What to do with all my stuff?

Posting on the forum again & perusing all the boxes of packed away railway items, & considering the current Covid situation & the passing of Colin, got me to thinking about what to do with 50 years worth of model railway paraphernalia.
We don't have any children or close relatives & I wasn't happy about the thought of all my gear being disposed of by someone who has no interest or idea of it's worth.

Maybe there are others in a similar situation on the forum.  So I thought I would be very willing to bequeath my collection to the forum so members could take items that were of use or interest to them.  At least then they would be going to fellow enthusiasts who could appreciate them.

I keep an inventory for insurance purposes of all locos, rolling stock & unmade kits but of course there are 101 other items - tools, paints, scenic stuff, static grass applicators, reference books, magazines (RMs from 1958 on) etc etc.

It would need someone to volunteer as 'custodian' to hold the items & distribute them equitably.

Shipping from S.A. is expensive & tardy (I received a letter this morning about one of my policies posted in March - six months for a letter!  It was quicker by sail boat in the 19thC!)

If I survive Sandra then I would be prepared for everything to be donated & the shipping paid for from my estate .

If Sandra survives me then I would need to leave as much as possible for her security so the shipping would need to be paid for, & there may be some items that she could sell here, although the market here is small & EBay doesn't work here very well.  (Last items I sold here on EBay - PayPal won't release the money to our bank & want us to open an account with another bank that I am not prepared to do so there is over £100 of our money that we can't have!)

So would be interested to hear what other members think as to whether this is a viable idea, & whether they wish it to be pursued.

Mal

Hi Mal,

That's something that most of us over a certain age have thought of. In fact it can extend to many objects of desire we have enjoyed over the years, but never got round to passing on to new owners sooner.

I'm aware of the issue and have plans for reducing my stuff, starting with some larger items other than railway, but I have no ready answer yet for the railway items. I suppose if I go first, I can simply let the bride have details of firms who will buy the lot, based on my schedules. This would be the simplest way to dispose of the collection and get some money to the bride. If I'm the last to go, well frankly, I'll be in no position to mind what happens, as we have no children.

Hopefully you will continue to enjoy one another and your railway, but you are right to have a plan tucked away for when it's needed.

Best,

Bill

I'm a bit of an ostrich when it comes to this kind of thing Mel - some nice white sand and I'm happy …………… :roll:

You are of course, absolutely right to wonder what would happen to all your "stuff" but I suppose, after you've gone, one doesn't really care too much.  It's more about considering those who are left - how would they sort out my mess or, more to the point, why should they have to ?

Hopefully, I have a few more years before it becomes a pressing problem but it is something we really ought to face up to.

Hi Peter.  This post seems to have gone down like a lead balloon!
I'd just like to think of a lifetimes railway collection going some where were it will be enjoyed by those who will appreciate it's worth (not value) rather than it ending up in a skip.

We've got a huge amount of stuff that we've collected over the years (including a lot of original artwork & bespoke jewellery) but it's the railway stuff that I care most about!

I recently had the job of disposing of one of my mates collection after he suddenly died - a reasonably huge layout; 4 of us got into it over a few weeks.
Approx 200 cars & trucks;200 UK wagons & coaches , 30 UK locos: 250 USA box cars etc & 50 locos; enough track to sink the Titanic. Even some of the buildings his partner had built - she kept a couple as mementos plus a Silver Fox loco ( which was his nickname Foxy).
His partner was not aware of how much he had; if we took our time & sold it all via Ebay, we may have got more but she was happy with what she got, not that she really needed it.

[user=380]Kaiser[/user] wrote:

Hi Peter.  This post seems to have gone down like a lead balloon!

Not a lead balloon, it’s just a difficult post to reply to. I don’t have anything helpful or insightful to add.. other than on Mythbusters they made a lead balloon fly! 

Hi Chris.  All I'd like to know is if members think this is an idea to be developed.  As I said it would need someone (with some shed space!) who would be prepared to act as custodian & to catalogue.  If there are other members in a similar situation to mine then quite a store of 'goodies' could be accumulated for the benefit of all members, who would then only have to pay shipping & maybe a small percentage to the custodian to make it worth their while.
If a number of members were interested in a particular item then I'm sure the equivalent of drawing straws could be conjured up!

BTW I think you have made great progress on Teasel Bay in just 3 years - keep it up!

Mal

Maybe people would be more interested if you added some photos, usually gets people excited! Are there any groups more local to yourself who would be interested also?
Thanks for the complement on Teasel.

Hi Mel,

Good luck with the downloading. Always an issue - what happens to it all when I'm gone? I would be tempted to contact Hatton's or Rails.

I thought long and hard about this a few years ago, having seen several layouts dispersed after the death of the owner. Couple of home rules were established:

For the layout, buy no more than required. 

If it is not used in 2 years, move it on. 

Treat it as an investment subject to depreciation. 

If you are in a location where OO is as rare as hen's teeth, or railway modeling is a rarity, think twice about having a large layout. Where I live I am aware of maybe 5 active OO modelers within a 50 mile radius,  nearly all of them much older than me and facing the same problem of too much old stuff, no real market and not enough time.

