Many of us on this forum have been collecting for decades and dare I say are no longer spring chickens.
I know that quite a few members have amassed collections worth a lot of money. So, whether you're contemplating disposing of your treasures tomorrow or in 20 years, have you made plans as to what will happen to your collection?
Here are some ideas: Will you leave it in your will? Give it to charity? Sell it to a dealer? Sell it at auction? Be buried with it? donate it to the Wolfie foundation?

I for one, have been grappling with this dilemma. I know that my kids wouldn't know where to begin in disposing of the collection if I were to pass prematurely. Therefore, leaving it to them is not an option. The question I often ask myself is when do I sell it, how and to whom?
I have rarely seen contemporary card collections sell thru the auction catalogs of major auction houses. I routinely see stamps, baseball cards, autographs, space memorabilia etc.., but almost never non-sports cards. Why is that?

A few years back, a major collector set up a private online auction, the word spread, and he was quite successful in selling the bulk of his holdings. This may be the way to go. The costs and fees would be much lower. on the other hand, it's a lot of work!
I would appreciate you thoughts and opinions on this topic. Please be as detailed as possible in your explanation.

I know that this question has been posed on Card Talk in the past and there is probably no good answer to it unless you are lucky enough to know someone in your family or have a good friend who will appreciate getting your collection.

I have come to the conclusion that most of us do not. So then it becomes an issue of when and how do you want to sell your cards. If it comes to that I'm afraid that a bulk sale will yield you pennies on the dollar and individual sales are time consuming. Either way, it will probably turn out that our cards are no where near as valuable to anyone else as they are to us.

So I say, why bother unless you need the money? We don't think about getting rid of our clothes, or our furniture, or our cars, or our houses prematurely. Mention all your stuff in your will, enjoy it until the day you die, and let someone else get rid of it if they must.

quote:

Originally posted by promoking:

donate it to the Wolfie foundation?

Having given this a great deal of thought I find your idea to be the ideal solution.

I´m going to donate my whole collection to the wolfie Foundation .... just kidding.

I think I´m selling my most valuable cards and just save the rest for my kids. They can do whatever they want with them. I will however keep some valuable favorites as long as I can.

I have been considering this myself. I think that my core collection will be left to my family. I hope that some of it will be like a link to the things I loved in life for them. The rest I will be actively selling or trading at a hefty discount to move it out of my place and hopefully be able to fill a couple of needs of my own while helping someone start a collection of their own.

I'm also considering this, it's just the time involved in selling on that site that puts me off. I have quite a few valuable cards but will find it difficult to break up master sets.

I'm realistic to know I'll probably not get what I payed for most of them although some still hold a premium. It's the shear baulk of my collection that's really putting me off. Where to start?

No one in my family would appreciate the cards so I might as well start selling soon, not getting any younger.

Good thread, something I have though about in recent years is what too do if something fatal was to happen to me. However I am a spring chicken at the age of 30 so it is not something I would hope to have to take too seriously just yet. I would like to think I would to the a grand old age and be able to sell off my collection on my own time keeping the good stuff to treasure until the last.

However you can never be too sure. I doubt any of my family have a clue as too what I have, they certainly show little interest.

I will eventually put clear instructions in a will to sell off the collection to some one who specialises in trading cards with the profits going to family or a charity of some sort.

My father in-law collects duck decoys, and has a fairly large collection, with some worth a lot. Just like cards, he enjoys collecting and displaying them, but nobody else in the family has taken any interest. Eventually he will either have to sell them himself, or they will probably just be sold / auctioned off. Don't believe he has any documentation or instructions on how to sell them. Kind of the same with my card collection. My family shows no interest and has no idea what they are worth. This thread makes me think I should at least put together some sort of documentation as to what I have, and what they may be worth, just to help out in getting rid of them down the road

There was a previous thread about this, with the best Idea being to plan on selling while you can, and use the money to take a family vacation or pay off outstanding loans. Might just have to think about that before its to late.

My grandfather was a collector of Lionel Trains, dating back to the 1940s or so.

He died in 1975, and left behind several large boxes containing his collection, which literally have not been opened in nearly 39 years. I know that Lionel trains are quite valuable. We have often wondered what they are worth. I personally have never even seen them.

Well, this thread is pretty depressing. Luckily my kids like cards and have little collections of their own. I'm sure they'd enjoy having mine. But I'm more concerned with enjoying what I have while I'm still around than what's going to happen when I'm gone.

I for one feel that anyone leaving their collection to their family and knowing that they have no interest in the cards is irresponsible.

I had a friend pass away a couple of years ago and the family sold off the collection she had for nothing more than $500. To the average collector who saw her collection they would have known it was worth over 20 thousand dollars.

Six years ago I made a discovery that my Battlestar sketch cards were selling for over $300 each. I sold the four that I had and bought a huge plasma screen TV for the family.

In the past year I have sold off 60% of my collection and used the money to send my kids to sleep away camp for the whole summer. That was the best summer my kids had and me and my spouse had too. Now I sell items a little bit each month. This way I have money for the extra stuff that my kids want without having to worry where the money is coming from.

