Age 64 here and in approximately the same boat. As a cancer survivor I have given this some thought.

If the family members are not interested in your hobby you may want to single out a trusted friend to liquidate and take payment either in several guns of his/her choice of cash from total sale.

Cost of selling a nice collection at auction is rather stiff @ about 30%. Selling direct to a collector quality dealer will net about 50% of retail value. Collector's Firearms here in Houston was straight forward in telling me that!

Those exhausted my options. Good luck. I hope your need to sell or distribute is far in the future.

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Jim

Gotta love a feller that comes up with nuggets like that. Happy 10 yrs bytheway. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

What p!ssed me off with my family is my grandfather had an old winchester 22 pump rifle and when he passed on i have no clue who got it. I would of loved to have that rifle handed down to me.

Now I have said and asked this on many forums who will get your guns when you pass on?

I ask this because i was in a pawn shop and the owner was bragging about when the farther passes on the family brings the guns to him and he makes money on them because they have no clue as to what there really worth. This guy was selling guns way below the current average going prices and once he found out he raised the prices and i never went back. He finally stopped selling guns because business was that slow.

Hearing this i was shocked and started a plan on where my guns will go and to who gets what in my family. It will be added to my will.

My wife and two sons are getting there CCW permits as we speak. They have a head start on shooting/reloading/hunting for there future. I want my guns to be handed down from generation to the future generation and so on in my family. I want them to enjoy the seed that i planted. But its there call what to do with them too.

My new grandson has a few late 1800/early 1900's 22cal single shot and pump rifles that will be his too. He will be 1yo soon and he'll have all the guns left to him he will ever need. Incase i pass on before he can shoot he'll be all set.

Its my plan right now and once its all set in stone and they understand it I can really rest in peace when i finally pass on. Bill

BTW; I'm also teaching them about how to check the current values too just incase they sell some too so there not ripped off.

I say enjoy them and shoot the snots out of them all till the end comes anyhoo.

im only 21 but in todays world its never too early.i could be killed in an accident tomorrow. admittedly ive onl got a small pretty worthless collection atm grand total of 4 guns and a mostly completed lower for an ar 15. i plan to increase my collection quite a bit. i was thinking of a gun trust and am even more so now since ive read all these posts. that way theres clear instructions. some if valuable i would have sold off but most i would either give to my relatives or close friends. btw, my neice 7 years old loves guns. last christmas i gave her a pink crickett style gun. well gave it to her father technically. have a hi point 9mm assault rifle she loves it and loves shooting in general. if at 12 she still does im going to do my best to get her in 4h shooting sports. if nothing else theyll go to her. even if she sells them hopefully she can/will get something she really enjoys. if the guns made me happy hopefully the proceeds will make her happy

The fact is unless you're one of the few guys who have very rare,very valuable guns.......most of us just have a decent sized collection of used guns with maybe a gem mixed in here and there. I know my collection isn't going to be the road to everlasting riches to whoever inherits it.....in fact my goal would be to leave a nice, solid collection of well used and enjoyed but well maintained firearms

When my time comes, I hope I have a son/daughter who appreciates the time and love I put into my firearms collection,and keeps all or most of them...... instead of hocking them before my body is cold

Mr. Burg makes some good points and offers a lot of perspective. I'd like to add that it's a good idea to catalog some of your gun related items as well. Can you just see a yard sale where your heirs are selling your Cokes, pre-war Magnas or that pair of Ropers that you have stashed in a cigar box for $5 each ? How about your HH Heiser or SD Myres or nice old Lawrence holsters for just a few bucks each, or your Randall knife which may look like just some old hunting knife to the uninformed ? Books ? An autographed copy of Sixguns by Keith, or Jan Still's out of print Luger books or Clawson's "Big" Colt .45 Service Pistols books that are worth hundreds each ? How about an M1905 Springfield bayonet with canvas covered sheath that you have had for years ? Many of us probably have a pretty damn sizable chunk of potential ebay cash that can be made by someone who wants to put these items out there where collectors can set the price.

At nearly 56 I'm selling off as many as I can to buy a new hip joint. Too bad the doc won't trade!
Cash is what he wants and cash is what I need to turn these things into.
I'll keep a couple for my personal entertainment.

Dick raises a very good question, what about all the other stuff? I just returned from a Prairie Dot hunt last week, and looking at my stash of ammo, I am questioning should I reload the pile of brass I just cleaned and sized? I still have over 700 rds 22-250, and 400 rds of .243, and 600 rds of .222. Then there is a couple thousand rds .45, .38, and a few hundred of .357, .44 mag, .44 Spec., 500 rds 8mm Mauser, 1000 rds 9mm, maybe 7000 rds .22 RF, and 500 .380.

Then there is about 20 lbs of assorted powder, 12,000 primers, maybe 5000 rds of cast bullets for the various handguns, and maybe 2000 rds various jacketed rifle bullets. Can't forget the 1000+ rds. of 12 ga, plus 150 lbs of shot and enough powder & primers.

My Dillon is 25 years old, but still great condition, and the ?(50+) yr old Texan turret press I bought used 30 yrs ago and still use a lot. Then the Mec 9000 I bought when I retired because I was going to shoot more trap & skeet. Not to mention the scales, powder measures, calipers, two cases full of various gunsmithing tools.

There are two rows about 4 ft. long with 1 gal jugs full of empty brass of various calibers, waiting to be reloaded.

