Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I told my wife to let feiends/family take what they want and then call the FLGS and tell them to come over, make an offer, and take whatever is left.

I'm 43 and have wargames, boardgames, comics, vintage toys, etc. Over the years I've sold a lot and bought a lot and still have piles of unsorted stuff. I need to do better at slimming down my hoard into more of a proper collection. It's too scattered and unlabeled for someone to try and make sense of in a short amount of time.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They will join me in my tomb, so I can also not paint them in the afterlife.

Common wisdom is that you when you finally finish the Pile of Shame. Would the flip side be true? If buried with minis, would you be reborn/reincarnated when you finished painting all those.

If I were buried with all my unpainted stuff & that deal? I'd remain dead for a very long time.

Although, given eternity, I suppose whatever cosmic alignment inspires me to paint would eventually occur enough times....
Plus I wouldn't be adding any more to the Pile like I currently do.

ccs wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They will join me in my tomb, so I can also not paint them in the afterlife.

Common wisdom is that you when you finally finish the Pile of Shame. Would the flip side be true? If buried with minis, would you be reborn/reincarnated when you finished painting all those.

If I were buried with all my unpainted stuff & that deal? I'd remain dead for a very long time.

Although, given eternity, I suppose whatever cosmic alignment inspires me to paint would eventually occur enough times....
Plus I wouldn't be adding any more to the Pile like I currently do.

Your family, knowing how much you love your minis, always leaves a box on your grave when they visit....

Right? Also, with tech advances being what they are, I'm pretty sure the dead will be able to access eBay soon, too

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
They will join me in my tomb, so I can also not paint them in the afterlife.

With this answer the Internet is now complete. We can turn it off now.

My kids are interested in the figures and I have grandkids who may also take up the hobby, so no worries.

Just because you have a passion (or an obsession) for a hobby does not mean that it will translate to accumulated monetary value.

For me minis have never been about monetizing the minis. At the end of the day they are just dollops of either tin/pewter or styrene.

I see it (the hobby) only as mental therapy (assembly & painting). Never had time to game with them b/c I am constantly off to my next set of minis.

Some aspects of this discussion reminds me of AI in the art world (or 3D printing with minis). There is always some new technological wrecking ball to come around and mess up longstanding paradigms which end up preventing artists/developers, etc, from living in a manner that you have become accustomed to.

To be frank, the minis, which are designed to impressive painstaking detail, are never intended to be heirlooms, but just strict commodities to generate interest in the GW gaming system they are sold under (and all the, nick-nacks, accessories, terrain, and rule books, and even tourney venues, thereof). So realistically they have the value of a grain of rice.

Even if my stuff ends up in a landfill somewhere (or somehow ending up in that giant plastic garbage island in the Pacific). Ain't nuffin I can do about it. It will be the least of my worries (I'll be too busy pushing up daisies). At least It will give a archaeologist in the distant future something to write about if they stumble across a stash in an "ancient dump".

 jdouglas wrote:
So realistically they have the value of a grain of rice.

The market disagrees. You can talk philosophy all you want but in the end all that matters is the cash value that other people are willing to pay, and I would hope that my heirs at least get market value for my stuff.

If I stop playing in advance, I'll try to sell them to avoid weighting on my relatives, and give the money to a charity.

Or, if I happen to have a club nearby, or a group of players, I'll give my minis over to them so they can make use of my collections.

If I die beforehand, I'll let my family know I wish my minis carry on seeing service with another player. Or if they can't find one, then again, sell them and give the money away to a charity.

Well unless someone in my family plays and wishes to have them.

It's not so much the minis themselves that matter to me, but the good times I spent playing with pals, and the stories I take fun and pride in writing to make thimese encounters memorable and enjoyable. I'll take these good time with me beyond the grave, the rest I only care that it will serve down there still to provide someone joy.

Minis are special because they represent an achievement, the visible effect of time and dedication, the visible instrument of so much good time, and in that extent I cherish them, but "do not attach yourself to anything you can't bring beyond the grave" is key to not giving them too much room in my life.

 jdouglas wrote:

To be frank, the minis, which are designed to impressive painstaking detail, are never intended to be heirlooms, but just strict commodities to generate interest in the GW gaming system they are sold under (and all the, nick-nacks, accessories, terrain, and rule books, and even tourney venues, thereof). So realistically they have the value of a grain of rice.

Two points of disagreement:
GW is not the whole hobby of wargaming.
In more traditional wargamine (usually historical) armies can and do remain useful for decades.
There is definitely value to your collection.
Not only the monetary value that can be left to someone, but also sentimental value.
When someone passes away is an emotional and sentimental time.
At the very least, someone starting the hobby and/or someone less fortunate could likely use and be grateful for the things you take for granted.