I have noticed most comments saying that they won't get what they paid for. Most of it is probably right. But the items that sell for a lot of money even it all out. Well, for me anyway.

You will know when you are ready to sell parts of your collection when you don't have the connection anymore or you find something else that you really want and you don't have the cash on hand.

I forgot to mention that my father has a stamp collection that he has amassed for the past 40 years. He has already let me know that he will be leaving it for me when he passes on. Oh how I dread the thought of looking at a million one inch squares and trying to figure out how much money I can sell them for.

Good luck to all, and remember please don't leave your collection to those who don't have any sentimental value to it or to those who wouldn't even know how to sell it to get the highest price, that's like taking your paycheck and throwing it in the garbage. Sell it and spend it on those who you love.

I still don't have kids. So maybe one of my brothers will be interesting in it.

Here's a couple idea's that haven't made it to the thread yet... For many, the question is "do you care about the cards, or the money?" If the answer is the cards, read on!

1) If you have friends on the board, why not offer the cards to them for the pennies on the dollar. In many cases, it is probably what will be realized anyways, and if your loved ones don't want them, why not leave them to friends instead?

2) The Secret Santa draw. Instead of leaving everything to your family, leave your cards to participants either so many each, or as a big super wind fall. Generosity as a give back.

3) We still don't have a trading card hall of fame. Or, pedigree collections. In collecting comic books and coins, I've noticed people pay huge premiums for items which are graded, and then graded again by a second company. And then even more if they were held by a notable collector. This might be heresy to some, but why not create a stamp, logo, or initial base to use, and then deface your super collectibles so that they will be permanently linked to you. Mail random value samples to a few of us board users, and (we) will immediately be able to identify all future cards bearing your mark as from the _________ collection. The truth is, many of us do get to know each other and might like a piece of someone's collection, (or not mind bidding to help a friends family). I'm sure many people who cracked Castle cards took a moment to remember a story, which never got an end, from a board member who had as one of his dying regrets that he wasn't going to get to open some. We remember and recognize things like that. ...If you like the Hall of Fame idea, in coins the national collection of the US was started by a group of collectors agreeing to leave their collections to a common source. I know many of us would volunteer to be the source, but you could always try and start a search for other collectors willing to do the same thing. Some times great things have small beginnings...

--Chris

Besides cards, I also have a huge comic book collection--I'm guessing at least 30,000 comics, dating back to the mid-1940s. Some of my gems:

Every issue of Action Comics (the title in which Superman debuted in 1938) from # 200 (1955) to the present; including the first appearance of Supergirl in # 252 (1959)

Every issue of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen (1954-1974) and Lois Lane's comic (1958-1974)

Every issue of the original Superman title from issue # 88 (1954) until the title ended in 1986

Every issue of Worlds Finest Comics from issue #71 when Superman and Batman teamed up (1954) until the end, in 1986

I have thought of this as well, more than I would care to admit. My family has already told me that they have no interest in dealing with my collection when I pass. They said they will put it in a yard sale and take whatever they get.

I have at least convinced them to contact 1 or 2 collecting friends who have offered to assist if that happened. They of course have certain cards that they would like out of my collection for them assisting, which would be worth it to my family.

I also collect other things like stamps, coins, lapel pins, some toys, autographs, etc. which they will have to deal with as well.

I have started selling some things off slowly. I just do not have the time to do it right...

Mike.

quote:

Originally posted by miket999

They said they will put it in a yard sale and take whatever they get.

Mike.

Could you please confirm the date and start time of the yard sale, thanks.

An interesting topic... in the event I get to go home earlier than expected, each card/set/item in my collection is identified with a respective person's name. Each identifier may change over time, but right now it's based off their personal interest. I try to update the data annually.

Interesting topic. I had a serious illness two years ago, which came out of the blue. Thankfully I’m ok now but it made me think I needed to make a will. I didn’t put it in my will what to do with my collection (cards & comics) but I was going to put a list of collectable stuff with the copy of the will that I keep at home. Would hate to see it just given to a charity shop, sold cheap (never going to get the value I paid for it) or even worse just binned.

There's a couple of dealers that I have had good relationships with over the years. I have their names and contact details with my collection with the instruction to contact them and try and arrange something (eg selling by consignment, or split the sale price). However, I haven't told the dealers about the intent

My situation is complicated by the fact that my cards are in Australia so there's not really any sensible way to move bulk. I am actually facing a related situation at the moment. It looks like I will be in the UK for longer than I originally planned and I can't store my cards (or comics, books, statues...) long term. So I am going to divide my collection into high value / easy storage items (like Superman red holo and high end autos/sketches) which I will keep. The rarer but unable to store items (master sets, uncut sheets etc) I am going to try and find people who actually want it. The bulk relatively common stuff, I will just sell off for whatever I can get and then give away the rest to someone in Australia, since I can relatively easily replace it later.

Why is this relevant for this discussion? While I was separating this way, it occurred to me that this is also sensible for the 'what to do with it when I die' question. The first group is really only the stuff that should go to a dealer. The second group, I should pre-identify people with a particular interest - if they didn't want it, then it's not really a problem if the cards are dumped. The third group would just get dumped.

Mine will be shredded and made into a biodegradable coffin.