Planning for our Estate Sale

gr8legs

gr8legs

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Rest In Peace
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Oct 31, 2014
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An approaching birthday and the realization that I will probably not live forever started me thinking about what to do about the accumulation of 'stuff' in the workshop.

Most of us here on this site are sort of 'vultures', happy to swoop into a retired, disabled or deceased home hobbyist's shop and offer the survivor pennies on the dollar for their tools, tooling and other treasured items - and then brag about it on here. I'm as guilty as anyone.

But what happens to the family of the hobby machinist when we do this? There has to be a way to find the middle ground where both parties can be treated fairly.

Of course some Estate Sales or other asset disbursement methods have useless items that are overpriced - and vice versa.

I'm pondering maybe doing a shop inventory of what's there and assigning a reasonable 'second hand' value to the items to provide guidance to my loved ones after I croak. A lot of work for not much gain to myself at all. But it could provide guidance for my family if they wanted to get fair return on my investment.

What are your thoughts on this truly depressing subject? What are y'all doing?

Just offering a bit of unpalatable food for thought. Maybe I will live forever.

Stu
 
I've thought of doing the exact same thing. I am at present surviving lung cancer but I know my time is numbered. I want my wife to be able to get a fair price for the toys I have spent our money on when the time comes. I haven't done this yet but hope to do it before anything happens to me. This includes not only the tools in my shop but guns, boat, fishing gear, etc.
 
Maybe voice record thoughts on value as you think of possessions. That would get you started.
 
I went through this with the father in laws estate a few years back. He was big into Model As and Model Ts. He would buy cars and parts. The wife started complaining... so he would buy cars and parts, take them to a friends house, disassemble them, and then sneak them home in pieces. the barn was SLAM full. the attic, the garage. Even under the house was full of car parts. Then add in ten years of slowly deteriorating mental capacity (couldn't remember how to put anything together, so he just kept taking everything apart) and hording, and you have a bit of a mess. I was tasked with identifying, valuing, and selling off this stuff for top dollar. They **knew** it was a gold mine. It wasn't. No one wanted it, no one wanted to even dig through the junk to figure it out. The line I heard over and over from appraisers to potential dealers was "you got a real mess here, good luck".

It took me two years to dispose of most of that stuff and get what value I could from it. That is not a job I would wish on anyone. If I had to do it again, it would have gone to the scrapyard. Listen to Stu here. It's a real issue.
 
I suspect that 80% of the value is in 20% of the stuff. So if you only just provide guidance on the 20% it could make a difference. The other thing is just to identify what has the most value. someone not familiar with all of this might now realize how expensive or valuable some small thing is. They probably would not see any difference in a Shars DTI vs a Sterrett.
 
Yes, I think many of us share this problem. My biggest issue is overcoming laziness to get things priced before I die or get more senile than I already am.;) In some ways it might make more sense to leave a plan for donating it all to a museum or similar non-profit, if the money is not a real issue for our heirs. They would probably prefer to just see it go away with as little effort as possible...
 
I started a google spreadsheet of all the stuff in the shop, description, model number, serial number, year, when acquired, purchase price, date sold, selling price, notes, etc. I started with powertools, but now I have been expanding to other things. For work I am all over spreadsheets all day so this came natural. It helps me know what I've got. And its interesting to see the total expenditure.

Lately I've started expanding this to other things outside the shop. I have a lot of vintage audio gear, test equipment, vacuum tubes etc that I'm going to get started on. It's a fun winter project.

I've gone to some estate sales that made me feel like I was in a twilight zone episode where I was at the sale my wife is having after I died. Might as well have an exit strategy. Also when I see how much stuff is on the list I gain perspective- feel rich, lucky, grateful, sometimes greedy. Many benefits to this exercise beyond getting a fair price for the family. I've even thought about adding notes about who should get certain things. And some things I've moved along already- why wait? If someone get get use out something I'm just sitting on.

I don't see this as morbid, it's more like right action.

Tim
 
Good to organize, get realistic with what to do with them and sell them, donate or give away to the right people now.

I am going through this process, getting rid of many things.

Sometimes, the values of the items can be redeemed by other things you realized when you free up your time managing the clutter.
 
I think this is a good idea. One thing to keep in mind, the values we place on items may prolong the time it takes to sell our stuff. For us, that isn't a problem, for our families it is prolonging the pain of their loss.

When pricing, we should keep this in mind.

As for cataloging everything, most of our love ones won't know a lathe from a mill. Filling out pages of information may or may not be of any help to them. Maybe use a video camera and go around the shop and show them what you are talking about and what you think it might be worth. For drawers of tools, open the drawer and give your best description and again value.

Just a thought!
 
I've thought about this, and have a plan. Plan A: Don't die, so far so good.
Plan B: I am going to put together a binder with photos and a description of the more valuable items with a fair market price and a fair gone in 3 days price as well as potential places to sell it.

I think Plan B is viable, but since Plan A is working (so far) I admit that I have been lax in implementing Plan B. I am also at an age where I probably have another 30-50 years baring an accident which also reduces the felt urgency. People occasionally drop dead at a relatively young age, so I know it is something that shouldn't be put off until the last minute, but that is what we tend to do.


I like Papa Charlie's idea of video as well, and that can serve two purposes. The obvious is what things are, and their value. The other is it leaves a video record that some family may actually enjoy watching, as you putter around the shop pointing out the various pieces of your collection.


Beyond giving a price writing the ad copy you would use to sell it yourself could be very useful. How often do you see ads on CL or Ebay that are simply "old lathe for sale, best offer" with a dark, blurry photo of a lathe like object buried under years of assorted crud.
How much better is it when you see something like "1939 Southbend, 13" swing with a 7 foot bed" with a listing of included tooling, and photos of bits people are interested in.
Maybe I should include a thumb drive in the binder.
 
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