Not Morbid but what IF - Donate my collection to Good Home

[grandsport3]

Afternoon Fellows, Not trying to sound morbid but: I'll turn 69 in 3 days and am still vertical but sometimes wonder when the time comes what will happen to my collection? I now doubt I will finish them all and my library though small now still holds good info. When I left San Diego after my separation I donated my library and slot cars and kits to the San Diego Automotive Museum which I thought would be a good home. I volunteered there as a Docent and thought I was a good one, NEVER Any complaints from the visitors many actually commented favorably on my knowledge and helpfulness. But I was stabbed in  the back by a fellow Docent. On my return to SD I wanted some of my collection back to work on during the Pelosi Pandemic. The lady who fired me and the backstabber "Looked around" but said she gave some slotcars and kits for children to play with.

Sooo, In the event of my demise I would like to leave my collection to a Good Home. I think you guys would be a good group to inherit my stuff. Do you have a POC that I can mention in my Will as the acceptor? I'd hate to see my collection tossed in the trash or kids blowing them up with fire crackers! Thanx,John

[mustangrex]

Is there a local model car club in your area of people you can trust? We had a member of a local club I belong to that sadly had a member die from an accident last year and he was a club member for over 30 years. He had thousands of kit that may have been otherwise been thrown away or given away but they were “rescued” by club members after many hours of relocating them to another location and everything was sold rather quickly to club members at about half of full retail prices. It was a win-win for his family and club members in that many thousands were raised and club officers and members facilitated everything without anything planned in advance and no heir had to deal with trying to sell anything online which would have been very time consuming. I agree it can be risky to donate items to museums. Hopefully others will have some ideas but it is better to figure out what to do and have a plan and not leave it up to people that may not understand he value of your collection and not have someone swoop in and pay pennies on the dollar of its value.

[Ben_B]

I just stuck a note in my will that my stash can go to the local IMPS club, similar to what mustangrex suggests. They can sell them at a show or whatever and split the proceeds with my wife. I keep an Excel file on my computer that lists all of my kits and what aftermarket is in the boxes, loose aftermarket parts, and decals. It keeps me from accidentally buying extra stuff and will make it easier for whoever helps dispose of my stash. The details about where to find the list is also in my note. As for completed models, I have specific instructions for my Tamiya F-4s and some aviation art to be offered to the 4th Wing for display, but if nobody in the club wants the others, my wife and kids can chuck them in the dumpster. I won't be around to care. There are no museums around here to donate my airplanes to and the cars will just be seen as toys to most people. After going through the estate sale at my mom's house last spring, I relearned that stuff that has value to us can have very little value to others. That's why I've been pretty aggressive about culling my stash, lately, just so my wife doesn't have to deal with it.

Ben

[Chris K. Hale]

Guys Here is the story of my Dad's slot cars... After Slot Car racing died in the early 70's he gave his Box to a well known Historian of Slot Racing. My Dad owned the Famous Santa Ana Raceways, He worked for Cox, made the prototypes for the Iso-Fulcrum Chassis, a design used by virtually every chassis maker since the 60's, and made Cox Millions of dollars, He made several Bodies for them that he debuted at the 1966 R&C Championship Concours Winning that series and many other historical piece were also in the Box. seen here on loan to the Marconi Museum, The next pic shows a few of the cars that were in the Box,  The BRM was built by my Mom and took second in one round of the R&C Championship , it has fully articulated steering a Pittman motor and was quite a little engineering job. The VW won the ISKY Cams, Dress Up Your Car Contest in  Hot Rod Magazine, where participants were supposed to use decals or paint to best represent ISKY on REAL Cars, well they forgot to specify that Real Cars in the rules, and as a photo contest This Bug won , won $1,000. and a bunch of ISKY Swag and products. when they came to photograph it for the Magazine, well they got a Big (or little) surprise it was a slot car and Joe Iskandarian fulfilled his obligation and kept it as the winner, He is still a family friend and is close to my daughter now. The other cars are various innovations my Dad came up with. The Chaparral 2D is the Prototype that my Dad made for the 1966 R&C Concours, it is featured in the book next to it, in the forward by Dan Gurney, he talks about hanging out at our shop and having a blast racing slot cars. These Slot Cars were later moved to the New L.A. Slot Car Racing Museum in Hollywood Calif. also recovered in the mean time was the Ferrari 206sp prototype he also built, a long and unusual story. The car have been on display in the museum until recently I noticed the Chaparral 2D was nowhere to be seen. I found out the Museum Sold it to a collector in Japan for Tens of thousands of dollars (Yes Slot Cars are BIG in Japan! ) so I checked and in the fine print in says items donated to the Museum may be sold to maintain the Museum. I wont go beyond there because I feel that it should have been returned to our family when my Dad passed and last He wanted the world to see the evolution of Slot Cars not go into a private parties pocket. So donate all you want, hopefully your models will bring enjoyment to Everyone and not some change in the pockets of the receptor. Just a final note, This policy is the same for the National Model Car Museum, as they recently sold many earlier Historical Models without notifying the donors Chris