Didn't we just go over this last week? There is a search bar. $150 might get you ok fire protection, but almost no burglary protection. Will just be a magnet for them. You have to be realistic about what an average, determined criminal is capable of with time. IMO, $1500 would still be a low end safe. Have seen them pried into as well. Really need a home security system in addition to the safe which will eliminate the time available to them. Covered well in this thread....from last week. http://www.cointalk.com/t197914/
I started the coin safes thread that vess1 referred to. I'm upgrading my safe and I've done a lot of research and talked to a few pros. I would have to agree that there is nothing worthwhile available for "burglary" protection for $150. At that price I'd rather hide a fire chest in a cardboard box covered by clothes or something in the basement somewhere. $300 is the cheapest for a legitimately burglar-resistant safe, but it isn't fire-resistant.
One thing I found in my research is that most gun safes have thin walls (12 gauge) that can be penetrated with a fire axe in under one minute, or a sledgehammer, and are not very fire-resistant. That's why I've settled on a B-rated safe with a fire-resistant chest inside. The cheapest ones I know of are the Amsec M1414, Hayman CV-14 or Hollon B1414 (but the typical fire chest probably won't fit inside these). If you want a "fire-resistant" B-rated safe, you're going to go into the $1000 area and significantly increase the weight, which could be a good or bad thing depending upon your situation. If you want a safe (TL-15) that's dang near impossible to break into you're talking a minimum of $2,500 and 750 pounds. Then you get into the "stupid" heavy and expensive TL-30's.
i dont need a safe for my coins, they are protected by something else (Meet Ditzy, my trained Belgian Malinois )
get some sheet metal and crack a whole in your wall.lol.. serious a decent safe unless your getting one off of craigs list is about 1000 dollars
Consider looking for going out of bussiness sales. There is a Blockbuster video closing in my area and they are selling a 270 lb store safe for $250. I assume this is a pretty good safe? I was only able to see a polaroid of it. the Two guys working were, I believe, stoned and unhelpful. I will check back in latter. Anybody know anything about the types of safes businesses use and if they are any good? This was 3x3x3 i'm thinking. Maybe a Sentry? Hope I am not hijacking the tread. My original intent was to suggest this as a way to look for a good safe. Blockbuster videos seem to be closing all across the country right now.
Some general safety tips i learned when i started my job (security) -Always have something of value laying around on top of your dresser Seems stupid, but the average burglar (the non professional one) will only take what they can find easily. -If you buy a safe, make sure its a good one and anchor it it the floor or against the wall. (And place it somewhere out of view) -Do not lock inner doors or closets to prevent extra damage -Never place a message on your answering machine saying "I'm not home now" but make it "i cant come to the phone right now" These won't protect your coins off course but these tips make sure that when you come home and you find out your house is robbed that the damage is minimal.
Everybody interested in this thread should watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2EyFNCAX3s Keep in mind the Centurioun at the beginning is Liberty's lowest end safe and it is laying down. My Lincoln series 25 with a good media cooler ran me $2600. It's the smallest of that series and weighs 730 lbs. They were not able to pry into that one in an hour. Here's one of the comments under the video: "I actually work at Liberty safe and these safes are in fact impressive the way they are built very durable against break in and fire depending on witch safe you buy. **You literally get what you pay for**."
Well that's clear and to the point! I just assumed being commercial grade would be a good thing. I don't know anything about the safe. I hope to get some specs on it but the kids working when i was in could not be bothered to put their iphones down.
What is commercial grade supposed to mean? If you were talking about some kind of bank here, I might want to know more. Why would you assume that anybody at blockbuster is a safe expert? I doubt the kids working there have any clue about it or if the guy who ordered it would even know anything. 250 lbs isn't a big safe. I think there's a couple problems involved when people get into these discussions. We need to compare apples to apples and make sure we have the same goal in mind for one thing. Is the only goal to keep employees and kids from easily being able to grab something valuable? That safe may be able to do that. You can block the first wave. But is the goal also to try to prevent professional robbers with tools from breaking into something while you're out of town? Can it do that? Because the safe becomes a magnet and they are going to be very determined to get in? I'd guess probably not. The better the safe, the more the difficulty increases in preventing a theft. It boils down to what you are going to be satisfied with. I don't know why anybody would want to store thousands worth of valuables in the cheapest safe they can find. It doesn't make sense. The best safes cost money. You get what you pay for. It's hard to escape that.
