Idle thoughts on a slow day

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Posted By: TBob

With so many tobacco and especially caramel cards leaving to nestle gently in collector's vaults, and based on the relatively young age of a lot of you collectors who post here, it makes us geezers feel like the chances of vintage card collections becoming available on the market are diminishing. Other than catastrophic calamities, which I would wish on no one (well maybe one person), or excruciating property settlement agreements, you will probably see the tbob collection on ebay much sooner than the treasures of leon, or pete, or scott. Bummer....

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Posted By: mrc32

I am only 27 and am collecting T-205s in mid grade PSA 4-5. I would say my collection won't be coming on the market for many years. Assuming I die first my wife will be instructed to bury me with my t-205s



Just kidding.

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Posted By: julie

I'm 68, and none of my children care about baseball cards. It's all very well to say "Oh, they can sell them after you die,' except for 2 things:

1) for many years I was on MediCal (or medicaid, in the east), and mediCal will want every penny I own, or have just left to my kids, upon my death

2) my kids don't know anything about how to sell cards.

This means that the Grim Reaper better give me plenty of warning. But you can't count on that...

It probably won't be long, now, before i start getting rid of my collection.

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Posted By: jay berhens

Julie, if nothing else, set up someone you trust as the executor of the collection to sell it off. Your kids don't need to know anything about selling cards this way.

Jay

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Posted By: julie

(at his uaual fee, of course--and that ain't hay!)

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I think collecting is kind of a progressive thing, you start out small and hope to work yourself up to the "Kalamazoo Bats, Kelley", along the way you have to sell off some things to pay for your more expensive tastes. I have had to do it and I know others have done the same thing. I personally had been working on a 1957 Topps set and completed it only to sell it for the down payment on my house. It was easier to part with those cards instead of some vintage cards I had purchased along the way.

So have no fear, Bob, I think all will resurface in do time. That is why we collect these cards and not modern cards, supply can actually run low and make it a fun difficult time to find cards.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

If you are concerned about a medi-cal lien (with good reason, I might add, since they are notorious estate pillagers), you might consider establishing a trust (probably an irrevocable one) to hold the cards and dispose of them, or maybe a FLIP (family limited partnership) to disburse ownership of the asset while maintaining control. You could also consider a gifting program too, tax free to your kids. If you've really got great stuff, consider a museum or library donation with certain rights reserved to you--at least you could see the cards and share them with the world under your name. Alternatively, if you have big bucks and historically valuable stuff, maybe a foundation is the way to go. My point is that greenbacks are not the only thing you may choose to receive for your cards. If the disposition of the asset is a real concern to you, book a couple of hours of time with an estate planning attorney in your area and kick around the issue a bit.

Hypothetically, of course, you could establish a safe deposit box with your kids or a trusted person as a co-keyholder and that person could clear out the cards when you die and leave nothing for the government to steal. Hypothetically, of course, since evading taxes and liens may be illegal and I would NEVER counsel anyone to do it. Lawyers call this the "Chinese box trick" BTW. No offense.

In any event, what I'd suggest you do is to get a high quality scan of each card done so that you can enjoy looking at them even after they are gone. I do this with the ones that got away and the ones I can never hope to own.

As for me, they'll have to pry my cards from my cold, dead fingers.

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Posted By: julie

MadiCal has assured me sweetly that they can break any trust...

Money in a safe deposit sounds possible, if I was sure it would be safe. I think when I die, MediCal will be watching my entire family for sudden influxes of money. Goof grief, what creeps!

Really, the only thing to do is convert the cards (worth something, but only maybe a couple of historical importance) into cash, and then (for my daughter) traveller's checks, and for my son, money. Soon.