A Charizard-shaped Cheeto trading for thousands of dollars may sound like a curiosity, but for insurers and brokers, it’s a reminder that the collectibles world is no longer confined to dusty stamp albums and rare coins. The market is expanding in both value and diversity - and insurance is racing to keep up.
Michael Wilson (pictured), assistant vice-president of business development for specialty lines at NFP Canada, said the firm’s program focused on memorabilia and collectibles is, in practice, much broader than the name suggests.
“It really involves all collectibles,” he said. He pointed to everything from hugely popular Pokémon collections that attract serious enthusiasts and money, to comic books and high-end art, where some pieces have historically traded in the tens of millions of dollars.
The list doesn’t stop there. Whiskey and wine collections, high-end watches such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Rolex, cigar collections, automobilia, antique telephones, gas pumps, celebrity and athlete memorabilia – all fall under the umbrella.
“It really comes down to the collector – what their passion is, what they want to be connected with,” Wilson said.
That connection, he argued, is central to the category. Collectors aren’t just buying things; they’re buying proximity.
Sentiment plays a big role. Wilson sees many clients building collections around family traditions – a hobby shared with grandparents, then passed to children and grandchildren – or around lifelong attachment to a sports team or pop‑culture franchise.
“As you can tell, the collective is very diverse,” he said.
While specialist collectibles insurance is well‑developed in the United States, Wilson characterised the Canadian market as still relatively nascent.
“For full transparency, this product is very new here in Canada,” he said. “There aren’t many companies doing this. The knowledge of these programs is not very well distributed across Canada, as much as I would say in the United States.”
NFP has been pushing its program for roughly three years, with much of the effort still focused on education and brand recognition.
“It’s really that educational piece still right now,” he said. “Explaining to the collectors about this coverage, and how really the homeowner’s policy is not the appropriate spot, nor does it have appropriate coverage and limits for these collections.”
At the same time, the hobby itself is booming. Wilson pointed to the impact of social media and streaming series focused on high‑end collecting and auctions – such as Netflix shows fronted by major US auction houses – in drawing attention to the sector.
“They’ve really enhanced and put the microscope on the collectible scene,” he said. “It’s pretty much forced everybody to run to their attics and check their garages and run to their grandparents’ house and look for those collectibles and see what maybe they have lying around.”
On the ground, the shift is visible at shows and conventions.
“We go to a lot of these sports and collectibles shows, and the size of these shows has exploded over the last two, three years,” Wilson said. “Not only are there more shows coming on the circuit, but the size of each show is actually growing with the vendors and the spectators that come.”
He said the firm is seeing both entirely new entrants and long‑time collectors doubling down, particularly in graded and authenticated items.
“As more collectors focus on those quality and rare items, those high‑end pieces, those are going to continue to hold their value over time,” he noted.
Another trend he flagged is crossover between categories. Collectors who began with sports cards might now be adding sealed gaming products, console games, pop‑culture pieces or automotive memorabilia.
“Collectors are looking to build diverse portfolios or collections.”
For insurers, that means programs need to be broad enough to accommodate very different items and risk profiles under one roof, and underwriting teams must be comfortable with a widening range of niches.
Wilson said the only way to keep pace is to build an in-house team that lives the space.
“It really comes down to having a collective team in-house that are specialists in particular fields,” he said. “They have their own passions as well. We have a lot of people who collect various items or are in various sports and are die-hard into that lifestyle.”
That translates into a constant diet of auction catalogues, online marketplaces and forums.
Wilson said the team has to stay plugged into collector communities and auction activity, tracking major platforms like Heritage, Goldin and eBay, as well as Canadian houses such as Miller & Miller and HiBid, which aggregates sales from multiple local auctioneers.
By watching what sells, at what price, and who is bidding, NFP’s team can track trends and values in near real time. That matters for underwriting and for claims.
“You need to stay connected with the values and what’s going on on the auction side,” he said.