Even if my stuff ends up in a landfill somewhere (or somehow ending up in that giant plastic garbage island in the Pacific). Ain't nuffin I can do about it. It will be the least of my worries (I'll be too busy pushing up daisies). At least It will give a archaeologist in the distant future something to write about if they stumble across a stash in an "ancient dump".

As with all concerns with after one's life; it's not about you, it's about the people you leave behind.
Your family and friends will (hopefully) want to honour your memory and be respectful.
They know that you spend time on and find joy in your hobby and will likely want treat to your minis accordingly.

Don't leave them to deal with something they don't know what to do with while they grieve.
Your wargaming friends might also want to be involved, perhaps leave something to them?
Does your family know who they are?

 DarkBlack wrote:

As with all concerns with after one's life; it's not about you, it's about the people you leave behind.
Your family and friends will (hopefully) want to honour your memory and be respectful.
They know that you spend time on and found joy in your hobby and will likely want treat your minis accordingly.

Don't leave them to deal with something they don't know what to do with while they grieve.
Your wargaming friends might also want to be involved, perhaps leave something to them?
Does your family know what they are?

Agreed.

If you regard the collection as junk to be disposed of without sentimentality, put it in writing. Otherwise, people will agonize over it needlessly.

And if you'd rather your pals got it, let everyone know now.

Ideally I will sell everything before I die. Else, everything will have to burned. I'm not giving away my toys to no one.

 CragHack wrote:
Ideally I will sell everything before I die. Else, everything will have to burned. I'm not giving away my toys to no one.

That seems like a pretty selfish way of doing things, if you weren't saying this as a joke.

The only concern I have is that my stuff is not a burden to my family when I go. I've got (hopefully) a long time to sort this out, but I'd like to have it pretty well organized so that they could clear it out and give it to friends / charity / FLGS relatively easily. It would probably be more trouble than it's worth to parse out and sell piecemeal.

I bet my sons might keep some of it, but I doubt very much they'd want it all.

Some of my friends might!

I want my little plastic men and war machines on the boat that I'm on before it's set ablaze. Somewhere in the British Columbian harbor.

It's something I haven't really thought much about but I think I'll want these things to go to someone who gets some enjoyment out of them. Sure, I've spent thousands but there's no way to even get that for it. A few years ago I bought a collection that filled two moving boxes (stuffed full, not packed carefully or anything like that) and that was for a hundred euros. So I'm under no illusions there. Of course, selling bit by bit might bring in a little more money but also is much more expensive in terms of time and effort spent. Time and efforts that I don't want to force on those who stay behind.

More generally, I never got this idea of hobby products being an investment. I also play Magic the Gathering on occasion, and there you see it very clearly with whole groups treating the cards as an investment. Only, it's a very gakky one because it's a market with an unclear future. If twenty years from now the game is in decline, the cards will be worthless. It's something you now see with stamp collections. Far more collectors are dying than there are a new ones coming into the market so prices have been falling dramatically.

That, and these are toys. They're not going to stay in a good condition. They're going to be taken from the packaging, assembled, poorly painted, and moved around. They're meant to be used and enjoyed. It's the same with books. Second hand, you can't get anything for them. Except if it's a first edition (in good state) of something that somehow still is popular half a century or more later. And even then only for the most popular things. People often look at the rare examples like a first issue of some comic book. But that forgets about all the other comic books, also first issues, that are long forgotten and worth nothing.

My wife's uncle passed away in May and he was a collector. He had a 3br 2 ba house and 2 bedrooms were stacked floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes of "The Wizard of Oz" memorabilia. The living room, laundry room, master bedroom, and kitchen were stacked with vinyl records. The majority of the records were disco, movie sound tracks, and broadway musicals. He gave them all to a friend of his but my wife is the executor of the estate so she has to coordinate moving everything out of the house. A piece of advice is to write down who gets what and tell the person who will manage your estate so they give it to them. Don't list a lot of people in the will itself as it bogs the entire process down.

I've got 16 armies packed away - if I die, I have a handful of people who will get them. My praetorian guard army should sell for some decent money but I have 2-3 people who will get a 40k army and an AOS army. If they want to sell them, they can. I would hope they keep 1 model to remind them of me but that is their choice.

If you're looking to sell an entire collection, reach out to Warpfire Minis or Frontline Gaming. They will give you a fair price if the models are in decent condition. You'll get more by selling it piecemeal, but then you have to sell it and drag it out several months longer.

Sometimes just writing down in your will those decent firms to sell stuff too in bulk helps. We might know the good resellers of models, but loved ones or such might not have a clue. So they won't even know where to start selling stuff.

So if you aren't leaving things to a set person you might scribble down a few of those ideas of where to sell things like that. AT least then you know that loved ones can more easily clear things and move on; and also that your models are going to places where they should get passed onto people who will enjoy them.