There are things that I have lusted after in the 80s that I finally managed to own in the 2000s. Synthesizers, Cassette decks, Turntables, Heavy Amplifiers and Speakers.
Then there are my LPs, Books and CDs.
DVDs.
Then trinkets like a little marble pyramid carved by an artisan in Egypt…
A sea turtle made from green rock by an artisan in Cape Town.
Of course I do not expect my children to hang on to them, though I have told them that some of the stuff is worth a lot of money now and will be worth more in the future. A Pioneer tape deck that I bought at a garage sale for $50 goes for upward for $1000 on the auction sites. The thought of them ending up in a thrift store or worst case, in a dumpster makes me incredibly sad. I have spent months browsing classifieds all over the world to find just that Technics amplifier model and then spent days convincing the owner to ship it to Canada. : )
How do you feel about your prized possessions ? Naming some of them will be fun 
Books, CDs, and DVDs I could not care less about (well, maybe a few of the books).
My 1200+ lps, though, which I have been collecting for 50+ years, will go to my son-in-law, the only relative who would appreciate them.
I also have a good amount of photography equipment that will, I guess, just be sold off.
And my beautiful piano…sigh…maybe just hide my ashes inside and sell it to the highest bidder.
mmm
Honestly the best thing might be to sell off this stuff now to strangers who value it, rather than your family, who may not.
I don’t really have very many prized possessions myself so I don’t care what happens to any of it.
If you have anything of value (not just valuable to you, but actual value in $$) then make it known to others what those are. It can be as simple as a list taped to your will or trust. Others are likely not to know the details of your possessions, so unless you make provisions beforehand, you may as well assume it will all end-up donated or tossed.
My parents collected a bunch of stuff when they were living - some of it was nearly worthless (depression glass) and others were highly valuable (cast-iron banks). My dad left info on the important stuff and I separated those items from the heap after he died, for future consideration. My brother made some money on that stuff we did not want (or value they way dad did).
Right now I do not have anything like that in my possession, and if I pass then I assume it will all be donated, which is fine by me.
Appreciation is the word.
Barely anybody knows about our stuff let alone appreciate.
I am like an anachronism.
Listening to records and reel tapes, reading books…
None of my colleagues or friends do that. Their world revolves around their cellphones and streaming TV.
The ones that appreciated all passed away in the early 2000s leaving me alone.
Most people that visit my studio, mistake my reel to reel recorder for a movie projector. So there you have it.
A few years ago, I went through what was worth money and who should get what with my niece. Then, she was a killed in a car accident and I ended up being one of the people going through her stuff. She had a shelf in her closet reserved only for gifts from me.
OTTOMH I have the Spider-Man issue where the Punisher makes his debut. IIRC It’s worth around $2000. I plan to outlive my sister partly because she’d just junk everything- not even just having a really cheap garage sale.
We’ve compiled a list of the things we own that are really worth something - mostly musical instruments, jewelry, some specialty woodworking tools, and a couple of specialized “libraries” of books. Just to let the kids know that some things could be sold for something, or donated to certain places that would value them, instead of just tossing them. The kids likely will not know the difference between a $15k fiddle and a $500 one.
But we don’t really care what happens to our stuff when we go. We’ve been doing a pretty good job of paring down possessions so our kids won’t have to deal w/ them. And they have made it pretty clear that they do not want much of anything of ours.
Most of it will either be sold, go to a charity or end up in landfill. My good cookware may go to my youngest son, who is also a good cook. There are some family silver pieces that I guess I’ll give to . . .someone.
Then there are some Alaska Native craft items that cannot be sold to anyone else (federal law). They will have to be given away either to family or to whomever wants them. And there are all of the art objects that we’ve collected over the years. Perhaps a museum will want some of them, or perhaps an art retailer will buy the more collectible stuff.
Records, books, CDs and other things of that nature will probably end up in the landfill if nobody want them. Then there are the boxes of photographs that have no meaning to anyone but us: landfill.
I have a grandson who may want my tools.
It seems sad that the sum total of your life experiences are totally disposable, but that’s the reality. I spent 20 years researching my family’s ancestry, so that will live on the internet for as long as there is such a thing. It’s the one lasting thing that I’ve done, and a lot of people have benefited from it in researching their own family lines.
Oh, and as noted above, I have an inventory of most everything in the house and its value. I’ll make sure that whoever handles my estate has that.
I don’t have anything of monetary value. Daughter will pick over my books; the rest can go to Goodwill.
