I can't believe I've gone this far without talking about StuffBak. The idea is surpassingly simple: you go to your local CompUSA and buy a set of stickers with serial numbers etched into them. You tag your personal electronics or other valuables with them, register the serial numbers at the StuffBak site, and if you lose one of the items, the information on the sticker can allow a Good Samaritan to get in touch with you through StuffBak. You can even offer a cash reward for returning a given item. The stickers are made from the same foil as those hard-to-remove asset tags that are used in corporations, and they survive a fair beating.
I could think of at least ten things I wanted to tag with these stickers: my USB flash drive (which has a backup copy of all my current and most irreplaceable work), my laptop, my portable music player, my desktop PC, and so on. I haven't yet lost anything, thank goodness, but USA Today did their own study and got back something like 75-80% of the stuff they lost.
StuffBak also sells a number of other services aside from the basic stickers, and they have group discounts as well. Check them out.
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