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The ugly truth

I'm not breaking any news in saying that you're not going to live forever. Maybe it's something you don't think about that much. Maybe it's something that you think about a lot.

My question is, do you think about it in terms of your card collection?

I do.

What will happen to my cards after, you know, the tombstone reads "Here lies the smartest man in the universe: he collected Dodger cards"?

Do you think about that? Some people say they'll pass their collection down to their children. That's great. It's probably the best option. But what if your children aren't interested in cards? My daughter isn't.

Perhaps you wait for grandchildren and hope they like the hobby. Or maybe you sell them. That's always a thought in my head. Whatever I'd get in exchange for my cards would be a paltry amount, but at least it would be more than what I had before I sold them.

(To those of you who think, "why would you sell such treasured memories?" I ask this: when you're on your death bed, are you really going to demand to see your 1981 Ron Oester card one more time? And if you are, then you're more hard-core than I thought you were).

But that's all I've got: wait for grandchildren or cash in my cards for a few random dollars. I could donate them somewhere, I suppose. Or maybe I'll make them into one of those pieces of furniture that I saw on the blogs awhile ago.

I don't know. Anyone else got any bright ideas?

Comments

That really is a happy topic! Should I die before I wake, Paul from Carl Crawford Cards can have my Rays collection. I don't my wife will want lingering reminders of my obsessive habit that cut into our time and budget hanging around the house after I go...Time for bed!
I thought about it more as I was walking to bed... We collect what we like to make us happy while we are healthy. We immortalize said cards on these here blogs. When we die, hopefully they go into the hands of someone who is made just as happy by them regardless of whether a dollar changes hands. Good night.
I'm leaning toward using them for a massive funeral pyre, ala Darth Vader. I'm fairly sure my wife would gladly light the fire!
Doc said…
Having two children under the age of two (boy - 23 months and girl - 8 months), plus a wife who would jump at Brian's Vader Funeral Pyre idea tomorrow, I have been thinking about what to do with the (gasp) 200,000+ card collection.

First for me is to whittle down the madness. I had to come up with a list of keepers and traders/sellers. Keepers are all sets, anything before 1986, all wax (I'm sure I'll let my kids open them), all HOFers, all Padres, and maybe all All Star Selected players. That ought to reduce the collection to around 50,000.

From there, IF my kids like baseball cards, odd year sets to my son and even year sets to my girl, with the doubles of said sets going to the other kid.

If no kids or grandchildren collect, they will be sold near the end to a collector and I guess I'll use that money to buy a custom made coffin made out of 75 Topps. No joke.
Matt Runyon said…
I have a nephew who collects cards, so right now he'd be the one to get my collection. Hopefully I'll have children who are interested in cards someday.

If I have nobody to give the cards to, my wife will probably try to sell them on eBay or something. Maybe she'll become a Craigslist idiot. :)
Andy said…
My dad collected stamps and had a very valuable collection. When neither my brother nor me became interested in stamps, he decided that selling off his collection was going to be the final phase of his collecting. In the end, he found a single buyer to take it all for $75,000, so it ended up being quite easy. He planned to have it take 10 years. My dad's only in his 60s now but he didn't want to risk dying early and leaving a collection that nobody could dispose of properly. He had told my brother and me that if he ever died, there was a certain friend of his named Mike who could be trusted to sell the collection in his place, but then Mike himself died--I think that's what spurred my dad to sell it himself.

I have only a daughter and don't expect her to care about baseball cards. I do, however, collect any cards talking about Jon Lester's no-hitter from last year because that's the day she was born. I plan to give them to her at some point in the future.
Tom said…
I'm sure all the things that I've collected over the years will be sold by my wife for a quarter here, a dime there...regardless of the value.
Matthew Glidden said…
One advantage of the theoretical (i.e., appraised) value is your ability to make a charitable donation. That certainly lessens the specter of asking your family to resell everything!

What do folks think of the market itself dropping away? As the Boomer generation passes away, is there enough X and Y to pick up the economic "slack?"
Anonymous said…
Some of my completed sets will go to my children. The singles will be buried with me in my trouser pockets.
JD's Daddy said…
I'm still peaved that my dad has never collected any full sets to hand down to me!

My plan is to build as many full sets as possible for JD to keep or hand down to his kids. Or who knows, maybe when I retire in 30-35 years there might actually be some value to my 2009 topps. Take the money and head for the tropics!
Motherscratcher said…
It hadn't occured to me.

I'm assuming that my collection won't be complete (I don't have every card ever made) so I hope that my son is interested.

If that fateful day happens when he is still young enough, nothing would make me happier than for some of the cards to end up in his spokes.
zman40 said…
I have actually thought of that and have wondered the same thing. I am 30 now and don't see any kids in the near future.

Most of my cards I could care less about where they go. But, my autographed cards are a different story. I wouldn't mind going through those one last time while on my death bed, especially if I end up lasting for awhile. After that, hopefully, I would have a family member (or a friend's kid)that collects autographs or I would try my hardest to get the National Baseball Hall of Fame to accept them. I have no idea how realistic that is, though.
Spiff said…
Probably pass them on to Spiff Jr. at this point. He is already interested in cards and the Rangers so that would work out nicely.

Interesting topic.