Valuing a Collection

[Lena Vines]

We recently lost a portion of our National Geographic Collection in a house fire.  It spanned the years from 1980 to 2000.   The magazines were in excellent, near pristeen condition. Of course, all of the inserts were also still in the mags.We are trying to value the collection for insurance purposes.  Would some of you wonderful people who love Nat Geo as much as our family, please tell me how I should go about valuing the collection?  Should I try to find a value for each issue, or is there a valuation method for valuing the lot? We never intended to sell them, we collected them for our children, and grandchildren.

Any help would be appreciated as our insurance adjustor doesn't want to allow anything for them, although we all know they have value as a collection.

[Melvin L. De Vilbiss]

Look at the link down below this entry titled "A Guide to Selling, et. al."...

[Scott T. Shier]

Dear Lena,

I am so sorry to hear about your fire, and for your family and all I wish you well as you try and sort things out and get things cleaned up. Years back we had a "small fire" that was a giant near-miss and could have actually turned into something...bad. Thankfully it happened in such a way we didn't lose possessions and only had to deal w/ having the carpet cleaned, the bricks re-set on fireplace wall, and a wall-washing + re-paint.

I cannot add anything more substantial than the link Mel is directing you to. You can rest assured that his assessment(s) are right on the mark. Best to you,

      ~ Scott Shier

[Oakland collection]

Hi Lena,

I've got a couple of ideas for you, if you're still working on this?

First question is, would you rather have the collection replaced, or would you rather have fair reimbursement for the cost to you in $ you can spend on something else?