Churchill’s Head of Home Insurance, Martin Scott said, “Collecting and trading of belongings is clearly a favourite of the nation with millions of pounds worth, being collected every day. With so much value accumulated through these personal items, it is vital that homeowners have the right level of contents insurance to protect their investment.”

Churchill’s survey shows that just 18% of respondents have taken extra steps to insure their collections and still around a quarter*** of the nation have no contents insurance at all.

Scott said, “The value of our home contents creeps up with every purchase. Homeowners not only need to consider the total sum of their contents, but also specific cover on bigger purchases such as paintings, antiques and jewellery.”

The top ten items collected are:

1. CDs
2. Books
3. DVDs
4. Stamps
5. Antiques

More obscure collections included:

1. Banana stickers
2. Cigarette rolling papers
3. Rubbers/Erasers
4. Homepride ‘Fred’ figures
5. Polar Bear trinkets

The survey not only revealed what we collect and its value, but also how the nation catalogues such prize possessions. When it comes to organisation over a third (36%) of men won’t rest unless their CD collection is alphabetically ordered. This compares to over half of women who just stack randomly.

The survey over 1,000 respondents was carried out by 72 Point Limited in February 2005.

*average collection worth £2,098.80 X 75% of 22m(16.5m) households = £34,630,200,000

**monthly spend = 75% of UK Households (16.5m) X £31.05 average spend

***Data Monitor report on Home Insurance 2004