Photo: Engine #473 Drifts down grade from Silverton - D&SNG RR Photo by Bruce Petrarca

Estate Planning for model railroaders

John Marshall gave a clinic at the 2008 NMRA convention in Anaheim. Linda was impressed enough with it to get his permission to reproduce his handout and some notes to share with our customers.

Face it, hobbyists are Pack Rats.
There is no such thing as a minimalist hobbyist.

Both of those are true statements. Another one is that we will all shuffle off this mortal coil at some point. You need to clean up your own mess before you take off. Here is an outline of what you need to do. Remember, you don’t want to leave this hanging over your spouses head. But, first things first!

1. Decide to do it. No better time than today! The idea is fresh in your mind and you know where this outline is.
2. Making a list & checking it twice. Yes, the inventory is the next thing to do.  Each scale has some critical things to have in the notes, but most things are common to all. Best to create a spreadsheet in Excel or similar. CLICK HERE for a sample Excel spreadsheet. Be honest and brief. Common categories are:

   • Manufacturer
   • type of equipment (loco, freight car etc.)
   • coupler type
   • DC or DCC
   • road name and number
   • condition
   • date purchased
   • purchase price.
3. Provide copies to your spouse, lawyer, insurance agent (now that you know what you've got invested, don't you want coverage?), and the designated disposer - see #4.
4. Finding the person willing to assist you in disposal.This may be the hardest part of the whole deal.  You want someone with knowledge of the hobby and who is willing to take on the task.  If you have a friend who is willing to do this for you, you’re very lucky. But remember, our friends tend to be in the same age bracket as we are. Offer to do the same thing for him. And have a back up. You can check with other model railroaders to see if they have any recommendations. They may have a name of someone who specializes in model railroad estate disposals. If you belong to the NMRA, check with your Division Superintendent.The division may be of help. Local hobby shops may sell used equipment but they rarely take whole estates. There are a few people who specialize in this narrow band of estate disposal. Some names we have come across are listed at the end of this page (let us know of others).
5. Get it done. Not later because later never comes. This is one time being early counts.Your spouse will really appreciate it!.

A few more points we learned in the process of researching the whole area of Estate Disposal:

• Retailers, like hobby shops, while often a good place to sell your collection, are generally not wanting to get involved in valuing your collection for insurance. You need to do the research yourself or hire some of the people who specialize in that area.  Sometimes an individual will do both, for a fee.
• The more lists, pictures, and documentation you have, the more you will collect on an insurance claim, or disposal.  If you don’t keep records (digital pictures are easy, quick and cheap) how can value be proven?
• Use your documentation to substantiate replacement charges.  Insure for the maximum.
• Don’t expect your insurance valuation to have any relationship to the selling price of your collection. In any collection there will be easy to sell profitable pieces, saleable but low value items and parts and pieces that have little to no value to anyone but the original collector.  In most cases, it is better to sell a collection as a whole.  If the high value items are sold separately, the rest will have little value.   Consider selling only the better items and contributing the balance to clubs.
• Remember that any business disposing of your collection will have to invest in time and manpower to examine and catalogue your pieces, and price and prepare them for sale.  Also, they need to make a profit so that they can be there to serve the next modeler.
• Regardless of the emotion, effort and expertise in creating your collection it will be very unusual receive even the amount you have invested.  So protect it while you are using it, make it as easy and profitable to dispose of, and get the maximum joy out of having and using it every day.

Individuals who appraise or help with disposal:

• John Marshall
  8211 Moller Ranch Drive
  Pleasanton, CA 94588
  [925] 461-0206
  Fax [925] 461-9061
  Ntrak@sbcglobal.net
• for Lionel & American Flyer
  Bruce Kubik
  1810 Tanglewood Way
  Pleasanton, CA 94566
  [925] 846-4509
  bmakubik@hotmail.com

Stores interested in buying collections:

• Roy's Train World (ask for Tim)
  1033 S Country Club Dr
  Mesa Az 85210
  [480] 833-4353
  trains@RoysTrainWorld.com