Insuring collection

Hi, I am renewing my insurance policy on my Harbour Lights after many years and would like to know if anyone has a suggestion of where I can get a idea of what they are worth. I am mainly interested in the from 101 to 148, the reunion pieces, christmas pieces. Please help me. Is there some price list I can buy. Thanks Bev

Good Question Bev!

There really is no set price on what pieces are worth in today's secondary market. Sellers are trying to get what they were worth before 911 which is not what they are worth today and probably never will be again. Other sellers are also trying to get what they paid for them originally but that will probably never happen.

To make a long story short, figure your lighthouses at 1/4 to 1/3 of their original retail sale price and your in a good ballpark as to what they are actually worth in today's market and what they would cost you to replace them if you had to do it. There are exceptions to this and that includes HL102, HL102R and HL111 and possibly some of the rare variations such as Split Rock MI, Burrows Island OR and a mispelled Mukilteo. Other then these few pieces, it's how bad a buyer wants a piece as to what is going to be paid for a particular piece.

Bad news and not pleasant to hear but it is the truth. It hurts to buy a new release at retail and know that within 6 months or less it will be on Ebay at 25%-30% of what I paid for it.

Rich, Thank you so much for your help. I have somewhere to start now. I don't have 102 or 111 but I do have the rest of the ones that they made 5500 of. My children and grandchildren don't seem to have a interest in them. I guess it is not only Harbour lights it seems to be all collections. Thanks again, Bev

Rich I am glad you said that. There is no set value on Harbour lights. And because of EBAYS popularity and being the number one selling tool, we rely on it to dictate the values of our collectables.

But should we?
Yes it is true you could put an old Canadian made Harbour light on ebay and you would be lucky to get 50 bucks, but what if you lost one to damages or even fire. How easy do you think it would be to find a replacement? You cannot go on ebay and ask to buy. You would have to wait weeks, months or maybe years till one became available on ebay. Even on this forum it is getting very hard to find the rarer old ones. I have had several collectors tell me how hard it is to find many of the older lights. The collecting buying fever has gone cold years ago but so has the selling.

I have said this many times in the past, we should not use ebay for valuing our collectables for insurance. Insurance value is a different animal compared to selling.
Insurance is replacement cost, not what you can sell your lighthouse on ebay for.
I still have all mine valued at the old green book price and for newer lighthouses they are valued at the retail price plus a little more since they are double digits. Could I get this if I should sell them, no way, not even close. I do believe there are different ways to insure your collectables, but I chose to have mine appraised right up front. My insurance company is to pay me my insured price or replace.

But if I was to lose them there is no way an insurance company could find me replacement for several hundred Harbour lights. Especially my Canadian and California made pieces, It took me ten years to put my collection together. There is no way an insurance company is going to replace that in a couple weeks. So they would have to pay me my full-insured price.

In my humble opinion I would use the Harbour light’s product sheet and insure what the collection would cost to replace at retail and for any of the rare old ones like the California / Canadian made, and the rare variations, I would use the green book.

Very true what you have said above Daniel, but, I'm not one to over insure on something that continues to go down in price. If I can replace it at the current market value, and that's what I'm insured for, then I'm happy. If I can't replace it at the current market value, then so be it. I can't see insuring something for what it used to be worth and paying the preminums for that coverage. A book that is 10-15 years old, with it's inflated outdated values, is not the proof an insurance company will accept for today's values, so why pay the extra premiums. Chances our your insurance company won't pay that price unless you can show them a current up to date book and that's not possible. There's no difference between Harbour Lights and a new car. You insure the car for it's replacement value at the current time and not what you paid for it 4-5 years ago because the insurance company will not pay what your original or inflated prices. They'll only pay what the car is worth today.

So what would you claim your collection is worth today?

I need to update my insurance policy. And I'm wondering if I should drop the value of my collection and save myself some money on the premiums. Or if I should just drop the policy all together?

What are you doing?

I never carried insurance on my collection (when I had one), so I'm not the best source of information on what to do.

However, the question is your collection is worth what it would cost today to replace it. When LHD was selling things a pennies on the dollar, the cost to replace some things was very low.

But as time passes, the values might rise again to something closer to original retail or to more in the case of some pieces. If you've got some of these very high value pieces, talk to the insurance company about specifying the value of those and agree that the others are worth the price you paid for them.

Why would you drop insurance all together?

Good luck,

John

Stephanie,

For years I carried full replacement value on my collection (very expensive) and about 5 years ago I dropped the value to $15,000 when I decided the only way I would loose my entire collection is through a tornado, fire, sinkhole or a major hurricane. If that were to happen I would just replace the pieces I'm the fondest of. Otherwise, if a shelf were to break, dropped a piece, etc. I have plenty of coverage. I have a separate policy with the Collectible Insurance Exchange and DO NOT have to furnish a list of what I have.