Inheritance - splitting up your collection in your will

[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.