Excellent thread which had me calling my insurance company USAA to see where I stood. The first thing I wanted to know is whether my equipment and my LP collection which is up to about 3800 pieces are insured under my homeowner's contents policy, and they are. The second question is what would be required of me to prove the value. I was told to definitely take photographs of both my equipment and media to "prove" its existence and having an itemized list is excellent protection. It's large task to itemize a large media collection, but ultimately we are our own best protection, and I guess that will get onto my to-do list. In my career I have had many dealings with clients and their insurance companies and they are all hugs and kisses when it comes to taking your money when you purchase a policy. But by definition a claims situation is an adversarial relationship, as virtually all claims departments will want to pay as little as possible. Having receipts for everything is highly improbable, but if you have a listing of what you own accompanied by photos, and a contents policy with an appropriate cap for your situation you should be able to arrive at a fair compensation after the fact. Keep in mind an appraisal, should you decide to go that route, is one person's opinion of an item's value and the dollar figure on the appraisal given to the insurance company becomes the cap of their liability to you, not necessarily what they will pay out in the case of loss. If they can find the replacement cost of an item of like kind and quality lower than the appraised value, that is what they will try to pay out. Keep this in mind should your appraiser value things on the high side.
