bearing in mind that pretty much all who browse here are otaku and have pimping collections of varying degree, it always brings to mind the eternal question: are u insured?
i rent, so i have rental insurance to cover all my valuables and collectables. it isn't expensive, and far cheaper than trying to pay for everything out of my pocket should something bad happen.
i like to bring the question up because it always amazes me how many i end up hearing from who don't have rental (or home) insurance. i dun ask to be snooty, but because i care. shoot. i didn't know about rental insurance until mom asked me one day many years ago. my reply: "what's rental insurance? o_o"

thoughts? input? etc?

I have coverage for my DVDs. Everything else of any value I have is in the car and my show truck that both have full coverage all their own. All of my TVs are more then 16 years old. I guess that I should get this computer tacked on. I wasn't worried about my old one because I built it back in 02, but I built this one about 3 months ago. hummmmmmmm

I have insurance and I advise people to check on if their collection is actually fully covered. I have to pay extra for extended coverage for electronics and media. Most renters and homeowners have caps for different catagorties.

ditto. i'm getting a separate coverage policy for my figures and other exclusive/rare/limited collectibles. after that, i'll be double checking on electronics. i have to inventory, itemize, and get a value for everything. again. it's not hard, just painstaking -.-

but def worth it in the long run.

I've been pondering this issue for some time as well but I always deadlock on how to place a value on those nearly impossible to replace items like figures or rather rare DVDs. Sure I can tack $20 on the DVDs and $50-$75 on the figures but I'm certain that I have some items that would cost significantly more than retail to replace at this point.

Other than scouring auction sites, is there a consolidated source of media valuations that better reflects the going price for rarities? Can media even be insured beyond its retail value?

When I talked to my insurance guy he told me to just get a record of the UPC codes and then stick a MSRP for what it was new. Add all the prices together and that would give me a base amount to insure my collection for. He then told me to make sure that I keep a good record of what I have because as things go out of print they can rocket up in price. So if something ever were to happen then anything that is out of print they will add a "collector" percentage on top of the MSRP. The older the disk the higher the percentage.
It is really the best way to do it short of having to track down everything and figuring out a market value on it all should something happen. And I am cool with that because I know full well that only about 10% of my collection can even be bought again at this point so I will just take the money.

that sounds about right from what i've been told by both State Farm who i had my rental insurance with previously, and currently, Liberty Mutual. itemize everything with their ISBN/UPC and original MSRP. also make sure to have pictures. it's always nice to have the pics to back up the documented itemized items. getting everything caught up is a PITA, but after that it's just a matter of keeping up with the new arrivals as they come in.
also, be sure to keep copies of your records in more than once place. personally, i keep my records in a safe deposit box and at a couple diff places.

...That would take me a million years. Can't we just call an average MSRP of $20 a disc (sounds about right, accounting for the lower cost of collections and the fact that most of my DVDs were $30 msrp singles) and be done with it? =P

I considered adding a column to my spreadsheet at one point with original MSRP, but that would take a lot of research.

I'm sure your insurance company would be thrilled to pay you substantially less for your collection but the fact that you've still got to document it in some way combined with the size of your collection (which I assume is big given your concern about how long it would take) makes it sound substantial enough to warrant complete and accurate documentation.

I've got a decent sized collection and I've look at various methods of tracking beyond the basics I currently use. Check out the Tracking Your Collection thread for some very simple but powerful software packages for doing this. I've also looked into USB barcode scanners and decent ones can be had for $50. Combined cost of software and scanner puts you right around $75 for a setup that will shrink a weekend long project into an hour or so. If saving that much time doesn't already pay for itself then consider that if something happens to your collection then having cataloged just 8 titles at $30 MSRP instead of $20 will pay for both the scanner and software...and I'm sure you have far more than 8 titles.

Just something to consider but the numbers are definitely in your favor.

Insurance, hmm I've always wondered about that. I do have alot of moneys worth of anime dvds. I'll definetly have to look that up in the near future. This past month I've had tornados flying past where I live and now that I''ve read this I believe I should look into it. How much are you guys paying for insurance on your collections, and also the figures and collectables.