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The title was blunt to the point, & I was thinking.

 Let's hope this is far away, but still the fact is not going away.

Ok we all know we have a passion for certain things here & have a collection going on.

I'm curious what is others plan for their collection, once .........gone ?

 

I know the simple thing is to will it to kin, though do they appreciate it ?

And would they pawn it off as soon as they get ?

 

I would assume if over time if need be you'd sell off to pay bills etc...

 

Though what if your kin is not so much into your collection & you were not able to sell it off.

 

Do you will it to a museum where many people can appreciate it, if its of interest an worthy for that museum. Or just say I don't care where it goes I'm dead.

 

 

 

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If you collected at one particular location for a number of years the local museum maybe interested in your more rarer finds. Better than just been flogged on auction sites haha.

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Yorkshire Coast Fossil Hunter

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If I go before wifey, she will be able to sell the collection off. 

If I go after wifey, the first forum member to get here can have the lot. 

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Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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It's a good question.  I admit I have been delinquent about organizing this.  However the plan is to try to place anything of scientific importance in museum collections before I pass on, or at least leave instructions to that effect.  Of the rest, my kids can take what they want as a memento.  I'd like to arrange some auctions to support the Forum, but I'd have to do that before I go as I don't think any of my family would know how to, or want to do that.  I don't think I have much of real value, not worth the time and effort to auction it off piece by piece.  Probably most will be donated to the teaching collection at my university, and to area high schools for teaching.   

 

Don

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I don't have the extensive/important collections that many on this forum do, just a moderate sampling and I don't think higher institutions would have an interest. If they did I'd donate the pieces now.  So fortunately most of my collection is mazon creek, and the beauty of concretions is most of my fossils have a part and counterpart, so each of my kids will have a similar collection.  Anything my own kids don't want would go to the school I work at, where I give fossils out on a yearly basis anyway.

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I have used a number of items I have collected to prepare talks for a general audience at a local natural history society. I plan to donate the items, a power point presentation as well as a word document of the talk itself. For example: Brachiopods and Bivalves,   Cephalopods-The Most intelligent Invertebrate: How Both Fossil and Modern Form Solved the Problem of Buoyancy,  Microorganisms Pack A Wallop- Pow! Bam! Bif! Banded Iron Formations or Where Did Iron Come From, A Trilogy: Predation, Protection and Cooperation: Gastropod, Worm and Boring Sponge Interactions with Bivalves and a Relationship Among a Gastropod, Hermit Crab and Bryozoa and May the Quartz Be With You and Natural Glass:Impacts from Space, Volcanoes and Lightning. The talks combine both fossil and modern materials where possible. These talks have been well received by persons with natural history interests. While none of the material is of scientific interest to museums, it can be used for educational purposes and provides entertainment and a sense of discovery of new and exciting gifts of mother nature. I can reduce the burden for my family of what to do with all that stuff.

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My yard sale starts this Saturday at 7am!

 

I know none if my remaining family would have the slightest interest. 

So I am proposing a forum auction. Highest bidder to be named in my will. ;)

 

 

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1 minute ago, caldigger said:

My yard sale starts this Saturday at 7am!

You must have a massive yard.  :D

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1 hour ago, caldigger said:

My yard sale starts this Saturday at 7am!

Drat!

My camels will never get there on time. 

Anyway, they're still on the way to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. 

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Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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This topic is exactly why I'm trying to get all my fossils organized and properly documented NOW.  I don't want my family to have to worry about "what do we do with them"....  Especially if they are not correctly identified, properly labeled or documented.  Completing this process now will make it a lot easier for them to make a rational decision when the time comes.  As collectors we have learned the importance of accurate documentation and generally prefer to purchase only fully identified items, this is my preference as well.  The longer I've collected, the better and more complete the documentation is.  Although, I have been known to purchase items that capture my attention, with little or no information.  I have a cabinet draws full of those unknown/unidentified items and they are my first priority.  I just had one of miss-identified items confirmed as a rare fruit seed pod Bonanzacarpum sprungerorum (thanks to TTF members).  It will be donated to a museum as soon as I receive their donation confirmation/acceptance package.  There may be other rare or unique items in the cabinet that would be better suited to an institution of higher learning, who knows.  I plan to find out, with your help right here in TTF .

 

Some of the steps I've been planning for "when that time comes" are as follows:

a. A select group of items based on rarity, quality, value or need will be donated to museums and/or colleges.

b. Selected items are to be willed to family members as "keepsakes/memories". 

c. The remaining items will be donated to our local high school for science studies and to raise money for science related projects.

 

 

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I plan on leaving my fossils to my children and any future grandchildren. Hopefully atleast one of them will carry the torch and share the love of fossils. 

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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After the missus and my close collecting friends take what they want, the rest will be shipped to members of the forum.

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

You must have a massive yard.  :D

Ha, ha!  That's the catch, I don't have a yard at all. :heartylaugh:

 

 

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This is actually a pretty serious consideration for me. Since we don't have any children and my wife passed away two years ago, the paternal family line is at it's end. My wife's family as all up north and really has no interest except for the few pieces that also have decorative appeal. I've given my preferences through written instructions for most of my collection to be presented to the Gillespie Museum at Stetson University in Deland, or U of F in Gainesville. 

