After we're gone

[Guy]

I have been involved in several friend's estate sales and it was a mess. After the last nightmare I took the time to enter over 1,000 kits into a computer inventory with what I paid for them as well as over 400 painted figures and what their value is conservatively. When a kit arrives by mail I first enter it into the inventory as well as when I sell or trade a kit it gets taken out of the inventory.

When a collector comes to the house I also remove from the inventory what he has purchased.

After almost 40 years in this hobby I feel it has spun into 2 separate hobbies.

1. Painting figures
2. Collecting kits

I wanted to make it easier on the Mrs when my expiration date comes up to be able to dispose of the kits and not get taken advantage of.

 

[Meehan34]

I wanted to make it easier on the Mrs when my expiration date comes up to be able to dispose of the kits and not get taken advantage of.

So my deal with Cato is no good?

 

[TonyT]

I hope my made up ones don't get slung on the tip... It would be robbing the British Museum of future exhibits....:thumb down:

 

[Guy]

So my deal with Cato is no good?

You may have to refresh Cato's mind........lol We're both still kickin....lol

 

[Tecumsea]

Hi Guy, I have a similar inventory for insurance purposes also.

Keith

 

[jccraemer]

Would like my grey army to go to the wounded warrriors.

 

[Michaelminiatures]

This is what happened to this guys collection, hope you can open and see part of the biggest figure collection in the world.
Mike
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...0617442765678.382000.530235677&type=1&theater

 

[abbo]

If I go before my wife they will be put in the loft .
Where all my boxing football and rugby trophies are displayed.(in cardboard boxes)
Martin

 

[Jamie Stokes]

hmm,

my grey army is fairly minute....only 20 or 30, perhaps not even that.

I put a freeze on adding to it, while I get my life back on track, and finally settled down in a place of my own.

The last grey addition was the happy monk.
As for when I'm gone, well, I'd like to think that one of my modelling kin would help price & then auction off the remains.

I'll be dead, hopefully the proceeds can go towards a nice bunch of flowers for the head stone!

Cheers

 

[Akritas]

I would like to think that my daughter will cherish them and will someday show them to her children, telling them how her daddy spent hours over a small bench wearing funny looking goggles and painting "small" people (this is what she calls my figure kits now)!!!

 

[pgarri27]

I would like for my grey army to be donated to my local modeling club, to the friends I have enjoyed painting with for so many years. Our club has had similar donations in the past and we hold a members only silent auction. Some of the kits in my grey army were aquired this way, and I have a special fondness for pieces that came from a departed good friend.
Pete

 

[polyphemus]

I think that if I ever reached a situation where I knew for certain that I was never going to paint certain items because of illness etc then I would dispose of them rather than leaving them for someone else to sort out.

Geoff

 

[Redcap]

Some amusing replies but it's an important topic and worthy of serious consideration if you have a sizeable stash; the example cited by Pete & Derek about a trader in Germany offering what amounted to 1/20 of their (eventual) cash realsiation is probably all too common. Bear in mind as well, the trader would have got FAR more that the 6K EURO they went for privately! With all my model kits plastic a/c and AFV's as well as figures, I have (easily) £20K in value collected over the years (and still adding!) were I to go out and buy them from retail outlets. Yet, my partner has simply no idea of their worth - she has zero interest and not because I conceal anything - and would have no idea whatsoever of their true value or what to do with them in my absence. By way of comparison, it's like me being asked to value her cosmetics drawer and huge shoes/boots collection were she to suddenly expire ...think about it chaps!

I could therefore well imagine some spiv smelling blood and offering her something like a couple of hundred quid for the lot ..."these specific models and figures don't sell love, kids aren't interested in models and "Airfix" soldiers anymore, I might make 50 quid on these if I'm lucky....blah blah" ringing in her ears as he and his mate load up the transit van(s). As such, I have already asked a good friend who is a fellow and astute PF member to liquidate the lot for me if I fall off the perch unexpectedly and thus ensure she does not get ripped off . As a sweetner, he knows can have the pick of (anything) he wants for himself and just sell the rest for my partner. An easy enough arrangement between mates and something a lot of us want to consider doing. Otherwise, chances are, your hard earned £/$/EURO etc invested in your hobby will simply end up in the pocket of some 'chancer' or unethical trader capitalising on your other half's grief and ignorance of worth; unless of course and like thousands of others before us, you are 100% confident that 'nothing will ever happen to ME'.........?

Cheers.
Gary