[vcf-midatlantic] Downsizers, Sick, Old, and Dying Collector -- Special Interest group to focus on "artifact wills"

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> On Mar 27, 2024, at 2:01 PM, David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> 
> Its a subject of interest. Hopefully I have a while left before it gets
> critical.
> 
> For your 1) below I'm not sure how practical that is. From what I have seen
> of storage units it can be hopeless to evaluate contents without a huge
> effort. For better organized collections may be possible but having person
> with knowlege of collection area and time to visit may be tough for
> having as a general service. I know I have started on a proper inventory
> a couple times and never completed for my own stuff.
> 
> For 2) seems to be where to start. Provide people with information on
> how they should prepare for the eventual transition of a collection. Would
> be a good VCF talk also.
> 
>> On Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 05:18:09PM +0000, Bob Roswell via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>> While on the sad topic of Bryan,  I would love to start/participate in a special interest group to focus on best practices for "artifact wills."
>> 
>> 
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>> As the curator of a museum, I get calls, and emails many times a month from (usually) widows and children trying to figure out how dispose of their loved one's collection.
>> 
>> There is a mature industry for estate planning, but they usually don't include the collections of stuff.  Some general articles exist like https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/estate-planning-for-memorabilia-collectors
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>> I could imagine the following results off the top of my head:
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>> 
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>> 1)  Documentation Corps: VCFED would have a corps of volunteers who could visit home/storage units while the collector is still alive.  We could document what is there and capture oral histories from the collector.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 2) Publish a document on disposition of the stuff
>> 
>>                *  Donation to museum (with tax write-off)
>> 
>>               * Gift to other individuals
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>>               * Consignment or Swap Meets
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>>              * Ebay/Craigslist
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>>                * High end Auction houses (RR Auction Etc)
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>>              * Electronics Recyclers
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>> The document would provide contacts as well as a brief overview of the process.
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>> Anyone interest?
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Bob Roswell
>> 
>> Curator, Computer Museum @ System Source
>> 
>> https://museum.syssrc.com
>> 
>> broswell at syssrc.com
>> 
>> 410-771-5544 ext 4336
>> 
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