Brent: …Only Death and Taxes
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There is Only War Death and Taxes.
Believe it.
Greetings, BoLS faithful. My name is Brent and this is a Terrible Tuesday. It’s been almost two months since my meanderings have graced the front page of Bell of Lost Souls; frankly, I needed some time off. Heck, some of you probably needed a break!
I’ve rarely taken a break from BoLS, but something had to give. My real life became exhausting and it reflected in my writing. Don’t get me wrong: there was zero to complain about in my personal life. I’d earned a big promotion at work, my wife had graduated, and after a tough 2013, the new year was looking up! Still, it meant moving and all the disruption and expenses that entails. With Thanksgiving just ended and Christmas staring me down, I emailed Larry and asked for a vacation.
I couldn’t have known. To be brief, in the time I’ve been gone my father-in-law lost a very brief struggle against cancer. It was that fast.
Please understand, this isn’t meant to be a maudlin article. Many of you know my life the last few years have been fraught with one health scare after another, with my father’s cerebral hemorrhage and my wife’s rare skin cancer… but a reprieve is always temporary. This time we just weren’t so lucky. Still, death is a natural part of life, and there was much to be thankful for in my step-father’s passing. He was so healthy he didn’t exhibit symptoms more than itching until his diagnosis; he was so healthy that when he lost, he lost fast. But there was time enough for his son to make the trip from Alaska. There was time enough to say goodbye, and hospice that final weekend was filled with more laughter than tears.
I took away a number of lessons, but this article is not so much about a personal family tragedy as it is a grim, dark reality. Some of Dad’s funeral expenses weren’t paid up, so family had to absorb the various costs associated with his passing. If you’re well off, perhaps that’s not such a struggle. For us, right after a move and right after Christmas – you get the idea. But it had me thinking about the burdens I might leave my wife were my number punched too suddenly.
Point is, death costs.
Here’s an uncomfortable question: how much money have you got tied up in plastic toys and accessories? And even more uncomfortable, how would your spouse or partner – who probably knows next to nothing about the hobby – go about liquidating your collection if in the unfortunate position of needing money following your death?
Would he or she be aware that a well-painted collection can increase the value of the individual models, while a half-painted mess you never got around to finishing is going to go for pennies on the original dollar value? Think about the options that first come to mind:
- Craigslist; crapshoot at best.
- Ebay; time intensive and no guarantee.
- FLGS; perhaps the best option; see below.
Maybe you came up with something better than my first pass, but none of these are great. The definition of great being something that will net a decent percentage of your investment in the hobby for your spouse or partner.
Here’s a real world example. My buddy, the Card Pimp in Question, is an old-world, merchant’s soul in a young man’s body. He works hard at his day job but also subsidizes his income by buying and selling anything of value. He’s a walking pawnshop; if it has value, he’s had his hands in it: Magic the Gathering Cards, Yu-Gi-Oh Cards, 40K and Warhammer models… but that’s just for fun. The real cash is in cars, electronics, and who knows what else. He watches auctions fairly constantly. He gave me a real deal on a few hundred Imperial Guard models and a tank or two.
Which, as it turns out, he purchased on Craigslist for $20 bucks. The seller had no idea of the value; the models were left by a tenant who skipped out. Further, and equally important, the seller couldn’t connect the product to a prospective buyer.
That’s the position your spouse might be in.
I won’t drag this out. We all know Ebay is probably the best way of seeing some return on the value of a large collection, but it won’t be quick. Probably, your significant other isn’t set up to be an Ebay seller; how much hassle is it worth, especially if time is of the essence? I think the best option here might be taking it to an Ebay store and cutting them in for a percentage.
Now… what about the store where you’ve spent your Thursday evenings and disposable cash for oh-so-many years? Remember, you’re six-feet under in this scenario, and your partner is trying to get some value out of your man-cave. The best bet may be talking to the owner of your Favorite Local Game Store. (Another good reason not to frequent a Games Workshop Store, but I digress.) He or she may be in a position to buy the collection outright, which might be the best overall option in this scenario.
I would trust my FLGS (Galaxy Books and Comics in North Texas) not to screw over my wife. Too much. I mean, c’mon! It is a business.
I’ve been giving this some thought over the past few weeks, and here’s the best idea I’ve got. Have your closest friend who is knowledgeable about the hobby act as a go-between. Unless you – yeah, you – have been a WAAC dick all these years, your buddies are probably pretty down about your passing.
Plus, they want to get their grubby paws on your toys. So would your favorite FLGS being willing to host an auction?
Given a bit of notice, you might get interested gamers from all around to come and bid on sections of your man-toy collection. If your friends are good people – you know, unlike mine – they might be a bit more free with the spending, knowing its all going to your significant other.
Frankly, they probably like your partner better than you, anyway. (Or is that me again?) Either way, an auction where your collection will end up in good hands isn’t that bad a sendoff for a gamer. After, they can all have a boozy wake and trade stories about you.
Bell Faithful, this is a pretty dark topic, but it’s something you should be giving some thought to. Many of you are young folks who don’t have to give this too much skull sweat just yet, but many more of you are sexy Middle-Aged-Upper-Echelon-Stealth-Geeks like me. Maybe you should give at least a little thought to where your collection is headed after you take off for parts unknown.
Prepare for your passing. Have a will. If you have items of value in your collection, like an airbrush or collector’s item models or some such, identify them. Create a file, complete with pictures. Identify what you want to gift versus what you want to see sold. And so on.
Death can be pretty inconsiderate, but you don’t have to be.
So that’s it, folks, another Terrible Tuesday come and gone! The photos used in this article are from a pretty fantastic commission painter with a company called LilLegend Studio. Pretty sweet, right? You can see more at his blog:
As for the article, I sincerely hope you have some good ideas for how to handle a topic like this. Has something similar happened to someone you know? How would you handle it? Do you have some realistic advice? As always, thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?
