What's your estate plan ?

[barrysloate]

It's not worth passing down a collection if your heirs have no interest and are only going to sell it. They may make mistakes disposing it that a veteran collector wouldn't. At the least you should leave very specific instructions about who to contact if you are unable to pull the trigger during your own lifetime. Not everybody is as smitten with baseball cards and would prefer cash.

[Vegas-guy]

I'm selling it! My wife and I have no kids nor do we plan on having any. I'll be 40 this year so figure keeping maybe 20 years or so and selling to help with retirement

[bbcard1]

I cannot think of doing anything less kind to my son that passing on my collection to them. The real joy in collecting is in the assembly, the stories and the people you meet along the way.

I liquadated the collection of a friend last year. It was a joy to be of service to his family. He died at 51 and the extra money will help his daughter (14) in college. It was a whole lot of work and took the better part of a year (eventually netting around $50K for the family). Sometimes I think I could have done a little better, but given the economy, I think I did fine. I fear I have no good candidates to do the same for me so I may thin the herd over the next few years. I fully suspect I have another 30 or 40 years on this earth, but I would like to have more marketable chunks and less random cards. It is just easier to sell a 1961 Topps set than an accumulation of random cards or equal value.

I have given my son some rudimentary instruction on extrapolating reasonable value, but honestly it would be hard right now.

I heard one the other day that I think sums it up for most of us on this board...My greatest fear is that I might die unexpectedly and my wife would sell my baseball cards for what I told her I paid for them.

[rdixon1208]

I'll sell mine if I ever get tired of having/collecting them or really need the money for something else, but otherwise I don't have any plans. Some people say they plan to sell off during retirement or to supplement retirement. That's crazy talk. When I retire I want to go to more shows, meet more collectors, etc. I do think it's a good idea to leave sell off instructions for the family just in case though.

[Hankphenom]

Everything goes to Dan McKee.

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Everything goes to Dan McKee.

I guess I'll give my stuff to McKee too.

[Ladder7]

I croak... Guaranteed, two weeks later;

[t206wagner]

I plan on keeping my cards as long as I can unless I know of someone (family or friends) that needs help financially. In that case, they will be sold. I can always buy them again.

[iggyman]

This quote in this article sums up my estate planning perspective....

"When I first started collecting, I had no plan," Montague said. "I was drunk with the passion to collect. I had no plan to do anything with it but keep it. To hoard it for myself. Have it in my house. It was for me. I was doing it for Magnificent Montague."

Yep, the "Magnificent Iggy" collection. Me likes .

Here is the full article (a good read): http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/08/us/mon...ion/index.html

Lovely day...

[Tomman1961]

Great post.
I was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2008 when I was 47 years old. I beat it. I have a son and a daughter. No one in the family has an interest in my cards. I told my wife straight out-if I die- SELL THEM. While slaying the Monster(Cancer-not T206), I gave her a list of reputible auction houses and card dealers to appraise my collection. It was last appraisd in 1992. I have purged my collection of anything before 1976. It is possible that when I hit my 70's or 80's I may start to sell it off before I pass away. Anyway-I told my wife to sell it off.

[g_vezina_c55]

Probably sell it, i see it as a hobby but as an investment too

I am 30 so my idéa might change but i will sell my collection except if my son will have interest in card.

If my son love this hobby, my collection will be for my son

It is my 2 option

[Deertick]

I'm going to leave them to someone I don't like.

My collection isn't part of my retirement plan. I have that covered by six randomly selected numbers drawn twice weekly.

[Tsaiko]

I'm in a really tough spot on "my" collection, which is really my grandma's collection. I value them tremendously and have for over 50 years, since she gave them to me; to the point of coming here to learn as much as I could about the hobby, scanning each one and creating a website. The reaction to all of this from my family has been, "yawn, that's cool, how much are they worth?".

I only have two nephews to leave them to and I'm pretty sure they'd be sold before before I was pushed into the cremation oven, but at least they could benefit from having no tax consequences.

Ideally I like her collection to be part of the hobby forever, by having a collector keep the whole collection intact, but that may never happen.

Of course, in the case of a health emergency, it is in the back of my mind that they might come to my rescue at some point and grandma would be happy about that.

So, OP, you're young and you're plans may change, but I'm old and my plans may change, so some things never change.

[aljurgela]

I guess the really important thing is to understand the tax consequences. A few years ago an heir could acquire the "stepped up basis" in the asset when you passed - meaning material tax avoidance for them. Not sure if this has changed, but it would be worthwhile to investigate.

If you paid 10k for a collection that was worth 100k. They would only pay taxes on their gain above $100k... a great deal to them.

I have started to introduce my wife to some key auction houses and may even negotiate terms with them in the case that I pass unexpectantly.

Really hope that my son ends up with a passion for this stuff, but if not, would love to make the right choices for them to go after things and experiences that make them tick.

[zljones]

Plan upon keeping them until I die. After I die I will try to leave them with someone whom really wants them and will love them. If I can't will just pass it to someone that will do whatever besides destroy them. At that point I will not care, I will be dead, so it will not matter. I do not even care about my body after death, just cremate it, so I surely would not care too much about my possessions since I will no longer exist.
I hope I can find someone who will be ecstatic to own them. But if not, o well, I will be dead anyway. These cards are special to me know and I am enthused, but how can one truely know what happens to their cards after they die? So I am just not going to worry about it. My concern now is keeping what I have until I am gone.

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by Tsaiko

Ideally I like her collection to be part of the hobby forever, by having a collector keep the whole collection intact, but that may never happen.

I am considering coming up with a really cool "T206Collector" stamp -- or one with my real name "Paul T206Collector". I will stamp the backs of all of my signed T206 cards. I do not expect that this would detract from their value, which was joined as soon as the player put his autograph on his card. I figure that is a surefire way to at least encourage a future collector to recapture them all, and keep the collection together.

Howe McCormick knew what he was doing!

[rainier2004]

Originally Posted by rdixon1208

Some people say they plan to sell off during retirement or to supplement retirement. That's crazy talk. When I retire I want to go to more shows, meet more collectors, etc. I do think it's a good idea to leave sell off instructions for the family just in case though.

That sounds great...