was a theft. such as jewelry, guns

Exactly, far too much crappy legalize to hide behind on this deal.

Mysterious disappearance essentially means you lost it. Most insurance policies don't define or address "accidental misplacement" or "I lost/can't find it" in the policy language, hence the mysterious disappearance exclusion. You're covered for 16 named perils on most personal property policies and losing something just isn't covered.

A personal articles floater, inland marine policy, a policy rider or scheduled property endorsement are all ways to increase the coverage and covered losses (including mysterious disappearance) of your pins and other personal items. The first two are generally stand alone policies and the second two are additions to an existing home/condo/renters policy. All can generally offer the same degree of protection, though pricing and coverage limits will vary. Talk to your agent about which coverage they offer or recommend.

I use the abovementioned collectinsure.com to insure my firearms and they are a great company to use for guns and other collectibles. I have no affiliation with them, nor are my pins insured with them, because I've never felt the need for additional coverage beyond what my home insurance provides. It is always a good idea to read the exclusions though for any policy once you get a copy in the mail.

Breakage, like you drop a pin down the stairs or it falls off the back of your truck generally isn't covered on your regular policy whereas it usually is covered on one of the four examples I listed above. That might be important to some and not important to others when considering if they need additional coverage.

Here in OK $1.25 per $100 in coverage sounds crazy high. That's what you pay here for jewelry coverage, something much more frequently claimed. You'd pay about $1.25 per $1000 (thousand) for things like musical instruments, rugs or collectibles and I'd think pins would run closer to that. It pays to shop around. I'd get a quote for an endorsement from my existing company, a quote for a stand alone policy from my existing company and another insurance company in town and one more from collectinsure.com before I decided which to buy, if I were shopping for coverage.

_{Post edited by sed6: cnat spele}

If you have farm bureau insurance, pins are not covered under any circumstances is what I was told.