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Four Questions, and Sometimes the Answer Is No
Vault storage suits some collections and not others. Here is how to tell quickly.
Come and see it before you commit anything. Bring your insurance broker or your appraiser if that helps you decide.
The four
If the answer to most of these is no, a good home safe or a safe deposit box is probably the better arrangement, and cheaper.
- Is a meaningful part of the collection rarely worn?
- Is it undocumented, or documented only in an old appraisal?
- Would your family struggle to find or identify it without you?
- Does your property sit empty for parts of the year?
What a vault actually adds
Documentation your insurer will accept, an access log, controlled release authority you set, and a record your estate can use.
What it does not add is a stronger door than a bank has. The case for a vault over a box is the record and the control, not the steel.
The arrangement most collectors settle on
Regular pieces at home in a proper safe, the rest vaulted and documented.
It is more sensible than either extreme, and it is what we recommend to most people who call — including the ones who then store less with us than they were expecting to.
Common questions
- Is a safe deposit box enough?
- For a modest, already-documented collection with banking-hours access, frequently yes, and cheaper.
- What does a vault add over a box?
- Documentation, an access log and controlled release authority. Not a stronger door.
- Should we store everything?
- Most collectors keep what they wear regularly at home and vault the rest.
- Will you tell us we do not need you?
- Yes, and it happens regularly.
Tell us what needs to move.
What, from where, and roughly when. You do not need an inventory to start the conversation, and if the job belongs with an armored carrier we will say so on the call.