Ouch, that does suck! You didn't go into much detail about the cards that were damaged... Were they nice cards? Your PC so to speak? Or was it 6 5K boxes full of commons and base cards? Just because... well, $6500 BV isn't really that much in real life money, I mean if you work it out per card you're saying the BV per card was 21 cents, which would make the actual value around, I dunno, 2 cents. Because 21 cent cards are hard to sell!
I'm about to give away about that many cards... I don't want them. On the other hand, if 100 of my Rickeys got wet, it would be more costly and painful than if the 30K cards got wet.
Someone please explain why do I pay insurance on my house again?
Let me explain, I think I can help you to feel better. You have it in case something really really bad happens. This situation is looking grim now, but it's not that bad. Your house didn't burn down, or you could have had a tree fall on it and cause $30K worth of damage or more. That's why you have insurance. Your insurance is (presumably) affordable because you don't have the flood coverage. Does your insurance have a deductible? Most do, and most of them are $5K. So even if they did cover the damage on the house, you would be on the hook for the $5K. And they'll never cover the cards, you have to get a special policy or a rider for that. Those are not cheap! If you had all those extra bells and whistles, you probably would have paid $11,500 extra in premiums over the years. So you break even.
I say congratulations my friend, you were wise. You saved all that money over the years and used it for what you wanted! Sadly though, it is time to pay a portion of it back. And of course... I still don't know what kind of cards were lost, or how long you've been paying for the insurance. So please don't take offense to my positive attitude.