I have a great respect for collectors; I would keep the collection intact for as long as I could.
I’d see if anyone else in the family is interested in the collection, and sell it to them at a discount if they could afford it, or give it to them if they couldn’t afford it. If no one in the family wants it, take it to Pawn Stars and bargain with the Old Man.
My house and garage are already full of sentimental crap that we often can’t even see or use. (Well, “full of” may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but if it was up to me, I could fill a 5x5 storage room full of stuff I’d just as soon part with but that my wife wants to keep because of family/sentimental reasons.)
I would see if anyone in the family wanted the collectibles, but if no one was chomping at the bit and I didn’t have an obvious use for it, I’d sell it off. Getting maximum dollar value wouldn’t even be the priority. If it would take more than a couple of hours of work to sell, I’d just as soon donate it and take the tax write-off.
As the sworn enemy of clutter, I would part ways with it immediately.
I’d see if there was a local historical society that might be interested. I’ve been to a lot of small town museums that have fascinating collections that people have donated.
See, when I read “sizable inheritance”, I assumed something this size and voted as you did. But then I read “collection worth at least a few thousand dollars”. If the collection is “sizable” and the worth is only “a few thousand” . . . well, I’d still distribute to whoever wanted a keepsake, and would probably keep something that reminded me of my dear departed, but the rest is more likely to get donated somewhere rather than sold.
Selling a large number of items that are worth a few bucks each is a royal pain. If there’s somewhere obvious to donate it or to sell it as a lot at a discounted rate, fine. Otherwise it’s garage sale/flea market and the leftovers go to the thrift shop.
What if the “collectibles” were also utilitarian items that happened to also have some value as vintage collectibles? E.g. grandma’s high school dresses from 1940 might be interesting from a vintage clothing perspective, but could also be given to your daughter or niece to actually wear, either as a costume or as ordinary daily wear (hey, fashions change, and old looks come back!).
When Dad passed a few months ago, he didn’t have much of a collection left, basically his fishing tackle and the few firearms he had left
I already have my own tackle I’m happy with, so we passed the rods and reels to my 9 year old niece, who is an avid fisher, my nephew inhereted some of my old tackle last summer, and all he wanted was one of Dad’s fly setups, my niece got another one, and I got his nice split bamboo fly rod
We split the lures three ways between us
My 11 year old nephew, who is an avid shooter, inhereted Dad’s old Ithaca 49 single shot lever action that Dad taught me to shoot on, and the Stevens 414 .22 Short falling block single shot he adores
Dad passed the Ithaca to him a few months before he passed, and I handed the Stevens, and a brick of .22 Short to him after the service, as I know Dad would have wanted it that way
I keep his guns in my gun cabinet here at the house, under lock and key, and they’re only used with my supervision
I inherited his Ruger Single Six and Original Parker VH 12 gauge side by side
Yes, this. I’d think about selling whatever it was, but it’d be too much work and they’d end up collecting dust somewhere.