(fax) A Tricky Question... insurance appraisals

[Trevor Cordes]

On 23 Jan, brian at lists.frickster.net wrote:
> 
> I hope this helps you and everyone else on the list.  If anyone else knows a 
> difinitive answer to the question of value, please let us know.  I'd love to be 
> able to take that to the insurance company if I ever needed to again.

Yes, as Brian mentions, I've been tracking >99% of all FAX ebay
auctions, on all N.A. and European ebay sites for over 2 years now.  I
can fairly easily appraise the current value range of any FAX CD.

I spend at least 20 mins (more like 50 on Sundays) every day on this
endeavour.  I did it to help me fill my collection and now that it's
complete I find I still do it just for the heck of it.

I was pondering the possibility of starting some sort of service,
probably web based (I'm a PHP/MySQL nut) but haven't bothered yet.  I
was pondering how I could possibly charge for such a service and if
anyone would want to pay.  Certainly a new fan just starting out would
love to know the current value of everything so they don't get ripped
off on ebay.  Sellers may also want to know to gain an advantage.
Appraising a collection (for insurance or whatever) is another idea.

I don't need to get rich off of something like that: I'd just be happy
to recover some of that 20+ mins I spend each day on it -- I work for
myself and that 20 mins is time I am not doing billable work.

If even a couple of you would find such a service useful, it would be
handy to know if / how much you'd be willing to pay.  I could make it
happen if I could cover my time eventually.

Also, I wonder how one becomes an "official" appraiser in the eyes of
the insurance industry.  What makes a jewellery or baseball card
appraiser "official"?