The Contents Valet Million Dollar Database

The contents valet don’t just use obvious resources such as Ebay to help them decide an item’s worth (as was indicated in the first article in this issue, the figures found there can be wildly inflated and inaccurate). In point of fact there are far too many avenues of research to list them all here.

As an example, there is one company (which at last count is serving over 9,500 adjusters) that has expert researchers and investigators on staff. If you are one of our constant readers, you may recall how a member of their team realized that what the insured thought was a “priceless” piano had been badly restored with modern parts and was worth only a fraction of what the owner had thought – thus saving the carrier thousands.

And there are several, good, solid online databases from which one can get a pretty good estimate, replacement value (and sometimes even replacements themselves). This latter type of catalogue can be of inestimable value when a single plate in a set of fine china or a shattered vintage tea cup must be replaced.