Folks Of Interest guys with a bunch of cars and car stuff

my family members all have cyanide tablets they have been instructed to bite down on in the event of my death.

 

mine will wish they had them.

 

Very good points to think about,altho in the 60's we thought we'd live forever.

 

My wife does. And the arrangement we have is to give all my junk away to whomever wants it, probably in the "free" section of CL. She's gonna have a harder time dealing with 4000 sq feet of woodworking equipment and endless related junk. Poor gal, she thinks she has it bad now.....

 

Hello CCC,
It is at least 60+ years and we are still plodding along having fun. Here is a tip that might come in handy. Your idea of paperwork and locations are on the money. But, despite being car nuts, there are other things that need to be safe, secure and accessible in case of an emergency as well. Since we all have computers with hard drives, one might consider an external hard drive or two for backups. In an emergency, all of the valuable stuff, whether car related or not can be placed in one external hard drive that is red in color. Instruct everyone in the household to grab that RED one and run, in an extreme emergency. That is very simple.

Heaven forbid, nothing will ever require you to grab that red one. But if all of your valuable information is scanned into separate files and appropriately labeled, then you are covering all bases. (including instructions and locations of stuff)

Want to lug all of those valuable heavy, photos albums and films in an emergency? Scan them to this external hard drive. (by the way, a 3tb size drive is very inexpensive, but excellent quality...Amazon is your friend, warranty included)

Since the external hard drive is already red and everything else is black or silver, there will be no mistaking one for the other. Grab the red one. My son and his family have 15 photo albums and wants us to grab them in case of a fire or emergency. Yea right... it is grand daughter first, us, the dog and run we will...no albums under our arms. We discussed scanning all of those photos into files of an external hard drive, but he is so busy, the job has not been done, yet...

Jnaki
We have two external hard drives with everything scanned and filed. sure, we have the paper copies and instructions, but these external hard drives are small, lightweight and hold a ton of scanned stuff. plus, if your computer you are using for reading this goes whacky and dies, all of your files are backed up, twice.
p.s. Depending on how much you have to scan and save, but a 3tb hard drive will last for multiple years before you need to get a larger one.
We are fanatics, but like others that think ahead, we have one small one in the safe deposit box, too. That gets updated every 3-4 months. The ones in the house are updated biweekly and are ready for an emergency.

 

Great advice, Cob.

 

Nope....gonna be a mess

 

We keep an extra hard drive like that in the safe deposit box.

Being that we are only 55, we have none of that stuff worked out yet. If something were to happen to me, my loved ones would probably have a hell of a time. I've been trying to cut down on how much crap I have, but it ain't easy.

Fortunately, the oddsmakers say I have a while. But it's the stuff that you don't expect, that's the problem.

 

First ~ Thank you for posting this Cob,every now and then we all need a wake up call.

Second ~I am totally honest with my wife,she is well aware of the value of the cars in the garage and the titles are in the lock box.

Brenda also has a working knowledge of my inventory of Deuce parts so If I dropped dead today she will be able to liquidate and get a fair price when she decides to sell.

This also relates to my small collection of firearms. HRP

 

Luckily my son, daughter and son in law appreciate what's there and I'm sure will divide up the good stuff. I told my wife to give the rest to the ass hole she hooks up with when I'm gone. She said "what makes you think I would marry another one." Stole that from some one but can't remember who.

 

Exactly,friend of mine ONLY 55 , passed from complications from a accident, he did have the foresight to have a trust set up in case of death, and did get around to put some values on cars, tools and parts were up to me, doing the best I can with that,, You just never know

 

Having a few car friends in town, that you can trust, makes a bunch of difference...

Went through something similar when a friend died at 49 several years ago.

 

Never saw a car hauler behind a hearse,hope some one takes photos! HRP

 

Excellent topic Cob. Plan now to make life for survivors much easier. Peace of mind gained as well.

 

My wife has been told to call my sons and they have 30 days to have my shop cleaned out .After that its yard sale time. tools ,shop equipment ,cars and parts. She knows what this junk is worth.

 

My wife could careless about my cars and stuff, she say's if it was up to her she would give it all away.That is why I am leaving everything to my Son!I don't think she likes me much either ?

 

I don't need to worry my son wont even let me sell anything now. He wants to to keep every thing.

 

The old guy who used to live across the road from me said to put all your money in Travelers Checks. He said when you die they work in either place.

 

I visit with my friend Rene' of over 5o years several times a week since he had a stroke two years ago and realized this can happen to any of us.

I have helped sell 4 of his cars and we are trying to put prices on his huge early Buddy L toys and a unbelievable gun collection,he was never truthful with his wife on what he paid for anything,she believes him to be the master of buying for penny's on the dollar.

I have seen him pay thousands of dollars over the years on his Buddy L collection.

