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This is another example of someone’s hobby/collection not meaning anything to people that inherit them. If you are a collector and getting older please give awa

This is another example of someone’s hobby/collection not meaning anything to people that inherit them. If you are a collector and getting older please give away or sell your collection to someone that cares about the same thing before it’s too late. There have been innumerable collections of things that other collectors or historians would kill for that have been lost because they seem like junk to the people that inherit it. I have ended up collecting vacuum tubes and I almost weep at stories of warehouses of them being junked. There have been plenty of other things like comic books, LPs, cameras, etc. that faced a similar fate. And while I would never argue that collections of these things are all that important in the grand scheme of things collecting is fun and brings enjoyment. If nothing else selling them can bring in a few bucks. Losing historic pictures is just tragic. Any given historical image could prove to be important in some sort of research.

neilv 3y ago
Or maybe maintain instructions for how to get it a good home and/or fair price? (For example, "sell it at ___, and expect ___ money". Or "email ___ at ___ museum/archive, who would like it as a donation someday". Or "if you're up for it, post this prepared inventory list to enthusiast forum ___, and flip a coin on which respondent to give it to".) This not only means you can enjoy it until the end, but that you don't have to guess/decide when is the right time. You can draft easy instructions/inventory now, and occasionally update them, over hopefully many decades.
- robocat 3y ago
  The correct market to sell stuff changes too quickly for that to work. And sometimes older people don't even know what markets exist. My father collects some things but has never ever used ebay for example. Plenty of collections might be valuable internationally but not valued locally. Also in my experience the best collections are for the love of it - collectors often don't care about the value and often don't even know the value. They might care about rareness or uniqueness but not $$$ directly. Also the value of many collections is unknown until far in the future.
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androidbishop 3y ago
I'm reminded of Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock giving away his prized cookie jar collection to Kenneth, the only person he found that would appreciate it.
susiecambria 3y ago
This. My uncle (Uncle Bill) was fascinated with actors and ended up being good friends with a lot. He took pics and slides for years and years and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked for them. Well before he died he packed up a significant portion of his collection and sent them off. After he died, we gathered more and sent them out. Now that my mother is moving in with me and we are cleaning out, yet again, and packing, I've found more slides. Some were from Uncle Bill and others were from my father's side of the family. I had never seen them before. Kinda cool, but not something to keep. So I bundled them up with several other items and off to the historical society they went. Over the past three years, I've shipped probably 10 boxes of all manner of stuff. Family bibles, mortgages, pictures, diaries, correspondence, etc. I've been told that some students have been helping catalog and have found the diaries and correspondence, in particular, interesting. What they were reading was written by my aunt (who married a professor of philosophy and member of the International Red Cross) as she traveled with my uncle, Colonel, around the world. So glad they are being taken care of and are of interest to at least a few.
wrp 3y ago
I'm an oldish guy with older friends and have dealt with this problem several times. If you have a cherished collection of something, it's very unlikely any of your heirs will be willing to put effort into finding a good home for it unless they can get significant money for it (which is also very unlikely). You are the best person to find a recipient for your collection. Do it while you still have your wits. Strongly consider having the transfer made while you are still alive, so it doesn't have to go through probate. Don't let your heirs maintain unrealistic expectations of how much they could get for selling the stuff.
- pro-kythera 3y ago
  > You are the best person to find a recipient for your collection. Do it while you still have your wits. Strongly consider having the transfer made while you are still alive ++ again for this. Imagine (with some irony): The easiest items for others to pick out -- aside from the occasional curiosity -- might be the most ordinary, recognizable, and commonly-usable items, which is to say also available in stores. It can be liberating and instructive to assume it will all go to the curb or the trash upon your passing.
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neilv 3y ago

Or maybe maintain instructions for how to get it a good home and/or fair price? (For example, "sell it at ___, and expect ___ money". Or "email ___ at ___ museum/archive, who would like it as a donation someday". Or "if you're up for it, post this prepared inventory list to enthusiast forum ___, and flip a coin on which respondent to give it to".) This not only means you can enjoy it until the end, but that you don't have to guess/decide when is the right time. You can draft easy instructions/inventory now, and occasionally update them, over hopefully many decades.

robocat 3y ago
The correct market to sell stuff changes too quickly for that to work. And sometimes older people don't even know what markets exist. My father collects some things but has never ever used ebay for example. Plenty of collections might be valuable internationally but not valued locally. Also in my experience the best collections are for the love of it - collectors often don't care about the value and often don't even know the value. They might care about rareness or uniqueness but not $$$ directly. Also the value of many collections is unknown until far in the future.

deleted 3y ago

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androidbishop 3y ago

I'm reminded of Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock giving away his prized cookie jar collection to Kenneth, the only person he found that would appreciate it.

susiecambria 3y ago

This. My uncle (Uncle Bill) was fascinated with actors and ended up being good friends with a lot. He took pics and slides for years and years and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked for them. Well before he died he packed up a significant portion of his collection and sent them off. After he died, we gathered more and sent them out. Now that my mother is moving in with me and we are cleaning out, yet again, and packing, I've found more slides. Some were from Uncle Bill and others were from my father's side of the family. I had never seen them before. Kinda cool, but not something to keep. So I bundled them up with several other items and off to the historical society they went. Over the past three years, I've shipped probably 10 boxes of all manner of stuff. Family bibles, mortgages, pictures, diaries, correspondence, etc. I've been told that some students have been helping catalog and have found the diaries and correspondence, in particular, interesting. What they were reading was written by my aunt (who married a professor of philosophy and member of the International Red Cross) as she traveled with my uncle, Colonel, around the world. So glad they are being taken care of and are of interest to at least a few.

wrp 3y ago

I'm an oldish guy with older friends and have dealt with this problem several times. If you have a cherished collection of something, it's very unlikely any of your heirs will be willing to put effort into finding a good home for it unless they can get significant money for it (which is also very unlikely). You are the best person to find a recipient for your collection. Do it while you still have your wits. Strongly consider having the transfer made while you are still alive, so it doesn't have to go through probate. Don't let your heirs maintain unrealistic expectations of how much they could get for selling the stuff.

pro-kythera 3y ago
> You are the best person to find a recipient for your collection. Do it while you still have your wits. Strongly consider having the transfer made while you are still alive ++ again for this. Imagine (with some irony): The easiest items for others to pick out -- aside from the occasional curiosity -- might be the most ordinary, recognizable, and commonly-usable items, which is to say also available in stores. It can be liberating and instructive to assume it will all go to the curb or the trash upon your passing.

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