Here is a question we don’t really want to spend a lot of time thinking about:
After all those years of hunting, trading, buying, selling, organizing, and worrying about your collection, what the hell will happen to it when you…ahem…kick the bucket?
It is unavoidable. Annoying, a burden to think about, but it is coming. And what will become of that massive collection of little cars? Maybe you have a kid who will happily take over. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you think you do, but you don’t. One way or the other, something will happen to that collection, and hopefully, whatever happens will be a benefit to the folks you left behind.
This question came up when I was chatting with my friends at hobbyDB, who are also Lamley Sponsors and Partners. Frankly, I haven’t put much of a plan in place. I would like to think that I would be able to predict the exact day the dreadful moment would happen, and I could rid myself of the collection in time, with a few dollars left behind. But that probably isn’t the best plan.
The guys at hobbyDB have some ideas, so I wanted to let them share them in this month’s sponsored post. Frankly, I would love to hear your ideas as well.
Enjoy.
The Collector is Dead!
It’s the age-old question that affects age-old collectors everywhere; what happens to your collection when you’re not around anymore?
Personally, I’m planning to have it all buried with me, but for those who aren’t, the question still stands. You know how much everything is worth – and how best to sell it all, but – assuming they aren’t also collectors with the same interests as you – will your heirs? Will they – heaven forbid – consign everything to a local auction where it’ll sell for a fraction of the value they could have realized? Or will the whole process just be so overwhelming that everything ends up going to a dealer for even less?
We know this gives collectors sleepless nights and it was one of the problems we wanted hobbyDB to solve when we conceptualized the site. With our recently-added basic price guide, we’ve already released the first building blocks for our collection valuation mechanism and ultimately, that will be the feature that’ll take care of this issue once and for all.
As of right now, when you record your collection in hobbyDB’s collection management system, you can record the price you paid for it. As we build out the price guide, it’ll take into account those values, plus the values of items bought and sold on the site and other external sources to create a price guide valuation which updates in real time. In your collection dashboard, you’ll be able to see at a glance exactly what the market value of your collection is and what the market value of individual items are.
And with that, you – or anyone else – will quickly and easily be able to put everything on sale individually at market value – or offer the whole collection or part of it at market value plus or minus whatever percentage you choose.
Now you won’t need to leave pages and pages of documentation with details of how much was paid for which item, where it should be sold and how much it’s roughly worth – all you’ll need to leave is your username and password!
Is the Ultimate Fate of your collection something you’ve thought about? If so, what (if anything) have you done about it?
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Burn my colliction in fire, but i don't wnt good ideas from hobbyDB!!!
Bury them? What a waste…
The material from HobbyDB did not provide any ideas what to do with your collection (except bury it). It all seem like a advertisement for the site.
Your wife will sell it for $1 a piece in an estate sale, that's what is most likely to happen.
Was definitely an advertisement article (clearly stated as a sponsored post), but not a bad management system. I'd like to see how it works long term. I've already got all my collection stored in spread sheets with retail price, acquired price, and current value (among other data). What I don't like about online management (sponsored by someone else's servers) is that the data is at the mercy of their existence. If the site goes kaput, so does your collection database.
I've had an idea similar to HobbyDB where collectors can post their entire collection online to anyone who wants to see it. Then, they can mark items they are willing to trade. Others could do the same, and we could have a virtual trading room.
Where is the good idea?
I thought about this a couple years ago, and decided to start thinning out my collection and adjust my spending habits. I'm not terribly old (51), but I have no desire to leave behind a massive headache for my wife to sort through to price and sell. I gave away several hundred newer Matchbox to charity, I sold 2/3 of my regular wheel collection, and I am getting ready to liquidate the rest of my modern Matchbox in the next couple years. I am now the man who goes for quality over quantity, which will simplify things should I be the first to die.
A sad reality for sure, too bad you can't just “take it with you”. That would definitely make things more convenient!
I fear my wife will sell my stuff for what I told her I paid for it!