On 6/26/2024 8:07 PM, W2HX via cctalk wrote:
None of our survivors will give a rats-arse about getting even a nickel for
this stuff. All they will want is for it to be gone. They would probably even
pay to have it carted away. So I don't think any economic analysis of how to
dispose of a collection to maximize return is relevant.
As someone who just had to recently dispose of a collection (not PC, but
still), the above might be extreme, but there's truth in there.
10 garages full of collections (multiple: vintage collectible cars, old
tools, washing machine engines, collectible farm equipment, old growth
oak pulled from houses, timbers from 1900 era cribs and sheds, record
players (Victrola, etc.), vintage kitchen appliance, etc.), interspersed
with nominal materials and some junk.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5088326641182317&type=3
Tens of thousands of square feet of stuff.
Too packed to easily auction
In a word, overwhelming. Being tech savvy, one could look some things
up, but even that task is overwhelming. You can implicitly know the
Maytag engines were worth money, but assigning value to most items is
hard. Some of the very big items were easy to parcel out (the
automobiles, etc.), but the tools, lumber, appliances, etc were nearly
impossible to fathom.
The wife could not even bear to go to the largest building (~6000 sqft),
but all of it still being there stressed her out, on top of grieving the
loss of her partner of 50+ years.
She doesn't need the money, and looking at the items just brought back
memories of trips they'd taken to pick things up. Some of the purchases
were good memories, and some were not (they sometimes disagreed on
whether to buy an item). Who wants to deal with all that?
On the other hand, the presence of the items was comforting to the
youngest daughter, who spent hours each year tagging along to buy items
and build the collections. Cleaning out the locations meant removing the
one final memory of her father.
And, some of the properties were garages adjoining rental homes that
needed to be sold, so delaying the cleanup was delaying the sale of the
properties.
I would not wish this on anyone, even my worst enemy.
As much as it hurt, someone had to go in, take stock of what was
important, and call cleaners to take the rest to the trash/recycling
center. Knowing full well some irreplaceable and incredibly important or
valuable items ended up in a landfill. There was simply no other way to
deal with this. And, it had to be done quickly, both to free up the
properties for sale and to "rip off the bandaid" on feelings from the
youngest daughter.
I don't know if the Revocable Living Trust is the right mechanism, but I
can say that just leaving this to your loved ones or your children is
almost an unforgivable offense. If you care for your friends and family
at all, I beg each member of this list to find a way to document your
items and what you'd like done with them after your passing. If they
choose not to follow your wishes, that's on them, but leaving this
activity solely to them is unconscionable.
If I had a book or some papers (or even a video) noting what we of
interest/importance, and what didn't really matter, I'd have felt so
much better about the process. Doing the work was lots of work, but it
was not nearly as hard to making decisions about what to care about, and
knowing that mistakes were made and there was no way to fix them.
If any of you want money from your collection, pull up your pants and
sell it off while you're still around. Buyers will enjoy your stories
about the items and you can gain some satisfaction seeing the seeds you
plant dispersing your collection. But, don't harbor any delusions that
keeping it is going to be a windfall for your family when you depart.
It's not.
Dad, I loved how much collecting meant to you, but you left a huge mess
to clean up and it's a shame it's the last thing I'll remember about you.
Jim
