This is a huge subject and full of problems. The absolute worst thing is to do nothing. I've watched a few situations where the gun guy did just that and it often turns out to be a burden.
Yes, and as someone else pointed out above, it is often a burden to the widow/family AND to the trusted guy who is asked to help. I've helped two people liquidate collections, and it is not a small task, even for a smaller (20 guns or so) collections. Coming up with a fair value, explaining to the heir the difference between a buy price and a sell price, finding buyers or other ways to dispose of them, etc. I've printed off recent completed auctions on gunbroker.com as one way to show them what similar / equivalent guns are selling for, and that often helps, but it is more work. The one widow I helped was great, and after I gave her the value of each gun in the collection and helped her sell a few (and got pretty much what they were worth), she offered me a gun for free for my services. I ended up suggesting that I just take it at a discount, but it was a nice gesture, and a fair one on her part, I think.
I view things differently from my wife. Her solution was to just let our sons, who are into guns, pick what they want (its called cherry picking) and let David take whats left. The better solution is to let David pickup what he wants on his way to a OGCA show and leave what he doesn't want. Then the kids can take or leave whats left. They already have guns to remember ole Dad. Anything else is just gravy.
This is exactly right, IF your goal is to get the most money for your collection. It can also be a bad mistake, depending on your sons. If you are talking about sons who like to go hunting or blasting targets on the weekend, and you don't want them cherry-picking the Colt SAA serial #1 or the nearly NIB S&W HE 44 Spl from 1920 out of your collection, and taking it out weekly and blasting modern jacketed ammo through it, then, yes, I see your point. However, if one or both of your kids love guns, collecting, and history, and would appreciate a collectable for what it is, and you send them off to the auction, you will certainly cause hard feelings.
I'd say THE most important thing to do is to communicate with your loved ones, gunship.
I love the story about the stamp collection that went up in smoke... As a collector, I don't really care that she lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars. She was stupid and didn't deserve the money as far as I'm concerned. I'm more upset at the loss to the world of collectors. And, that's they way I'd look at the guns too. I have three kinds of guns in my safe:
A) Collectibles, which are valuable and never shot and kept for enjoyment and investment.
B) Shooters, which are kept for using.
C) Accidents, which are guns that I don't really care about, but I came into them as a deal.
Accidents are a great place to start divesting one-self of a collection. You don't care about them, probably don't have much in them, and can see what profit you can turn and how you feel about letting them go.
Shooters are not as easy to get rid of, until the day comes you can't shoot anymore. My dad died three years ago of pancreatic cancer. He last 5 months after diagnosis, and some days were better than others. I called one of my best friends, who was close to my dad, and informed him. Good friend that he is, he said, "well, it's time to shoot up every round of ammo he owns." A couple months before dad died, on a beautiful warm summer day, my friend and I took dad to the range with every gun he wanted to shoot and several cans of ammo. Dad got to shoot his beloved M1 Carbines, Broomhandle Mausers, his Garand, and WWII 1911. The Thompson was too heavy for him, but he had a great day. After thanking us profusely, he told me to take the guns to my house, which I did. I gave a bunch of the extra ammo left over to my buddy for him facilitating. Shooters may or may not have some monetary value, but I say if you have heirs who want them, give them to them. I have a daughter, nephew and 3 grand-nephews who are avidly interested in guns. Several are only interested in hunting guns, so they will get their pick of the shotguns. One is into modern military guns, so he'll get a few choices out of what I own of them. My daughter is just starting her shooting interest, but she'll get whatever she wants.
The Collectibles are the harder category to deal with. They are pricey, and as I described above about the stamp collector, there is a broader group than the family who would really appreciate them (and likely no one in the family who would). Still, I would communicate with the family. The only person in the family I would GIVE these to, would be my daughter. (Having only one direct heir makes this easier on me than others, perhaps.) At some point, the financial value gets to a point that it's unfair to the others. I've left instructions that my collectibles should go to one of the firearms collector auction companies (we're down the road from Rock Island Auctions), if my daughter doesn't want them. (She might. She and I are very close and she is showing a pretty good interest. Still, those change over time, so I want her and my wife to know and have options.) If I live a good long time more, and my daughter doesn't want the collectibles I've got, I love the suggestions of going to the auction yourself and watching them get bid on. Now, if you do not have an easy, single-heir situation like me, but an heir or two ARE interested in the collectables, the other thing I would suggest, to be fair to the other heirs, is to put a value on the collectibles and ask the heirs who want them to buy them or take an off-set against their inheritance. I did this with my dad's (actually my paternal grandfather's, but dad had inherited it from him) coin collection. My sister wasn't interested in it, but it wasn't fair for me to just take it. Had to count it out and put values on it, and I paid cash for some, took an off-set for some of it (mom gave the sister some cash), and some of it went to local coin dealer for sale. I'm happy, mom's happy, and sister are happy. It took communication though. That's the work. That and being sensitive to fairness and other heir's feelings.
