Kevin brings up an interesting problem for all those who have a
valuable (monetary or historical) collection.  We are not getting
any younger and then there is always the chance you'll be run over
tomorrow by a bus, in the prime of life.  That is going to leave
someone to sort out the mess.

Some people I know have catalogued their collections, included
valuations and indicated their disposal preferences.  The rest of
us just hope for immortality!

We owe it to our family to make provisions for our collections and
ultimate disposal -- and we should do it _now_, as a small worthwhile
project.

I have been involved with valuing and disposal of a number of deceased
estates (not music related) and I see the trauma it causes the family
who are struggling at the time just to recover from the loss of their
partner/relative, etc.

The worst things I see are totally immoral "friends" helping themselves
to the best items, sharp dealers buying stuff for a fraction of value
and, even worse, whole collections going to the dump because no-one
left knew what to do with it or didn't know there was some value in the
collection.

Do you want your collection to end this way?  Do you want your family
deprived of the values that you cherished in your collection?

Only recently an acquaintance in his 40's died of cancer.  His radio
collection was his most cherished possession (after his wife, of
course!)  A dealer finagled the grieving widow and picked over and
bought the best items for $10,000.  She thought the dealer was such
a kind man.  Then a friend of the family found out, stepped in and
organised an auction of the rest.  It raised $250,000 and it is now
estimated that the dealer got that much value also, in the items he
took.

In another case the deceased willed his historic collection to a
museum and his (valuable) house to the neighbours who'd cared for him.
The government-owned public museum hadn't been informed previously and
said, "Well, we don't have the money to conserve or store it so we
don't want it."  So, the neighbours emptied the house by tossing the
collection into large dump bins while gleefully singing "We're In The
Money!"

Please don't ask what I've done regarding my own collection and
providing for my long suffering wife -- suffice to say "do as I say,
not as I do!"

Colin MacKinnon (collector of everything)