Inheritance - splitting up your collection in your will

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by ocjack

Or, you could just take it with you.

Sick. Very sick

But nice

[atx840]

Sorry to hear that Scott. Lost my mom to pancreatic cancer and one of my aunts was just diagnosed with it as well.

The plan is to have a good hobby friend help my family auction off my collection then split whatever the funds they bring.

[bbcard1]

If my blessings continue, here's my thumbnail.

1) work until I'm 70...I'm 60 now and love my career.

2) From 70-75 focus on selling my collection through a combination of direct sales, auction houses etc. Then kick back.

3) I'll probably keep the 1970s cards because they are not a huge percentage of the value and are what I collected as a kid. This would allow me to continue to putz around and go to cards shows to pick up regionals and test issues that fit the profile. It is also a well defined chunk I can sell at some point in the future and my family can sell if I am not around.

4) Pick one nice card for each of my two kids to keep to remember me by...probably $500-$1000 cards...something that the kids would associate with me but also have meaning to them.

5) I don't know what I'll do with the money. I am somewhere between saving it (because that's what I've always done), buying a property at the beach if it is close to that amount, or making a significant contribution to our local free clinic to expand their services.

6) If health becomes an issue, I'll probably call one of my friends who owns an auction house and work something out. I don't have a collection to rival a lot of you guys, but it would be good enough to keep an auction house or two fairly busy.

7) I have said this many times before, so please be patient with me if it's a repeat. I love my kids more than life itself, but I would never give them my collection, no matter how interested they would appear to be. I believe the real value of the collection is in the pursuit of the items in your collection and the friends you make along the way. How could I rob them of that?

[pawpawdiv9]

or screw it and throw your items in a time capsule/safe and hide it in a wall in the attic for a future 'attic find".

tho, in my situation as newly diagnosed with bladder cancer-- probably best to liquidate.
and in best to have documentation of inventory, bought and prices available.
AH to use to consign to and websites like Net54 to use.

[FrankWakefield]

Todd's #7 has quite a bit of merit.


Is half of a collection a collection? Or a third (if you have 3 kids)? If you split a collection 3 ways, and then the next generation has it all going to one descendant, is that 3 collections combined, or one collection reassembled??

It's in the locating and accumulating, the stories, the hunt. Who is the collector, the someone who buys 520 white border cards, or someone that gradually and eventually tracks down and acquires those 520?

[steve B]

If you're not crazy wealthy and get alzheimers, it will all have to be sold to cover your long term care.

[obcbobd]

Leaving cards to your heirs can be quite the headache for them. One option as suggested is to sell off a large portion of your stuff once you hit 70. This has some merits, but what if I live to 95? I enjoy my collection, it is not an investment, so I will not sell off the majority of my stuff. I will pare down a bit :-) I think the thing to do is have everything organized and documented. Physically, the bulk of my stuff (67-77 BB/FB/Hcky vg/ex), from my childhood is not worth too much. However, mixed in with those albums are some pre-war sets and cards with a bit more value. I am documenting everything and putting together a list of dealers/auction houses and friends that my heirs can talk with. I plan to visit a couple of dealers I know at the next major show and get their advice. Once I have everything documented and organized, with a checklist for my heir(s) to follow I will feel a lot better.

I have debated reviewing things with the person I plan to leave the card with, but what if things change? I'm only 59, I could change who I leave things too. I will likely document and review things to the executors of my will.

[jingram058]

I really like the idea of hiding some of my stuff in the house somewhere, like a time capsule. My wife (younger than me) and my daughter (also younger than me) know about my cards, balls, scrapbooks, etc., and know they are worth some money. They don't like it like I do, but they get it. If I croak, they know what to do. But if I hid some stuff up in the attic, to be found in the distant future, how cool is that? My luck, a hurricane would take the roof off, and shred my beloved cards!

[molenick]

Originally Posted by steve B

If you're not crazy wealthy and get alzheimers, it will all have to be sold to cover your long term care.

First, I hope this is not something specific to Steve or his family since it is a very precise example. I would generalize it and say that if you do not have enough insurance or other funds to cover a major unexpected expense, or even normal expenses after retirement, you may need to sell some or all of your collection to do so. For better or worse, I have a feeling many people consider their collection part of their retirement planning.

My will is probably not specific enough. It basically says that my children should divide my collection as they may agree on and in absence of such agreement the Executor should divide it in shares as equal in value as practicable. But none of the parties involved are experts in collectibles. And who wants to spend time looking up prices of their dead dad's cards? So while they may want to keep a few items for sentimental or other reasons (my daughter is a big fan of the older photographic material, like cabinets and cdvs) there is no reason they should keep the collection intact.

