Collections
Lost my brother at age 37, and his two daughters in an auto accident in which they were passengers, so I understand the pain Larry and you have my sympathies.
I have been collecting all Topps Bowman sets since 1957. I seldom selling any thing except the few dupes or cards that I had upgraded
I have a will ( including a prepaid funeral) and an executor ( an attorney son)
He has my inventory of everything, new and old, and my sets-pre 1976 are insured. My executor and my financial adviser have the names of three hobby friends to help sell it off. Although the collection would bring in a decent money, cards have always been a hobby for me and whatever money the cards would bring would just be a bonus for my family
My wife recently met a woman whose husband was an avid long term collector who had died suddenly and expectedly 7 years earlier. She was looking to down size and wanted to sell what turned out to be a huge post war collection that included Bowman and Topps set runs, autographed photos, old periodicals, many old minor leave sets and autographed baseball.
I put her in touch with Al Crisafulli at Love of Game, along time friend in the hobby. Al ended up making three trips to San Antonio to get everything . I know a good deal of it has been sold in recent auctions. . She was in much the same situation I was in, kids with no real interest in keeping the cards, which took a room and several closets in her house
One problem she had was no ledger or recepts showing basis. She was trying to use the 2007 Standard Catalg to establish a stepped up estate value. I am no tax attorney so not sure if that works.
I have receipts for most of my stuff but confess they reside in big envelopes and boxes and not on convenient ledger sheets
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