Looking For A Safe

So many places sell safes of all types. For example in my area there is a place called Menards. They have on display about 15 different types from real small to very large. Same with a place called Home Depot. Safes are also available at many gun supply places. One place called Cabela's always has a large variety of safes for sale.
If you go to Google and type in Safes for Sale you would get about 45,000,000 milllion replys.

Agreed with Bryan, the best defense is to not let people know you have the safe. Any safe can be cracked given enough time or resources. The main goal is for it to take long enough for the cops to arrive or look daunting enough it never gets attempted, the greater the theoretical reward though the more risk people will take like the group that robbed the vault in the Bellagio casino. A heavy safe bolted to the floor with a strong door should be sufficient unless youre very wealthy. Gun safes are usually very sturdy, wall safes can be good too and easier to hide from plain sight

First, do not buy or even think of buying a Sentry safe. Very easy to breach. Antique safes are easy to breach. They may look good but that is very misleading. The older safes are lined with concrete. This is bad. You can get a TL rated safe. These are usually TL-15 or TL-30. This means that with proper tools and knowledge a person(s) with proper tools would need at least 15 or 30 minutes to breach the safe. But these usually do not have fire ratings. Special saw blades can cut through ANY safe you can buy but not everybody will buy or have these blades. Cobalt makes a nice smaller safe for the house but this one costs around 1200-1500 dollars. This would be for the model with an interior dimension of 12x12x15 (or there about). I saw an older scratched model and the dealer wanted about 1100 dollars. These weigh around 400 pounds.

You also want one that can be anchored into the ground. Anchor your safe into a concrete slab not a hardwood floor. Thieves can remove a 5000 pound safe that isn't bolted down. The safe where I work weighs about 1100 pounds but with the anchor it would require about 3500 pounds of force to break it free from the ground. You'd need a tow truck to pull it free. Do you remember the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee video? They had that stored in their personal safe with other treasures. This safe was removed from the house and breached at another location. If they want it, they'll get it. Safes keep amateur and wanna be burglars out of your stuff. And don't SKIMP on the safe. You get what you pay for. Call all of your local locksmiths. Many have used safes too. Do not buy a standard gun safe like they sell at Home Depot or Lowes. Garbage stuff. Electronic key pads can fail and this can cause you another headache. Some swear by them I swear at them. Learn the combination and store the combination somewhere only YOU (or trusted love one) know where it is. I had to purchase two different safes for my store (6 years apart) and I spent countless hours researching this topic. And one more thing. If you buy a safe try to bring it home with a trusted (strong) friend. If it is delivered then there are two more people that know you have a safe in your home and you have something of value that needs protecting.

It depends how big you want it to be. I bought a gun safe then customized the shelving. Makes for alot of shelves for storage.

buy a bunch of fake gold coins and leave them in a sort of easy spot to find take, get some small lockable money trays, mark em gold silver copper foreign etc fill em with rubbish coins and half hide them.
or good old electrickery can be used as a deterrence, think of an electric fence with a few extra volts added. if 2 cometo rob me, 1 might leave with my collection, not so sure about both being able to walk out ;)

Much wisdom in the above posts; no disagreement with any of it...

I would (repeat &/or) also throw in:
---Go expensive and heavy, not cheap and light;
---See what the legit pro locksmith shop(s) have in stock & to say - they know the trade, they're the real deal & they sell the real stuff;
---Gun safes are OK - just stay heavy & expensive;
---Spend lots of time reading reviews on the cheapies in Amazon - that'll drive you away from small/cheap, Sentry/etc & into the arms of the real pro's, for sure;
---As said above, keep it totally secret or you're totally begging out loud to get hit.

I was looking at getting a <$500 safe and decided to not even bother because it just isn't worth it. The thieves would just cart it off into the night, laughing to themselves as they headed south with it.

Cheap small safes can be useful to make sure the kids (if you have any) dont spend the collection around town thinking its only worth face value but thats about it

OP have you checked into safety deposit boxes? Depending on the value of the items you have renting one at a bank may be worth it.