Working with him is at times frustrating trying to work up the value on all his collectables but his wife would have a yard sale and give stuff away.

This is something we all need to do and take the time to write down what we consider important for when the family finds themselves up to their eyeballs with our worldly treasures.HRP

 

I'm not sure I've ever laughed so much, at a serious thread subject, like this one.
Some great humour, but this is an interesting subject.
Technology that's knocking at the door, means a lot of our old junk will be obsolete, so will that make it worth more, or less?
I don't have a wife to leave my junk to, and I'm hoping I don't go before my parents, but I have given them instructions, in the event that I do.
My girlfriend will probably die before me, due to being an alcoholic.
I don't drink, and I'm reasonably healthy at fifty.

 

My wife knows where all the paperwork is and all keys are triplicated for property, cars, and the little shed where I've collected aluminum beer cans along the roads over the years-----that said, we never were blessed with any children for leaving heirlooms to and such,... with very little family left who care to communicate with us anymore (which are unfortunately NOT interested in my cars, tools, or passion anyways).....so I've given permission to my wife to ''give'' all my stuff away to a few young men who have a real passion for tinkering on old cars (that we know locally.) It's pretty much all my enjoyed accumulation over the years of old parts and a few 'workable' old cars. and a couple drive-able hotrods I enjoy ....but all the ''stuff'' may help them enjoy their own car world just a bit more I'm hoping.

My wife isn't interested in my cars or what's in the garage, and could care less about figuring out what to do with all of it after our rather long "adult talk'' and explaining how much I have enjoyed my own car world thus far. Using skillful multiple arm gestures, facial re-coils, and mumbling of exactly "what is in the garage" that she's never seen (such as, my beer can collection that I spent hours smashing with a big boot!), and that I really do still love her, STILL!!!.......so, I figured in my will to give a chance to few other young fella's I know a reasonably good start (They have helped me many times in my garage, and I've been noticing their limited $$$ within our garage themed --''how to get started'' -- conversations).... just maybe it will continue as a legacy I can give to another, who would benefit from a helping hand as I'm still able to present it.______BUT, they won't know till I've kicked the bucket!!!....then they can haul it all away with a smile!

The dogs go to the neighbors who feed them non-stop treats and bits of steak!

 

Have a living will set up and the wife knows who to call to disperse the stuff.Knowledgeable,responsible pair of friends who get the most for the good stuff.
Have a buddy who while a friend can be a bit of a jerk. Bleeds Ford blue and won't even touch a non Ford part.
My will says he gets all the battered,beat up,not worth 10 cents stuff I can't make myself throw away.

 

Ha! How can I when I don't know what half my stuff is worth.....

 

Here in AZ we have something similar to a real estate beneficiary deed, except for motor vehicles. The form is downloaded from the MVD site, completed with identification of the vehicle along with who the title is to be transfered to upon your passing. Notarize it and staple to your title. I've done that for all my vehicles. Just one more way to avoid probate. Check with your Mvd to see if your state has something similar.

 

Two instances that I knew of involving widows trying to sell their husband's collections were very different but had one thing in common. The husband's pals trying to get stuff dirt cheap from what they thought was an uninformed seller. The first lady knew the value of her husband's Lionel train collection and told the "friends" where to put their low ball offers. The second was not so lucky and relied on their honesty to price the items. I got a call from her when about a quarter her husband's Firearm collection was sold. I brought my Blue Book and gave her up to date market value for a couple that I liked. She asked me to look up a few that were already sold to see if she got a fair deal. I'm talking 3 and 4 thousand $ rifles and shot guns sold for 3 and 4 hundred. What hurt her the worst wasn't the monetary loss but that they were her husbands best friends. Night and day between these type of collections and hot rod stuff but it still hit home to me. Money does some crazy shit to some people.

 

Thanks Bob that was a great idea, and I would like to add after going through this with my older brother and now my dad that we as car guys seem to think everybody knows what we are thinking and they don't. So make a written record or put it on a computer file so that everyone involved knows and there is no second guessing. We seem to think that it wont happen to us... but it does.

 

My best friend passed away a little over a week ago rather suddenly.
He had a 4000 sq.ft. building loaded with tools, parts, memorabilia, and hot rods.
In a hand written will of sorts he laid out who he wanted to receive most of the larger items.
The rest I was to sell and receive some of the proceeds from the sale, the rest was to go to one of his favorite charities.
He never filed a copy with a lawyer or had it witnessed.
I am not sure his wife is too thrilled with this arrangement.
If you want someone to receive some of your things when you are gone, make sure someone besides a family member has a copy of your wishes.
And make sure it is all nice and legal!
KK

 

I told the wife to lock it all up, don't let anyone in. Wait a year and call an auctioneer.