[Closed] Church discovers 30,000 cars in donated house

Isn't that amazing?

He lived alone; he collected little cars and big ones, too; and he was devoted to his friends and his church. Sounds like a man who lived the life he chose for himself. Good for him.

The world lost a great man when that fellow died.

Not sure how I feel about this

I kinda felt the reporter was a bit flippant and tongue in cheek with his report, like he and the church rep couldn't imagine someone collecting this stuff.

On another note, can you imagine the work involved in cataloging all these models for auction?

Pretty much what my house would probably have looked like - if I hadn't gotten married 50 years ago!

I've seen collections this big get sold off in auctions in batches before. But I always wondered why if someone went to this much effort to build a toy/model collection this impressive they didn't make provision to endow a toy/automobile/model museum upon their death.

I've heard that the problem with endowments to a museum ...

... is that they may not accept unless you also endow them with a fair sum of money to pay for the long-term cost of storing and displaying the models. And even if you do that, they may not have the display space available (or the time or expertise to sort and display the models by category, car brand, scale or whatever) and the collection stays in boxes in a store-room in the basement until they eventually get thrown out to make room for other stuff. Shame, but you can understand their problem. A collection needs regular curating and updating to keep it interesting for visitors.

… that’s why a museum flogs ‘em!

Sad, but factual. Catalogue them, give your heirs dealers' contact info, and enjoy them now!

I have managed the care and disposition of the belongings of three elderly relatives in the last few years. People don't want to hear it but often collectibles and so-called valuables are quite a pain for survivors to dispose of and usually get only a small fraction of their former owners' perceived worth. As a kindness to my children I have pared down my collection, photographed and reasonably valued what remains and have provided my heirs with the names of dealers who may be prepared to take the models and sell them. This will likely be the least painful way for my kids to dispose of them and is apt to garner the most for my estate. Most endowments (to museums etc.) include a substantial amount of money to maintain the collection for years to come. I'm not in that league.

Sadly true. In my limited experience, most full size car museums don't have any knowledge nor interest in model cars which is odd really. Perhaps those at the top are more business than enthusiast-minded. Possibly they have to be.

I think the problem is John that most collectors don't see the future in a structured way like this. Most collections just 'grow' with little or no thought about what happens when the great glass elevator calls. I have a couple of hundred Rootes Group models here - I love 'em, my partner knows nothing about them because the knowledge is inside my head, and I doubt anyone would want them anyway. For me a large part of the collection consists of my memories of childhood which involved the real cars, the excitement I felt as a nipper seeing some of these cars in the showrooms and the envy of seeing a brand new machine passing us in our breathless little Morris Minor! In later years I owned a few real ones and the fantasy of my young days was dimmed greatly when I realised that like other cars of their time they were slow, noisy and heavy to drive...still loved them though! All these thoughts are cerebral and can't really be passed on. Tis a terrible thing, this nostalgia!

The post above was in response to JQ's but it's slipped southwards...