What to do with collections?

We are often asked to handle large collections of things. We have seen all kinds of collections – whimsical, spiritual, very expensive collections, and very modest ones. We have handled herds of decorative elephants, delicate teapots, campaign buttons, Coke bottles, freebies given away by airlines, you name it. 

We all know how this happens. You express your love for something to a few friends or relatives and, suddenly, you find that you are the recipient of those cute little collectibles for the rest of your life. Every birthday and gift-giving occasion is another chance for them to present you with yet another item in your ever-growing collection.

These collections can be fun for the collector, but they can, sadly, cause some issues for family and heirs. The vast number of items in each collection can be difficult and expensive to manage. Where once the collector looked around and admired each item in the collection as a unique entity with a story about how it was acquired, now the heir just sees a large amount of things that need to be handled, and the collection has an emotional hold on everyone because it represented the deceased so strongly.

We have worked with a number of clients who believe that because they have worked so long to create their collection, the collection must have some re-sale value. They seem to believe that the sheer number of items should make the whole lot more valuable. Sadly, this is rarely the case. Once in a while a tchotchke has re-sale value, if it was created by someone whose work is in demand, but in general these kinds of collections have very little re-sale value.

Years ago, we managed the estate of Lorraine, a woman who had amassed a tremendous collection of owls. Lorraine had ceramic owls, glass owls, paper owls, and stone owls. She had mugs, pillowcases, and t-shirts covered in owls. She had paintings of owls, stuffed owls, and owls stitched by needlepoint. 

Her executor was her niece, Janet, who lived in Florida. Janet was really stressed out about all these owls. She had no room for this huge collection and she knew they had no re-sale value. But she had loved Lorraine dearly and the owls had been really important to Lorraine.

Janet agonized over this. The collection almost seemed to hold a power over her. We identified a reputable charitable organization that would take them all as a donation, and we even found someone willing to try to sell them on Etsy for Janet, but neither idea felt right to her.

Finally, we came up with a solution. We decided that everyone in Lorraine’s life should have one owl. So Janet gave one to every member of the family and one to every friend and neighbor Lorraine had liked. She gave one to the super in Lorraine’s apartment building, another to her hair stylist, and even one to her dentist.

It took a lot of time and effort on Janet’s part, but it was worth it in the end. Each owl gift was another chance for Janet to share a memory of Lorraine with someone else who had loved her. None of these people would have wanted the whole parliament, but everyone was touched to receive one owl to remember Lorraine by.

If you have a large collection of things yourself, please keep in mind how your heirs will manage the collection. You may want to make a list of the items in the collection – or at least the key items – and designate them as gifts to be given to friends or family after you die.

Or you may want to consider giving them away to people now. You can offer that everyone who comes over can look over the collection and pick their favorite piece to take home with them. This is truly, always, the best way to give things away – one at a time, with each piece going to someone who appreciates it. And one of the great advantages to doing this while you are alive is that you can go visit your collections wherever they have wound up. Imagine sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at your cousin’s place and being served with your own owl napkin – which you gave to them to cherish on your behalf!