The question, is do I bother to reload any brass as I use it up, or just clean it and store it as it would be much easier to dispose of than the loaded ammo.?

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

If you don't plan on shooting it yourself, the clean brass is much easier to get rid of than reloaded ammunition.

People are (understandably) generally reluctant to buy and shoot reloads unless they know you REALLY well. A lot of trust necessary there.

Very good topic. At age 68, I just retired and made the decision that since none of my 2 childern express the same interest in my various collections, I would sell most of them. Some items of special interest I will pass on, however, I decided to sell the rest.

I have spent the past 40 years buying and building collections of guns, knives, camera, mugs, etc. The hunt was fun for all those years. Now I am having fun selling one or two items at a time.

Part of my decision was that if I left the entire collection to one person, it would be a burden for them to sell the collection one at a time or in total, plus they would not have the knowledge I have regarding each gun.

One thing more. As a matter of fact I have one doctor, a friend and former colleague prior to my retirement, who gladly accepts guns as payment. As luck would have it he is a PHD, MD, DDS and oral surgeon.

He is pretty obvious with gun magazines in his waiting room instead of National Geographic.

It's as simple as asking. In turn he discounts my bill and knows I will value the gun at a significant discount. We both win.

If you know your physician well, as of course you should, just ask. The worst that can happen is a "no".

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Jim

Here is what I have started to do lately. Due to being naturaly lazy, retired and a natural BSer, I have been a large contributer to "chat" on this forum.
It dawned on me that I have wrote a lot of my opinions, experiances and advice. For my heir`s sake, I started keeping a running log of them under documents on my computer. Hopefully what this will do as time pass`s is give good information to whoever gets your guns a handel on what their worth is, why you collected them etc. If you participate here you just might find you have wrote a lot of info on your guns, and maybe also a lot of personnal other opinions and storys that have nothing to do with guns that your grandkids might get to know you a lot better after you are gone.
I just copy and paste my writeings to a document stored in the computer. I already have enough for two books!

You guys are discussing me. I am a recent widow. My husband collected all his adult years and we have no children to leave them to. It is now two years after his death and I am just starting to find good homes for some of his guns. I am keeping many of them, because they are ones I like a lot. I am selling the others with the aid of a good, long-term friend who also is one of the dealers that helped "enable" my husband.

My husband left me an inventory that I helped with over the years. Not only did it have basic info on it, but purchase info-date, who from, cost, but also tidbits about the special things about the gun. Most have factory letters as well. He also had the best estimate of value as the last date he worked on the inventory. It helped make my job easier (as easy as it could be anyway--the guns were a big part of our life). The process is just starting, but I feel very comfortable with it. He was extremely knowledgeable on guns in his area and most of his prices are pretty close, a few too cheap, a few too expensive, some just right. Overall the value of his collection should be pretty right on.

I am not inexperienced at this as I helped my husband liquidate the collections of two of his very close friends over the last 10-12 years. One of these widows had excellent info on the guns, the other not quite so good. In both cases, I feel that he was able to get great value to the widow, as he knew the collections and WHO to sell them to. I have the same knowledge with the gentleman selling mine.

It is just as important to me that these guns find a good home and I look forward to the next owner loving them as much as my husband did.

Anyway, I guess to summarize--try to involve the spouse in your collection--she may not totally understand it or even have any interest, but any knowledge will help. Keep info on the inventory on what is included with the gun, box, grips, factory letter, other accessories. Go through at least once a year to update and reprice with best estimates (and be realistic!) And if you have promised any one that "when I get rid of this you'll be the first to know...." put this down on your inventory as well. It will help tremendously.

And yes I am staying involved in the collecting world. It's family.

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SWHF

Reloading stuff, its not all worthless or hard to sell…

I think today you need to be honest with yourself as to the value of what you have. Some reloading equipment can be very valuable and desirable, some can be worth less than scrap metal. Check a site like eBay for ended auction and see. Dillon, Star, P&W, Spoler (sp) can be worth a bunch of money. A single stage press, not all so much. Also all the parts and add ons add up fast. Have you priced H&G moulds...

On my gun list, I list my reloading machines and change over’s. I have a Dillon 650 with nine complete change overs and a Dillon sl900 plus all the extras, scales, two primer loaders and on and on. Plus all the casting stuff. This is real money and will sell for 75 to 100% of new on a site like eBay. I have included a link to the company website for values. Also if she cant sell it, make arrangements with a local eBay store to do it.

The components and bullets my advice is to give it to friends, donate to local shooting club. What ever is left and can’t be given away, give to friend with boat and dump it to the bottom

Its often hard to be objective when looking at our own stuff. We tend to overlook known faults or lacking condition. We also tend to overvalue things, it human nature I think….

Food for thought I hope

Honestly--This has been a most interesting thread. Being a natural people reader and observer, it has given me great insight.
People are strange in what they place value on/in--not wierd strange but a studied strange--and we are all strange in so many simular ways.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

sometimes sentimental value far exceeds real value. i have a 450 doller 15-22 and a pretty much worthless 177 pellet gun given to me by my father when i was pretty young. guess which one i value more? would sell the 22 in a heartbeat but that 177 plinker is stayin with me for a long time to come

Proverbs 3: 5-6
Flapjack.

I've explained the worth to my family and if they decide to dump them for quick easy money... Who cares???? I'm dead and another collector can worry about it! : )