Our Stashes - Or what becomes of all that stuff .

Tanker - Builder

     Hi;

     I don't mean to be maudlin or morbid . I was just thinking about something that transpired recently . As you all know , I am Vice - President of Modeling at the New Braunfels , Texas, Rail Road Museum.

      Last year our beloved , reviled, respected and confusing , but loveable, late president passed away . he was the commensurate modeler . if it was a model , he built it . Never mind what the material was , if he liked it , it got built .

     Now comes the morbid part .When cleaning out his house , friends found over two warehouse units worth of Railroadiana and just regular models tucked away . Two warehouse units . Can you say 12x24x10 feet crammed with stuff ?

   It became the duty of the club and staff at the Museum to help the Family to sort , value and sell this stash . The rail stuff was enough to fill five tables , three layers deep with rail related models and memorabilia . Models ? Well there were twelve ships ( 1/350 & 1/700 ) , 65 Airplanes ( (1/144& 1/72 ) And thirty Cars . Now this didn't cover all the modeling stuff that could span all genre .

 Total , 26 Tables , Four Layers deep at 20 cents on the dollar. What are you going to do with yours ? Oh , By the way there was no inventory so we had that duty too !

   i have decided to make my stuff easy to eliminate . I am in process at 72 of donating things to folks who will appreciate them while I am still here . The Veterans at Audie Murphy V.A. recreation dept. in San Antonio , Get many inventoried and boxed items .Wounded Warriers get inventoried and Boxed items too .

 As to paints and raw materials they go to the V.A., Clothes to St.Vincent De Paul and everything else to whomever wants it .My super large stash of LEGO product goes to the Museum and My landlady ( She's expressed an interest in these) along with all my train stuff to sell or use as they see fit ,Inventoried of course .

     Last but not least .To my Legal Eagle ( My landlady ) Who's been like a sister during health problems and recovery , a surprise from my insurance company and my Car , ( Anyone want a 2003 - KIA Sedona with 200,000 miles on it ? ) .

 There , see , that wasn't hard .But it's something we all should think of Before the unthinkable happens . Inventory , list and describe who is to recieve those items .Do it now , or in a flea market or garage sale it will likely go .

     Yes , we don't want to think about this and it hurts as well pscyhologically .But it is a fact of life . FACT - Most stashes in todays market are worth about 20 to 50 cents on the dollar, If That ! . FACT - The hurt you create by not doing this is immeasurable .

 Think About it and Do It . You will breathe easier and probably live longer as a result !  Tanker - Builder         P.S. Shoot , you will probably be saying , " Geez , I don't even remember when I got that , What is it ?" 

 

So before your time comes, pre-plan everything!  It only helps your heirs in the long run.

Toshi

In my case, with no direct family anymore, my bud 45 miles away gets to deal with all my stuff.  The rigs will go to him as well all the firearms, those he can sell off to pay for my barbque, and the twin urns for the wifemate and I.  As to the rest of it I've told him to just walk away from it, if he wants.  The mobile home is a 1973 model and not worth tearing down and hauling away.  So I expect the stash will end up in the landlords dumpster when they have to remove everything left over.

Hopefully I'll get the better stuff built and given away to displays before my time comes.

I've got a couple ideas what to do with my stash & hobby tools. I will ask they be donated to the VA and Wounded Warriors. Maybe a few to fellow modellers. 

Couple of my friends will take what they like,and try to sell off what they could.

As for my built stuff it's in cabinets on display in the basement not bothering anyone,I imagine she will just let it sit until she moves or her new husband gets rid of it.

The wife knows to contact my modeling club. I keep my stash trimmed down to about ten or so. I can't imagine anyone would be interested in anything that I've built. Turf what the club doesn't want. Done and done.

Basically, no one's waiting with bated breath for reading of my will.

No worries here.

Mine goes into my tomb for building in the afterlife.

Seriously though. If my survivors want to sell it off online or donate to one of the local model clubs to auction off, I have no qualms. The choice is theirs.

we just dealt with 2 deaths. in both cases the widows had contacts, we collected the stashes (BIG stashes) and had a couple of auction/garage sales netting almost $4K. also club members had the opportunity to take already built kits and we cleaned out 90% of those. both were VERY good modelers, one was Dallas LLoyd from Colorado.

i think it is comforting for spouses to know they have folks who will help with this since most spouses, lucky for us, accept our hobby even if they don't participate.

The wife and I finally had our wills done last month. I've been wanting to do this for a long time so it's finally done. As for my stash, I told the wife to go the Ebay route in case I check out.

One of the advantages of being in a club is that clubs often help the families dispose of the stash.

Well Don

 You are right there . T.B.

Hmmmm, That 200,000 mile Kia would fit well with my 230,000 mile Mitsubishi and my fiances 255,000 mile Honda.   

  Good post TB!

Even sadder to think about is what happens to your built kits?

We all know the time and effort we put into certain kits. To this rest of the world, heck, even fellow modellers, our builds are little more than crafting projects.

Just last week a older neighbor man passed away. We went over to his house to pay our respects to his widow. She showed us a stamp and coin collection he had worked on for years. I could tell he put lots of time and effort into organizing and displaying it. I recognized all of it as "collectibles" advertised on late night infomercials and magazine ad's. Pretty much worthless junk but to him it was his pride and joy.

I pretty much feel my built collection would fall into the same worthless junk catejory.

The club will get the stash, and I try to give away my best builds to museums and such. My wife will cherish the rest of my builds untill she goes. At that time the grandkids will get them if they want, if not, into the dump they go I should think.

I've had a similar discussion on another modeling forum and eventually brought it up with my wife (yes, really). My stash is probably about 100 kits, but there are some very rare ones in the bunch she should know about. Anigrand Star Destroyer, Black Hole Cygnus kits, Hunk of Junk "Shiny" kit, to name a few. Means of identifying them and their present value. There's a few grand of extra cash for her and the kids when the next Exacto accident happens.

The other side of it is the built ones. I'm slowly coming to terms with the notion that the next project is the one that matters, the next one where you learn that new skill. in about 17 years when I decide to retire, we're packing up and moving to Nova Scotia, and there's no way all of them will make it there - if any. So I'll take a lot of photos and post them on my little website. Eventually.

As I said, I still have to come to terms with the lack of permanence in where my built ones end up. I'm postponing building some of my rare and special kits because I can't stand the thought of leaving them behind or having to move them, but one way or another they'll all get left behind in the end. It's something we all have to face and deal with.

I have a fairly large stash of unbuilt kits and it will probably stay large to the end, no matter how many I build. I don't have anyone to leave the collection to, so I have shown my wife the classifieds in FSM from people who buy unbuilt collections and told her to go with one of them. It will be a lot easier than trying to sell them individually  on E-bay. The built ones can be tossed except for the models of vehicles that had some family connection  like the duplicates of cars we've owned, the tanks my Dad drove in the Italian Army in WWII, and the US Air Force planes I worked on.