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Does anyone insure their puerh collection? If so, how do you value them since they are priceless to me 30-50 years from now?

teakid wrote:Does anyone insure their puerh collection? If so, how do you value them since they are priceless to me 30-50 years from now?

You know, I have thought of possibly doing that. But, I do have home insurance so, if something goes up in flames I will just count my 16k collection *cough* as a loss

This is reminding me about the joke of the man insuring his cigar collection.

hop_goblin wrote: You know, I have thought of possibly doing that. But, I do have home insurance so, if something goes up in flames I will just count my 16k collection *cough* as a loss

Seriously, for purposes of homeowner's insurance, you have a much better chance of being reimbursed for your tea if you have evidence of what you had and how much it cost. Receipts would be nice or even just an itemized inventory that you update often and store somewhere OFF SITE. Photos or video would also be helpful. It won't be enough to say, "It was worth a lot!" Much better to say, "34 cakes of puerh tea had a purchase price of $1,358 over the last 5 years and given an average age of 2.5 years at an increase in price of roughly 7% per year ..." Otherwise, I have a feeling it will be an uphill climb trying to convince an insurance company that you had hundreds or even thousands of dollars of TEA.

Same goes for teaware, BTW.

True! It is probably expensive to properly insure against the many perils (smoke, odor, fire, flood, rain, insects, etc.) that could potentially damage our fine puerh. Also, how would you appraise the tea cakes from time to time and convince the insurance company of their value? Oh well, I think I'm gonna just take my chances and hope for the best.

Investing in puerh is risky business...but fun though.

teakid wrote:True! It is probably expensive to properly insure against the many perils (smoke, odor, fire, flood, rain, insects, etc.) that could potentially damage our fine puerh. Also, how would you appraise the tea cakes from time to time and convince the insurance company of their value? Oh well, I think I'm gonna just take my chances and hope for the best.

Investing in puerh is risky business...but fun though.

Actually, you could get something called an Inland Marine Policy that covers valuables. It's common for jewelry, furs, art work, and instruments of high value so why no pu? It does require an appraisal of the stuff to be insured though. Otherwise, a lot of things are covered by a homeowners policy. The only thing that I have seen that required extra coverage is flood, but most of the time the insurance underwriters can add in coverage to round out the policies to cover what is needed.

Yay for spending two summers working at an insurance brokerage...

I'm not interested in insurance for items I already have.

however, I would love to be able to get insurance against receiving any crappy beengs in the future.

Salsero wrote:

hop_goblin wrote: You know, I have thought of possibly doing that. But, I do have home insurance so, if something goes up in flames I will just count my 16k collection *cough* as a loss

Seriously, for purposes of homeowner's insurance, you have a much better chance of being reimbursed for your tea if you have evidence of what you had and how much it cost. Receipts would be nice or even just an itemized inventory that you update often and store somewhere OFF SITE. Photos or video would also be helpful. It won't be enough to say, "It was worth a lot!" Much better to say, "34 cakes of puerh tea had a purchase price of $1,358 over the last 5 years and given an average age of 2.5 years at an increase in price of roughly 7% per year ..." Otherwise, I have a feeling it will be an uphill climb trying to convince an insurance company that you had hundreds or even thousands of dollars of TEA.

Same goes for teaware, BTW.

Good sound advice Sal,

Actually I think I am covered thru my Paypal invoices and my inventory sheet. I do have a couple of pics if need be. Shuddering at the thought!

Cinnamon Kitty wrote:

teakid wrote:True! It is probably expensive to properly insure against the many perils (smoke, odor, fire, flood, rain, insects, etc.) that could potentially damage our fine puerh. Also, how would you appraise the tea cakes from time to time and convince the insurance company of their value? Oh well, I think I'm gonna just take my chances and hope for the best.

Investing in puerh is risky business...but fun though.

Actually, you could get something called an Inland Marine Policy that covers valuables. It's common for jewelry, furs, art work, and instruments of high value so why no pu? It does require an appraisal of the stuff to be insured though. Otherwise, a lot of things are covered by a homeowners policy. The only thing that I have seen that required extra coverage is flood, but most of the time the insurance underwriters can add in coverage to round out the policies to cover what is needed.

Yay for spending two summers working at an insurance brokerage...

If the company did include something like wine or whatnot as something that they could cover, then an Inland Marine or Homeowner's Scheduled Item would probably be the place where you could obtain the coverage.

However, pretty much every personal lines company you are going to find would not cover something like puerh. There's just not enough underwriting information to have accurate expectation of loss probability. I know for a fact that your regular ol' Nationwide, Allstate, State Farm, Farmers, or other big name carrier will not write coverage on wine (and so, I'm going to assume puerh as well).

There are, however, smaller 'select' companies that do have a similar capability. I currently live near the 'millionaires' section of Indianapolis, and Chubb Insurance is a popular carrier among that set. That company allots for a myriad of custom features on homes, and I know that they have the capability to insure a fully stocked semi-professional wine cellar. As you might imagine, their underwriting guidelines are strict. I do not know if they would accept a regular home--and that would preclude you from scheduling items or taking out a separate Inland Marine.

Your best bet would be to get in touch with an insurance broker. They can sort of surf the market for you and find someone to create a policy for you. But, to be honest, the only company I can think of that would be able to create a puerh policy would be Lloyd's of London. At any rate, you will likely need plenty of pretty pennies for whatever they can come up with. Sorry.

Oh, and if you do any selling out of your collection, an insurance company may consider it a 'business,' which would likely void the policy. You'd have to be explicitly clear with them on what you do and how you treat your puerh.

tony shlongini wrote:however, I would love to be able to get insurance against receiving any crappy beengs in the future.

Hahahaha.

Wow! Sounds like it's a real pain in the ars to get insurance. That's another justification for the high prices of aged puerhs.

Cinnamon Kitty wrote:

teakid wrote:True! It is probably expensive to properly insure against the many perils (smoke, odor, fire, flood, rain, insects, etc.) that could potentially damage our fine puerh. Also, how would you appraise the tea cakes from time to time and convince the insurance company of their value? Oh well, I think I'm gonna just take my chances and hope for the best.

Investing in puerh is risky business...but fun though.

Actually, you could get something called an Inland Marine Policy that covers valuables. It's common for jewelry, furs, art work, and instruments of high value so why no pu? It does require an appraisal of the stuff to be insured though. Otherwise, a lot of things are covered by a homeowners policy. The only thing that I have seen that required extra coverage is flood, but most of the time the insurance underwriters can add in coverage to round out the policies to cover what is needed.

Yay for spending two summers working at an insurance brokerage...

Inland Marine coverage is actually for items in transit (over land), so if you're moving large quantities of valuable pu erh you should go for that. What you (and Mary R.) describe would be considered Surplus Lines. She is also certainly correct in recommending Chubb, which writes a lot of highly specialized policies. However, chances are your homeowners policy will cover your pu erh. Just make sure you have some way of documenting it.

I gave up owning a home for the love of puerh...

arent these insurance extras called "riders" ?

silverneedles wrote:arent these insurance extras called "riders" ?

If they're attached to existing policies. Practically, it would probably be easiest to get a separate policy, since adding tons of endorsements (also called riders) can make policies more complicated than they already are.