It's a great idea, many specialist societies have stores that sell at exhibitions, but old stock has lots of issues regarding spares and repairs.
 
Nigel

I think Chris wasn't too far off the mark Mal. 
How does one reply to your post ?

In principle, I think it's a great idea but logistically and geographically, a difficult one.  As you rightly say, most UK outline (and therefore "OO" Gauge) modellers live in UK with a relatively small following elsewhere in the world.  Getting stuff from S.A. to Europe would I suspect, prohibit the shipping of all but easily packed and valuable stuff such as rolling stock etc.

Your generous  offer of donating it could indeed, swing the balance but, without any prior knowledge of what is involved, it's very difficult to actually make any positive suggestions.  Having said that, I'm absolutely certain someone in the club would be more than happy to act as auctioneer ………..

Alas, not me because a) you may well outlast me and b) I have a similar geographic problem to you, albeit a mere 21 miles of water to cross, but it's still not UK !!

Offloading to the box shifters would, IMHO, be just that - offloading.  Their offerings for used stock is an absolute disgrace.

Nigel - good advice but too late for me !  As you know, I have boxed & unopened  stuff from the 60's & onwards!
Peter - I don't know about outlasting you!  It's the big 70 for me next January!  How is it that time speeds up when everything else is slowing down?

In my head I know exactly how Ottersford should look & over the years I've bought stuff to fit into that vision (you will see from an earlier post that the plan for Ottersford was decided in 1976!).  I've been keeping things boxed until they could be used on the layout (20+ locos most with Loksound).  I suppose I should just unpack & enjoy them.  Have over 100 unmade kits!

Anyway the offer is there if anyone wants to take advantage.

Hi Mal,

I'm in my early 70's and settled this issue several years ago. Nobody in the family  is remotely interested in toy trains, so estate planning is kept easy with minimal stock. 

As previously mentioned, it might be useful to send out a list with what you expect to get to those interested. Cut and paste from the word processor or spreadsheet into a post. Or just post it as a photo.

Nigel

Edit: I deliberately do not buy new stock. All of my 4 EM models are oldsters, as are my 3 HO models and 2 On30 bashes. The money is in the decoders, which interestingly do not seem to lose their value as much as a locomotive does. 

Nice and generous idea Mal, but in my view a non-starter.  As you have already pointed out the shipping costs would make it prohibitively expensive to ship your models to…where exactly?  As we appear to have club members spread around the globe, whoever takers on the mammoth task of being custodian would then have to spend a lot of time shipping models onwards to other countries to their final destinations.  All to the detriment of his/her own modelling time.  I forsee all sorts of problems with transferring payments to cover the carriage and models disappearing into the various postal systems never to be seen again, with the resultant requests for carriage monies paid to be returned. 

As regards the £100 owed to you by Paypal.  Why not open a new bank account as requested, have Paypal transfer the money, withdraw it and then close the account?

No point in being sentimental about all the other stuff.  No one is going to want to buy old tins of paint, tools, etc., and especially if they have to be shipped around the globe.  Secondhand magazines are not worth anything.  Clubs have resorted to trying to give them away for free at exhibitions just to get rid of them.

Personally, I am going to enjoy my models for my remaining years.  When I finally shuffle off this mortal coil (to quote Hamlet) I won't be in a position to worry about what happens to them, so no point in fretting over it now. 

Enjoy your modelling.

Terry 

[user=711]col.stephens[/user] wrote:

Personally, I am going to enjoy my models for my remaining years.  When I finally shuffle off this mortal coil (to quote Hamlet) I won't be in a position to worry about what happens to them, so no point in fretting over it now. 

Enjoy your modelling.

Terry 

One modelling friend here in Australia into USA outline has at least 350 plus coaches and about the same for freight wagons but it is his loco stock that amazes me, all steam around 280 odd, mostly costing him a minimum of around A$800 plus EACH  then he adds sound decoders to them all & he said when he departs, it won't worry him what happens to it - it was his money he spent so what the family can get for it all , will be theirs.

Hi Sol - that really was the point.  I don't have any family, or friends with any interest in railway modelling so just thought it would be good if the collection could go some where were it would be appreciated.
Terry you make a good point - I suppose it's hard to accept that your treasured collection going back over 50 years is just somebody else's junk but I suppose that's how it is.

With regard to the PayPal thing since the new financial regulations in 2008 I can't open a new bank account because of my residential status in S.A..  Luckily my wife & I had both already opened accounts but not with the bank that PayPal wants to use.  My PayPal account was opened when we still in the UK so why they can't pay into that UK account I don't know.

Mal

Hi Mal,

I had the same situation re PayPal when I moved from Canada to the US. I had to open a new PayPal account with my US address, at which point the Canadian money was transferred and the Canadian account closed. Lots of businesses accept PayPal, I don't bother linking it to my bank account. If you have Visa or MasterCard no problem just link PayPal to the card.

Nigel