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What happens to your books?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:58 am
by Trev
Spawning this off of the collection habits thread.

What happens to your books if something happens to you? What about theft/fire/flood? Do you have plans to dispose of your collection at some point in your life?

For me, after talking with a bunch of friends (Bob and John among them), I took out an insurance policy on the collection to protect against theft/damage.

I made specific arrangements in my will for how to turn the collection into money to be added to our trust in the event of something unfortunate.

I haven't yet considered if there would be a point I would sell off my entire collection as part of retirement. In truth, one of the things I'm most looking forward to in retirement is more time to spend on the collection.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:32 pm
by MobileHome
I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:02 pm
by Trev
MobileHome wrote:I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.
next time i'm in ny I'll come by and liberate some things for you. no charge.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:31 pm
by Webhead
I added my collection to my homeowners policy years ago and I have promised my collection to my niece and nephew when I am dead with the strict directions that if they do sell it it must be used for their college fund.

Finally I have a long box with the first 200 issues of my ASM collection ready to be grabbed on he way out in case of an emergency.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:56 pm
by MobileHome
Trev wrote:
MobileHome wrote:I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.
next time i'm in ny I'll come by and liberate some things for you. no charge.
OK. Schrade Rd in Briarcliff Manor. Come grab whatever you want.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:18 pm
by torchsong
Goes to the wife if she survives me. Will likely donate most of it once I'm simply too old to cart it around or if I end up in a home.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:49 pm
by ctowner1
MobileHome wrote:
Trev wrote:
MobileHome wrote:I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.
next time i'm in ny I'll come by and liberate some things for you. no charge.
OK. Schrade Rd in Briarcliff Manor. Come grab whatever you want.

#$%@$%@^^!!!!

e
L nny

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:51 pm
by ctowner1
I thought it's difficult and expensive to get your collection assessed for the purposes of insurance. No?

My dream is that 1 of my 2 boys (11 & 8 yrs old) takes over the collection and makes it a multi-generational collection. But currently neither seems interested - so my best guess is they'll liquidate it after I'm gone.

They DO have specific instructions though to drive by Tony Mobilehome's house once a year with my Amazing Fantasy #15 pressed against the car window and shout out "nyah! nyah! suckerrrrr!!!" as they circle his home 5 times! [WebWiz20]

e
L nny

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:55 pm
by Trev
ctowner1 wrote:I thought it's difficult and expensive to get your collection assessed for the purposes of insurance. No?

e
L nny
It's kind of like life insurance. Depends on how much you want and what you are insuring. All I had to do was roughly break down the collection and keep some kind of records.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:13 pm
by MobileHome
ctowner1 wrote:They DO have specific instructions though to drive by Tony Mobilehome's house once a year with my Amazing Fantasy #15 pressed against the car window and shout out "nyah! nyah! suckerrrrr!!!" as they circle his home 5 times! [WebWiz20]

: (

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:10 am
by boshuda
MobileHome wrote:I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.
I'm almost with you there in the freeing nature of losing them. I do want to give my wife a list of the original art and what it's worth, though. Particularly as I accumulate more.

The comics really aren't worth much. The most valuable thing I probably have right now (which I plan on listing for sale if I ever get off my butt) is Walking Dead 1 - 60-something. For just about everything else I would be ecstatic [lineout]happy[/lineout] (John, where's the lineout tag?) to sell it for cover price. My wife works in insurance and from what she tells me it would be such a hassle to set up insurance that for me personally it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:47 am
by Trev
boshuda wrote:
MobileHome wrote:I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.
I'm almost with you there in the freeing nature of losing them. I do want to give my wife a list of the original art and what it's worth, though. Particularly as I accumulate more.

The comics really aren't worth much. The most valuable thing I probably have right now (which I plan on listing for sale if I ever get off my butt) is Walking Dead 1 - 60-something. For just about everything else I would be ecstatic [lineout]happy[/lineout] (John, where's the lineout tag?) to sell it for cover price. My wife works in insurance and from what she tells me it would be such a hassle to set up insurance that for me personally it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.
I tried to use this tag the other day. It isn't stock with phpBB, it has to be added by the admin.

I instead got the result I wanted by changing the font color. doesn't work here.

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:50 am
by Trev
boshuda wrote:
MobileHome wrote:I've no real plans but in the event of a natural disaster or house fire, I'd almost find it liberating to be rid of all my stuff.
I'm almost with you there in the freeing nature of losing them. I do want to give my wife a list of the original art and what it's worth, though. Particularly as I accumulate more.

The comics really aren't worth much. The most valuable thing I probably have right now (which I plan on listing for sale if I ever get off my butt) is Walking Dead 1 - 60-something. For just about everything else I would be ecstatic [lineout]happy[/lineout] (John, where's the lineout tag?) to sell it for cover price. My wife works in insurance and from what she tells me it would be such a hassle to set up insurance that for me personally it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.
It is pretty easy with an insurance company focused on collectables. a lot of folks use collectinsure. They are pretty good to deal with.

If your collection fits easily into the contents clause for your homeowners, then no reason for additional. Sounds like yours probably does based on the description.

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:01 pm
by ctowner1
Trev wrote:
ctowner1 wrote:I thought it's difficult and expensive to get your collection assessed for the purposes of insurance. No?

e
L nny
It's kind of like life insurance. Depends on how much you want and what you are insuring. All I had to do was roughly break down the collection and keep some kind of records.
how much extra annual premium do you pay for how much more potential insurance?

e
L nny

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:07 pm
by ctowner1
An interesting offshoot of this discussion would be: if your collection was (God forbid!) utterly destroyed, what would you do? Would you try to reassemble it? And if so, what would you re-buy? Would you still buy the same titles you're buying now?

For me, I honestly am not sure if I can answer this. There's no way I'm going back and re-buying all those Uncanny X-Men's I kept buying for years just to keep the run going. But I also don't think I'd could bring myself to start an Amazing Spider-man run from scratch. Perhaps I'd re-buy a lot of the collection in Masterworks Collections? But how about, say, nu52 DC comics. Would I re-buy the first 12 Batman's, which I quite liked? Perhaps. The 1st 12 JLA's that I found pretty mediocre? I dunno.

And in terms of what I'd continue to buy monthly? Perhaps even as tough. I love buying the majority of the titles I buy each month as I have for decades and decades. I think I would keep buying the bulk of what I buy now.

e
L nny