I called state farm yesterday to work on getting the 68 convertible insured for the first time since the restoration. I told him that I wanted to have an essesed value put on the car of 16-18 thousand. I really don't know if that is to low or to high. I more then likely have more then that in it, but I want to be realistic.

They didn't think it would be an issue I just need to get some pictures put together and they requested some documentation for helping determining the value for the underwriters.

The only documentation that I could think to get would be completed listing on Ebay. I also have all the receipts of major purchases over the last 10 years. What would else might work for documentation?

This was origanly a 350 car that is now a 400 clone so I know the value drops a little there. It not the orignal color so that is another hit on the value. On the flip side this car has almost everything on it new, painted or referbished. New metal, new paint, polished trim, chromed bumpers, new wiring harness throughout, new weather stripping, new gas tank and sending unit, all the break parts are new with front disc, new grills, new dash pad, new suspension pieces, cliff carb, Dave small body HEI, RARE exhaust with LBM, New Convt top etc....

All my "normal" stuff is with State Farm (cars, truck, house...). About a year ago I was working with them just like you, to get my 'Bird insured for the 1st time since I took it off the road 13 years ago. I was originally going to just have it insured as a normal car at the depreciated 43 year old car rate, just to get plates on it. Then I was going to hook up with an appraiser because that is the only way State Farm would insure it for a "restored" value.

3 things happened. 1) The State Farm insurance turned into a cluster. I was originally quoted an increase in my monthly payments of a measly $10. Wrong - it went up a lot.

2) I blew out the rear oil pan seal after about 1 hour on the rebuilt engine. Getting the car street legal got postponed until that issue was addressed. So I cancel the State Farm policy on the Firebird.

3) I ended up moving to another state.

So this time (about 2 months ago) I said the heck with it and went straight to Haggerty for an agreed value policy. No hassle.

That is my suggestion to you after you look around at ads and auction prices, figure in how much you have spent on the car - and come up with a value to you.

You may want to do a search on this topic. It was just recently well covered in another thread. You may want to consider Hagerty or another "collector car ins. co.".

No doubt, state farm sucks as a regular insurer, much less for our cars. For about $250.00 bucks/year you can have 25k agreed value with Hagerty.

same w Grundy, which I have on my two cars, had also on two others before..
I have $25k agreed value on the Bird after sending in a few pictures...actually I went from 12k, to 17k, to 20 k, to 25 k over a period of running resto over 10 yrs...
I think I now pay about $210-220 and they asked how many miles I`d drive , I said about 4000...just added my Triumph two weeks ago, for agreed value $10k, it added $40 to my premium for the half year left...

My quote was 21 a month for the 18K coverage so that seems to be in the ball park but a little high.

I had my insurance with State farm since I was 14 and drove a Moped. I have always had good luck with them. I'm grandfathered into a few things they can't offer anymore. I like a one stop shop that I can drive to and talk to the person face to face.

I may check out Hagerty or Grundy down the line but I was just wondering about how to document the appraisal price without a real appraisal being done and if you think my 18K value is sounds right.

Make sure you have "an agreed upon price".

Anything less (including an appraisal) is asking for disappointment.

if its not thru a classic car insurer you may not get agreed value, they may give you value based on what their 'book' tells them ,so a total may give you $2500 if thats their 'book value' for an avg car like yours...make sure you get "agreed value" = whats in YOUR cars worth...not an average

If the policy does NOT state "AGREED UPON VALUE", you WILL get screwed in the event of loss, apraisal or not, you will not get what you should for the vehicle. A regular policy on a collector/classic is basically worthless other than the liability side.

I have State Farm insurance. In 2005, I extensively researched this subject and found that staying with State Farm was cheaper than going anywhere else. The only qualification they had was to get the car appraised.

I used Great Old Cars and State Farm accepted that appraisal and insured my vehicle at 100% of the appraisal value (10.5K at the time). Before that, they were saying my car was worth $4500. Clearly worth the $50 I paid to have it appraised. My premium went up slightly (maybe $5 a month).

I pay about $28/month for FULL replacement coverage.

Here's the webpage to Great Old Cars: http://www.greatoldcars.com/

Carm,

My friend Mike has been in the appraisal business for almost 40 years. He is a member of the advisory board for Hagerty, Hecock and several other ins. co. He also travels around the US to conduct appraisals and also is called to testify on behalf of owners of cars and or on the other side for the ins. co.

He says that unless you have an "Agreed Upon Value Policy", in the event of loss, you are 100% screwed. In fact, using your info above for example, you insure your car with State Farm on a regular type policy and they set your "Stated Value" at 10.5k. If you total that car and have a regular stated value policy and not an agreed upon value policy, all you will get from them in the event of a total loss is the $4500 book value you also mentioned above. You could have 10 appraisals all stating the ar is worth 20k, but if your policy is NOT "Agreed Upon Value", those appraisals are worthless.

I am only trying to help people out here, I see and hear this stuff daily from Mike as I spend my days at his house/shop/office. I have even traveled with him to conduct appraisals etc. and have seen this stuff first hand. Let's put it this way, this guy gets $250 per appraisal and that is if you bring the car to him. If he travels, he get's milage, time and the appraisal fee on top of everything else. This is a guy who knows this stuff inside and out.

He has shown me case files of people who have a collector car or classic that was worth a ton of money and for some crazy reason had these cars insured through regular ins. co., had a loss and then were given book value. As you can imagine, these people are devastated and beside themselves and there is nothing they could do.

I myself had a loss with my 68 Firebird this past Dec. I had the car insured through Hagerty and had no issues at all when I put a claim in for the damages. I had my agreed upon value set at 30k, damages came in at 15k. Had I actually had the car fixed, there would have been another 5-10k in supplamentals. However, I choose not to have the car repaired so I took the 15k in repairs and parted the car out for another 12k. I went this route because I knew the car would take a very long time to repair and I also wanted to keep my engine and trans.

Bottom line, shop wisely and research these policies inside and out because these cars do get hit and more than you might expect. Using our accident as an example, there were almost 20 cars stopped for an open draw bridge. Of the 20 stopped cars, Mike and I had the only two classics. Both were hit, his 65 Tempest was rear ended by me after I was rear ended by a lady going 45mph and never touched her brakes. 15k damage to our car, 5k to his, and up to this point over 40k in medical expenses.

So yes, this stuff does happen. And to think our accident was due to an "undocumented visitor" aka: ilegal alien. The only weird thing is, this "undocumented visitor" amazingly actually had insurence! Go figure that one... LOL

get the professional appraisal, I am fortunate enough to have a guy that runs a local classic car place thats a friend of mine and he is a licensed appraiser. cost me $75 and the appraisal is all legit and bulletproof. I have Pekin Insurance and my guy didnt even blink on a $28K appraisal, fully unsured for that value and it cost me $90.00 for a year with a $1k deductible. I was pleased to say the least!

Haggerty refused to issue me a policy because I said I wanted to drive my car to work once a week (15 minutes) and park in a secured garage there. I would still be under 3k miles and they said I could only drive to work once or twice a year!!! Whats the point of having a car you can almost only drive to a show? Hartford (ranked #2 by JD Power) stated it was OK and they have my business!

Hmm, that is strange. When we lived in Buffalo I had the Firebird insured by Hagerty and I told them I would drive the car daily to my office weather permitting and they had no issue with it at all. However, I have also been with them for more than 16 years so maybe that's the difference...

PS a bullet proff appraisal will do you no good if you don't have a bullet proff policy. It's the ins. co. that will screw you if they can. You could have Jim Wangers write up an appraisal, but unless you have that "agreed upon value", you will get whatever they want to give you and that's it...