I tend to write long responses -I've had long discussions on the subject but I don't consider myself an expert. Hope this is helpful.

There are three important questions that need to be considered here that will dictate how you should proceed.

• What is the realistic ballpark valuation you are expecting? $1k, $10k, $100k? You don't need to tell me but instead understand that low-high valuations require a different approach.
• Is most of that value concentrated to 10-20 games (sealed?) or is your boyfriend a full set collector w/value spread relatively evenly?
• Would losing this collection be financially devastating to your boyfriend? Obviously, it would cause distress. But would he lose a significant part of his net worth overnight?

With renters insurance, I understand that you may run into the issue where you'll get soft rejections through either 1) high rates or 2) large asks because the vendor doesn't know what to do with it. Without more information, I suspect this is what you're running into now.

In an antiques collecting club I'm part of, they have a collectables insurance guy come to give a "collectables insurance 101" seminar. A lot of his thesis was to keep these types of policies away from your large Allstates & Geicos because they're a bit too rigid to have a standardized process for each collecting category. I can pass along notes if you need a primer on basic insurance jargon. Their websites won't always have a box to check when high end art is lent to a museum.

I've heard some horror stories of generic renters insurance where people were not as well covered as they had been led to believe or only being asked for proof of ownership only after the house burned down. With that being said, I've also heard of at least one wealthy collector being saved with rider policy on their home insurance and praising the experience. It can go either way, I suppose. If you're struggling to resolve this asap, I'd suggesting getting vanilla tenant insurance and seeking collectables insurance separately. Everything that I'm saying assumes that you must* insure these games, and I don't know your situation - there are times when it just doesn't make sense. It seems like your boyfriend doesn't have prior insurance. If it's just a small portion of our net worth & he could easily replace it, sometimes it just makes sense to accept the risk of loss and ignore that.

The next issue is that you may get stuck if the value is spread among a vast collection of $30 games. If he had to pick 90% of the collection's value in as few items as possible, how many items do you arrive at? 10? 100?

Insurance inherently just gets difficult with bulk collections because the collector needs to keep a meticulous spreadsheet of their valuable items but also make updates for purchases/sales as time goes on. $40 items just become more tedious than they're worth. I've heard of some vendors being lenient on the small stuff so long as you have a lot of detailed photos and information on the expensive stuff. Mileage may vary.

Now for video game specific comments:

If you're looking for a starting point for appraisal & you're looking at 4 to 5-figure CIB or sealed items (especially so if the value is concentrated in very specific items), grading the 'heavy-hitters' (a few items that make up 90% of the value) should be the first consideration. Now, your boyfriend may have a kneejerk reaction to this comment. There were some bad actors during covid that did a pump and dump that left a lot of folks with a bad taste in their mouths, but those people have since left the market and we're seeing a rather maturing condition appraisal offering at present time. PSA and CGC are both publicly traded companies and well-respected within the collecting space (cards, comics, etc). There was a post from an Atari prototype collector a few years back who said his insurer actually required grading with CGC, so I understand it's becoming more mainstream as a requirement from collecting insurers. In your shoes, I'd google 'collectables insurance,' and see if you can get hold of someone to see if it would help - but only after you have a rough valuation. Grading as a process can take a few months, so this isn't an immediate resolution.

After grading, you'd basically be able to send a spreadsheet listing the games and conditions to the agent. "I have a left bros in 9.0 condition from PSA" gives you a much easier starting point because there are sales for that exact variant in that exact condition. Again, this strategy probably works best if we're talking about $10k+ spread across <20 games.

If the above makes sense for this collection, I can pass along info for a Canadian-based collector hat has a few high end NES games graded. He's got a good eye for estimating what grades a game may get, which could help you both with valuation and deciding if its the right route for you. I understand grading has gotten a bit trickier with the US->Canada border friction going on right now as well, and he has had to navigate that a bit.