 

My only recommendation is to take it seriously. Life follows a plan that may not be what we imagine.

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None of my family would be interested in mine and most of them aren’t museum worthy. So after I’m lowered into the ground they are to be layered over the casket. Let’s see what future paleontologists make of that! :heartylaugh:
actually she’s supposed to have the museum see if there’s anything they want and the rest do whatever she feels best with. After you hear of my death check out my back yard there may be treasures there!

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My kids and grandkids will select a few trilobites and eurypterids and the rest of the prepped fossils will go to a Canadian museum that I have already had discussions with. My unprepped fossils will go to a number of collecting buddies.... so Kane you better stay on my good side.

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Mine go to my kids with any of scientific importance being donated. It’s in our partnership agreement that our collection is shared jointly and will be in any 501c3 legal docs when/if we go that way. 

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I’m In my mid-30’s so I haven’t thought about this too much yet but I have catalogued every fossil in my collection with pictures, receipts and any information I have about every piece so people not interested in my collection will at least know what everything is and the ever important paper trail of every piece is organized for changing laws of the future. 

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I’d hope anything useful could go to a museum, the rest can go to any heirs or maybe just random children. That would be nice.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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       Unfortunately, I have no family interested in fossils. My mostly "self found" collection is nice but not really museum quality. Actually, I have been in the process of going to the schools in our area to offer fossils of their liking just to thin things out. But surprisingly, most schools want very little. So I have  instructed my wife to offer my barn full of fossils to forum members when that time comes. 

       One other thing I have started to do as I find something new and exciting is to look at our favorite auction site, find out a rough value of the fossil, then add it to my labeling system. That way anyone giving the chore of cleaning my barn out after I pass will at least know of a fossil's rough potential value. Incidentally, the brachiopods I do will to @Tidgy's Dad, but he will need to send at least 5 camels to pack them back to Morocco. 

       Actually looking at who has responded to this post, I see responses by 7 different forum members that have gifted fossils to me. It is the generosity of forum members like them that makes it so important for me to give back to The Fossil Forum.  

 

 Mike

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I am in the process of donating my rudist collection from the Campanian St. Bartholomä-formation, Styria, of the first two years (May 2017 - June 2019) of collecting to the Univeralmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Styria. Everything is packed up, about 700 specimens, incl. 300 polished ones, total 200 kg. They will pick them up at 02/18/2020. This museum has only very few rudists from that formation, they are happy to receive it.

I am keeping the ones collected during the last half year, already too many (about 150) and will give some of them away to another museum and a forum member.

All my other fossils are more or less worthless scientifically and also monetary, of course.

 

During the same pick-up session, I will donate about 50 polished ore slabs from selected sites in Styria and adjacent areas to the mineralogy department of the same museum. That´s only a very small fraction of my total ore slab collection. But packing stuff is - you know - a pain a private part. So I do it only occasionally, when I really need some good felling. It feels really good to have something packed up and given away.

Well, 8000 specimens, 2.500 kg still left...

 

I don´t have any close relatives, who would care about my collection, so if I pass away suddenly, everything will most probably end up in a landfill. Better to care about and give at least some of it away as long as you life.

 

Franz Bernhard

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All very good advice.  Document as much as possible.  Who best to do this besides you?  Have clear instructions on what to go where.

 

I go to a lot of estate sales.  A LOT of estate sales.  And the last thing you want is to leave the liquidation of your estate to some service.  Sometimes it is unavoidable.  Heirs are out of town or there are just no heirs.  They provide a reasonable service for the average household but if you have a collection of some consequence, then make arrangements.  A household may have collections of records or books or jewelry or even heavy machinery in the garage.  They'll call in local collectors/experts that can help them price things.....to move.   Pretty slim chance though they'll find a fossil expert.

 

 

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I have enough relationships with professionals in various museums and the like that when the time is ripe, I would start asking around if any institutions might be interested in parts of the collection. Then I would start selling the rest off bit by bit and would either use the money to help finance any necessary care costs or put it in the bank to add to my inheritance. That's about it in a nutshell. If I hit the dust more suddenly than expected, then I've already ensured that my wife or children will take care of the above for me.

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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12 hours ago, Darktooth said:

really I plan on leaving my fossils to my children and any future grandchildren. Hopefully atleast one of them will carry the torch and share the love of fossils. 

Hey Darktooth.  I "almost" have the same problem as you.  None of my children seem to care about fossil collecting.  However, my Granddaughter is always talking with me about them and even helps me research, dust and care for them.  My handwriting(?) really sucks now so helps me with that as well.  She will be the main recipient of the items left to family members, especially the items she really likes.  Keeping my fingers crossed she will change her college major back to science/paleontology if she decides not to attend West Point.  Right now it's been difficult for me to keep her interest because I'm competing with music, fashions, friends and yes - boys...……….go figure.  She will have the "final say" of the distribution of the items not specified in my will.

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17 hours ago, caldigger said:

My yard sale starts this Saturday at 7am!

 

I know none if my remaining family would have the slightest interest. 

So I am proposing a forum auction. Highest bidder to be named in my will. ;)

Well its Saturday & I'm a little late, though what do you have ? :D

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