Insurance help needed!!  

I don't know if this is possible for you...
...but if you are the child or grandchild or parent or grandparent of someone who has served in the military, you might look into getting coverage with USAA. Their website is at www.usaa.com -- you can check your elligibility there. I know that USAA does offer insurance for antiques and maybe they won't be so dense when you bring up your mid-century modern pieces that will need extra coverage (given what they sell for).
I have no experience dealing with Chubb, so I can't help you there...sorry!

reply/insurance
thanks, but USAA in not a option
We really are having trouble finding a company that does not want to "schedule" each items. IF we had all brand new items they would replace should a major fire or theft happen at 100%, where it get hard is that the insurance companies what to shedule these older items then in our case (Erie) does not want us to use the item, other-wise if some thing should happen they seem to feel that our older items are not of value. We are looking for farir market value for replacement of older items and we have yet to find a ANY company. We didn't know this was a problem until we read the fine print on our ploicy and found out that items over 25 years do not receive replacement value, unless they are "scheduled", I wonder how many other people think their items are insured and really are not?

Do I get a ribbon for resurrecting the oldest thread?
Just curious how people here are (or are not) insuring their personal mid-century collection. I have an Allstate home insurance policy that covers possessions up to 75% of the dwelling cost. However, I haven't identified any specific "prized possessions" items, which would have coverage up to $10k apiece.
I have between 20-30 furniture pieces, whose individual prices fall in a reasonable retail price range of $200 - $2500. So total value is well under the max limit. However, how does replacement value get calculated for mid century pieces, which fall between new replacements and the traditional definition of antique furniture? Some items are currently only available on 1stDibs store. Do those listings then set the replacement value (which would then exceed $2500 in a few cases)?
I am planning on contacting Allstate directly, but just wanted to get a sense how others are approaching this. Are you itemizing pieces with values less than $10k (or $2k)?
Although I do sell a few things here and there, all my stuff is pretty much for personal use rather than business inventory.
Thanks.

This is an interesting question.  Since it sort of is business inventory does it work better to insure it as such?

I actually use about 95% of my mid-century furniture/furnishings in my house (not including project pieces awaiting fixin' up in the basement), so it's not really business inventory. I try to rotate newly acquired pieces into various rooms, and then sell what they replaced, in order to avoid having too much stuff lying around.
So I'm really looking at this from a home-owner's perspective, although one with constantly-changing pieces.

What are the downsides of insuring them as business inventory?  (I think most insurers assume furniture has very little residual value once off the showroom floor, and regardless the home owner is very unlikely to sell it anyway, so from this point of view, your furniture is much near to business inventory anyway).

cdsilva, can you pleaes contact me on bps@bernhard.dk - its regarding your BPS sideboard.
Thanks in advance.

Thomas, I had sent an e-mail last week, but never got a response. Just sent you another one.

Can't you just get your stuff appraised by someone who appraises MCM era things?  There are plenty of people who do that and they may even do it from photos and descriptions for all I know.  Insurance companies accept appraisals from outside experts when determining value and how much coverage you'll need.  
 

Have you checked with the official sponsor of the Antiques Roadshow on PBS? 

I guess the underlying question I have is whether I need to itemize my personal mid century collection to the insurance company at this stage. I have always assumed that if a fire destroyed my house, I would simply list the items that were lost and their reasonable replacement cost (whether it was a new chair from Room and Board or a vintage chair acquired from eBay), and Allstate would cut me check. However, I don't have any firsthand experience of how insurance companies value vintage furniture.
 

You really need to contact your Allstate agent.  I just recently purchased a home with my fiance and there were various options to choose from (I have Liberty Mutual) for personal property and replacement value costs.  The way it worked with LM was that the property / replacement value is dependent on the number of main rooms (living, kitchen, bedrooms etc.) in the house times the estimated value of furniture per room.  At the end of the day it's all under one limit so you could simply add up the value of your pieces and divide them by the number of main rooms and come up with the estimated value per room.  Hope that helps.

I'm not an insurance agent, but I'll tell you what mine told me. You need to maintain a full inventory of all your personal items that have value above average used furniture cost - typically you need not just a list of items but pictures to prove ownership and condition. If you don't have that, then you can use receipts for what you paid. If those receipts are from Goodwill, then that is their value unless you can show otherwise. You don't need to get an appraisal before hand, as long as you have good evidence (pictures), but an appraisal is even better IF you get an independent appraiser. Obviously its important that you don't get appraisals from your business partner or sister-in-law.
If you don't have any of the above, then you'll get used furniture value - much less than you probably imagine your items are worth.