Every man's fear is that the wife will sell the guns/fishing equipment/ham radios for what he TOLD her he paid for it!
Does your wife and children have an idea of what you have, what they are worth and who get what items? And how to dispose of those items that the family does not want?
I have noticed that firearm auctions bring far more money than selling to a dealer.
Any thoughts?
Just read the posts here and on other forums. "I got a steal of a deal today, the neighbor's wife's sister was selling her late husbands gun collection! I picked up a Union Switch 1911 for $400, a all matching Luger for $350, 1894 pre 63 Winchester for $100, and the best of the lot, a .38 Police with custom 2" barrel, low profile sights, and a cutaway trigger guard marked "Fitz" for $85!"
Search is your friend, they get posted constantly. Its happening right under our noses but denial is a very long river and most are in for the ride.
Reality says you won't even get what you lied you paid. And it's not the guys on the internet who will talk about disposing of their collection who lose it very often, it's the ones who won't tell anyone, including their wife, what they really have. Case in point, was talking with a local storefront collector (who recently passed) and the wife of a kitchen table dealer pulled up trunk loaded down and backed into the angled parking. She walked in, they exchanges greeting, he knew her, but he didn't know her gun collecting husband had passed. The trunk was loaded with all his guns literally piled one on top of the other, loose, no cases, just stacked deep and she was asking if he would buy any.
Of course, collector value was out of the question. That is a ephemeral wisp created by relisters who refuse to sell for less than the highest possible price they see on the sales boards regardless of the actual condition of their own firearm. It's the mental trap of thinking that their rusting 54 Hudson sitting on its rims in a field with a tree growing thru the roof is somehow worth whatever the latest Barrett Jackson figure is hyped. Same for guns - Rock Island sets the selling price for any old barely working firearm they may own. And in fear that they might lose a dollar on the sale and be ridiculed should the story come out, they won't sell for a penny less.
And lose most of the value. Rust and moth doth corrode, hanging on to so many you can't even carry them all is really a crutch and exposes where your real faith is. You can't take them with you, ya know, and second rule, nobody gets out of this alive. Nobody.
I've been selling off for years now, and every one that leaves is one more I don't worry about any more. Less is more. He who dies with the most toys is only fooling himself - he died, and there they go to the first smooth talker the family lets in the door. There's a reason that obituaries and notices don't list names and addresses so much anymore - the gun vultures descend on families to grab every one they can get.
You want to stop the family fights, squabbles over ol Fred's wartime bring home gun or service weapon? Deal with it when you still have a sound mind. And I can add, if you can't use your tools anymore, time to let them go. A workshop full of 35 year old stuff isn't all that. Sorry, but noone wants it - except me when I stumble across some old wrench in a flea market for my latest repair job. And my Craftsman American made sockets? Half are SAE, almost useless now, they sell for $1 each in cardboard boxes on wire shelves under flickering old florescent lights in cold corners of former department stores on Main Street. They are no more a realistic ranking of who I am or worth as a human being than my ancient Corcoran boots.
If you are over 65 and haven't made any arrangements to give your guns to family, friends or an auctioneer then you have planned on them selling for 10c on the dollar by family who aren't happy you failed to take care of your old stuff and dumped it on them. Don't worry, they will through out anything they have no idea is worth something - gun manuals, boxes, old uniforms - and practically give away the rest just to get out from under the trouble. The next thing someone who knew you will see is her car backed up in front of an old friends shop and all those guns piled up in the back clunking around.
But nobody listens.