I should probably put a sticky note on the will saying "What I mean is, keep what you want then call [insert your favorite auction house] and have them sell everything else and split the proceeds."

[todeen]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

Todd's #7 has quite a bit of merit.





Is half of a collection a collection? Or a third (if you have 3 kids)? If you split a collection 3 ways, and then the next generation has it all going to one descendant, is that 3 collections combined, or one collection reassembled??



It's in the locating and accumulating, the stories, the hunt. Who is the collector, the someone who buys 520 white border cards, or someone that gradually and eventually tracks down and acquires those 520?

Totally understand the thought process about half a collection, or 1/3 of a collection.

My dad has a small collection of watches, only one of which I particularly want, and none of them are rare. He told me they are mine after he dies, my mom's jewelry will go to my sisters. The watch I want was Great Uncle Bill's watch that he used for surveying military air strips around the world. He left two with my uncle. One christmas I asked my uncle if he would donate one that my siblings and I could clean up and give to my dad. He said yes. Well my dad got sick and he has started to plan his estate. I was frank with him one day and said if he wanted any watches to go to grandkids he needed to tell me now or I would keep his watches together as a collection.... because I love collections, not pieces. Even though I only have sentimental feelings for just one watch, I know that my desire to show off a collection of watches would be too great to split them up. Maybe at some point I'd be willing to piece them out to nephews, but not immediately after his death.

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[glchen]

Originally Posted by pawpawdiv9

or screw it and throw your items in a time capsule/safe and hide it in a wall in the attic for a future 'attic find".

tho, in my situation as newly diagnosed with bladder cancer-- probably best to liquidate.
and in best to have documentation of inventory, bought and prices available.
AH to use to consign to and websites like Net54 to use.

Sorry to hear about this, Chris. Hopefully, it's treatable, and you still have a long life ahead of you.

I think Todd's plan is very reasonable and makes a lot of sense. I'm still thinking of #7. It's basically impossible that I'd be able to complete my collecting goals in my lifetime, so it'd be nice if one of my kids tries to continue it. However, as so far, no one is interested in cards at all, it's very doubtful. I still have a two year old that I'm still hoping may catch the collecting bug when he gets older.

Otherwise, I plan to keep my main collection until the end. I'll definitely try to whittle it down before then. For example, I'll try to get rid of my 60s to 90s set runs. I want to have something manageable for my heirs to sell, like a large bookshelf full of cards rather than a roomful. Then I'll have an instruction sheet for my wife and kids to use on how to sell the cards. It'll basically say which auction houses to use, sell the collection over multiple auctions, and what BP, etc to expect when selling.

Not sure if there are any tax advantages of selling early or having the collection sold at death via a will or passing along the collection to the kids evenly and having them sell later. I assume it'll depend on the total value of the estate, but passing it along at death, you may be able to use the total lifetime gift tax exclusion, and the kids can then use the step up basis of the value of the cards when they receive it, and then sell it later with less capital gains.

[Frankish]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

7) I have said this many times before, so please be patient with me if it's a repeat. I love my kids more than life itself, but I would never give them my collection, no matter how interested they would appear to be. I believe the real value of the collection is in the pursuit of the items in your collection and the friends you make along the way. How could I rob them of that?

Todd, your whole post is very thoughtful. I think about it much the same way, though I will probably start selling much earlier than 70 and just focus on one niche after that (as you suggest re 70s cards).

But I just wanted to bring up your Point 7 again. It is really well said!

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Frankish

Todd, your whole post is very thoughtful. I think about it much the same way, though I will probably start selling much earlier than 70 and just focus on one niche after that (as you suggest re 70s cards).

But I just wanted to bring up your Point 7 again. It is really well said!

It is a good point, my wife says I like the chase better than the owning even though I seldom sell stuff.

A couple of my collections are really specialized, and if they're interested, some of the stuff won't be findable or affordable later on.
One of the stamps is the only one seen since probably the early 1930's, (Super specialized variety of a common one) My oldest has already ordered me to never sell it. There are still gaps in most of the specialized collections, so plenty still to chase. Having a second generation to maybe "complete" the collection might be cool. (a couple of the items are ones where I have a copy of a variety but need to find a second one to confirm it- more stuff listed and cataloged back in the 30's when they weren't allowed to show a picture.