We’re already dumping heirloom kid stuff on our kids for our grandkids. We have a coverlet that was made my my wife’s great great … great grandmother in the 1830s which will either go to a kid or get donated to the Coverlet Museum in Pennsylvania.
If I go first my wife will no doubt sell my 6500 sf books and magazines, many quite old. If not, I’ll donate them to the MIT SF Society with the proviso that they can sell whatever they can to pay for a new space, since the Library is jammed as it is.
I have this from my parents - both the life I lived with them, and after they retired and I was largely out of the picture (pictures of them and their retirement friends, who I do not know). I have had trouble getting rid of them. It seems like I am burying them again (altho their ashes were both scattered). I don’t know what it is about those photos.
Anyway, it seems all of us and everything we own will end-up underground.
I hear ya. I guess I’ll give them any photos with me in them, but they’ll have zero interest in endless photos of safari animals and places they don’t recognize.
I have been giving this a bit of though of late.
We are going through a major remodel, and we had to clear out the entire house. So, I got a chance to see (and pack) pretty much everything in the house. Most of my “prize possessions” are tools or test equipment, and I suspect that they will end up at a yard sale or in the dump. If I knew any younger people who were interested in my hobbies, I would leave it to them. I have spent many tens of thousands of dollars on tools, but I don’t think they are worth very much now.I have some some Star Trek collectables, including one pice that is so rare that it’s hard to put a price on, because there are no other examples to set a valuation. It will probably end up in landfill.
We have some very nice, one-of-a-kind sculptures, but they are large and probably not most people’s taste. They are from local artists, so they are not collectable per se, but both are so interesting that it would be a shame to have them hauled away as garbage…
(I don’t have a decent photo of either sculpture, but you can see the Blue Heron here, along with my Mom, Dad and dog, all gone now).
I also have a lot of books about Solar Energy and off-grid homebuilding. Hopefully, I can find a home for them.
I’ve come to realize that most possessions are ephemeral - enjoy them while you can.
I collect fossils and meteorites. Nothing spectacular in either collection, but both categories are types of things that have passed from hand to hand over centuries. If they make into the right hands after I die (and society doesn’t collapse or change utterly in interests) I can see at least some of my stuff still in people’s collections for a long time to come.
Well, I have the family photos from both sides of my family, but none of the ones from my father’s family have any identification on them, and in any case there’s no-one left to care about them. I was the family genealogist and there has been zero interest in the results.
What I have of monetary value is fountain pens. They are all labeled, and there is a corresponding database that includes what I paid for them. I’m trying to work out something so that they can be sold or auctioned to benefit the fountain pen community, i.e. pen shows. Still working on that.
Our elderly neighbors died and their son was very happy to get a list of everything in the home. I lived next to her for over 10 years, we ate meals together a few times a week. I never knew that she had a handwritten list of how many forks she had.
I have some nice stuff that pleases me and have told the folks who will be taking care of our cats to take what they like in exchange for caring for our cats until the rescue organization takes over. This piece does have someone’s name on the bottom because she admires it every time she sees it.
We don’t have children and have planned for our cats to live their lives out in our home for a rather excessive yearly donation to an rescue organization. Once the last cat is dead, everything will be sold with the proceeds going to a Veterans charity. I like to think that the pretty things in our home will walk out with the carers, but know that they will probably end up being sold at a yard sale or pitched.
Digitize the photos then you can both keep the pictures and dump the photographs.
My single most prized possession is a 1990 Fender American Strat Plus with Brown Sunburst finish. My father bought it for me brand new for my 13th birthday. The previous year I asked for a guitar so we went to the closest pawn shop and bought a piece of shit because he wanted to see if I stuck with it, and I did.
Every single time I’ve ever taken it out to play over the years at least one person takes one look at it, their eyes widen, then they try to buy it. I’ve bought and sold a lot of other guitars over the years, but that is the one that I would never willingly part with. Even when I was unemployed, dead broke, and deep in the hole, I never once considered selling it. I don’t even play that much anymore. None of my younger relatives play or seem to have any interest in it. Not sure what I want to happen to it. At least I know whoever ends up with it will have no problem getting a nice payday out of it.
I have an extensive collection of transportation memorabilia. I intend to sell it before I die so that it’s properly taken care of.
By that I mean it will be sold to someone who will allow it’s replication to others without monetizing it. Some of it has already been used in local history books where it can be appreciated.
I know people who have items that are very rare and horde them so basically nobody else can see it. I don’t get that philosophy.
Having had to sell or otherwise dispose of the prized possession of 2 husbands, my Dad and my Mom, I won’t leave jack for someone I love to get rid of. It hurts. Purging everything now. Mostly donating.