So I was talking to my insurance agency about getting renters and how a somewhere between $100 - $200 in playing cards and about if they wanted a pic with list and prices. The agent looked a me funny and said sorry can you repeat that you have that money in what I heard playing cards and that is ridiculous. So I told him that is what i said and he was like baseball cards or something? And I had to explain the decks I collect, and now everyone in that office knows me as the crazy card guy when I come in.
As long as they're willing to insure it, what the hell do you care what they think?
One thing you'll learn in time is that the most important opinion to you should be your own.
If they continue to feel like making fun of your collection, say something like, "y'know, this is more hassle than it's worth. Could you give me the name and phone number of the regional manager? I'd like to let him know why I switched to a different insurance company..." You might notice they'll start treating you a little differently.
Regarding adding a rider to cover your playing card collection, get CURRENT market values for every deck. Periodically review the coverage amount to insure that it's keeping pace with the actual value of your collection and update it as needed. Catalog and photograph every single deck - even the opened ones, as long as they have a real value as an opened deck - with notes on condition and value, and keep that data stored not only at home but somewhere off-site, like a file-storage site. You can even email it to yourself if you keep all of your email on the server rather than letting it be deleted from the server when downloaded. Take photographs displaying where you keep the decks stored as further evidence that you owned every deck you listed - open drawers and cabinet doors, pop open lids and boxes, etc. If you are like most people, you probably didn't save every single receipt for your decks. Start saving them.
If you can't prove in some fashion that you owned any items that you bought a rider to cover, they will not pay you jack squat. It sounds like a pain in the ass to do all this work, but it actually serves a valuable purpose to you as well as to your insurer. On those days when you're going through the collection, insuring your inventory is correct, it will give you an opportunity to reflect on your entire collection as a whole and as the sum of its parts. You'll have good memories about some of your decks, I'm sure, and it will give you an idea of what is of interest to you RIGHT NOW as a collector. You might decide to ditch collecting, you might decide you love your collection and collecting just the way it is, you might decide that perhaps it's time to consider narrowing your focus as a collector. No matter how you slice it, the act of inventorying forces you to consider these things.
I hear rumor that this also works pretty good for life in general. Take stock of what your life is today, count everything that makes up your day, weekend, week, month, etc. Include the good, the bad and the indifferent, and of what value they are to you. Force yourself to ponder over what direction it's taking and whether your fine with that or think that there needs to be some change - maybe even a lot of change. But if you don't stop to take stock of your situation, then life becomes everything that happens while you were waiting for something better to come along, with a slim chance of ANYTHING better showing up - you get caught in a rut, and before you know it, you're collecting Social Security, your whole life having slipped away as you wonder where the hell it went. Once you know what you've got, you can get a better handle on what you'd like to have and what you'd like to get rid of, and take the necessary steps to make these changes happen.
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