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What Will You Do With Your Record Collection After Your Demise?

Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
edited February 2011 in Strut Central
Hey 'Strutters,

My wife and I had a conversation the other day about what I might do with my record collection after my demise. I thought, given my love of music and how strongly I view its socio-cultural and historical significance, I would love for my collection to live on after I'm gone. I would hate to see the record collection that has been such a moving, stimulating, fulfilling, and comforting passion of mine thrown into a dumpster. That said, I can't think of any younger relatives (since I have no seeds) who I can bequeath it to who would truly appreciate and preserve it. Thus, my notion is to donate it to a music preservation society, college of music, public school music program, or something in that regard (in my last will and testament), so that the music is shared with future generations. Has anyone on here ever considered this topic, and if so, any thoughts on the matter?

Peace,

Big Stacks from Kakalak

  Comments

  • JamalJamal 410 Posts
    Maybe try and make friends with someone who has the same love for the music.. and put that person in your will.

    Downside: He or she may try to assasinate you.
  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Jamal said:
    Maybe try and make friends with someone who has the same love for the music.. and put that person in your will.

    Downside: He or she may try to assasinate you.

    Hey Jamal,

    That's funny, but assuming I enjoy a normal life span, my music lover friends may be gone as well. Thus, the question remains, "what to do with the records at the end of life?"

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak
  • marwal_bustmarwal_bust 195 Posts
    Big_Stacks said:
    That's funny, but assuming I enjoy a normal life span, my music lover friends may be gone as well.

    Great thought. I have put my parents and others close to me on notice about this one several times now naming my main collecting P.I.C., but inherently this assumes I die well before my 70 year old parents, 10+ year older exs, and my +5 year older friend. Hmmmm...thanks for the heads up!
  • JamalJamal 410 Posts
    Ah ok, yeah that's true. It's a difficult question to answer because life can have some strange twists..

    But actually the thing with records is, that they will somehow eventually land in the hands of the one that loves it..because he's the one thats diggin for it..

    Atcually I wish for an afterlife where records exist..

    Well, those are my two cents for now.

    peace
  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Jamal said:
    Ah ok, yeah that's true. It's a difficult question to answer because life can have some strange twists..

    But actually the thing with records is, that they will somehow eventually land in the hands of the one that loves it..because he's the one thats diggin for it..

    Atcually I wish for an afterlife where records exist..

    Well, those are my two cents for now.

    peace

    Hey Jamal,

    Marinate on this one, my man. My older brother told me that my mother discussed throwing away my records while I was away at school. I had the records stored away in the closet in my old bedroom back home. Fortunately, my bro feverishly talked her out of it, as he knew how much I cherished my records. Thus, it shows how little value records have to some people, and how they don't realize how meaningful they are to others. Given this, the dumpster is a real possible final resting place for a collection if it lands in the wrong hands.

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak
  • finelikewinefinelikewine "ONCE UPON A TIME, I HAD A VINYL." http://www.discogs.com/user/permabulker 1,416 Posts
    Maybe set yourself a age limit when to sell your shit to good hands. If you don't need the money at that time, give it to charity.
  • JamalJamal 410 Posts
    yeah..dumpster wise or if its burned , or in fact just destroyed..yeah then it impossible to find..
    I was thinking more of the records when not destroyed..

    good point man.

    But what you said about the life span and friends..well it would be a big coincidencen if everybody deceased at the same time..

    In fact what you said about the school or institue is a good idea..but you never know if it will be in real good hands there aswell..and in the abovely applied logic , the institute might perrish aswell.

    well, im curious as to what other people have to say about this..

    Good question.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    My co-worker built Kim's Video's Film collection on Avenue A.

    When it folded, NYU was trying to acquire the collect for the NYU Film Dept, since the kids were going there for years.

    His demand was that it would be available to the public. It being housed the library of NYU, wouldnt line up w/ his demand, since the public doesnt have access.

    He shipped the 55,000 collectron to Sicily where it is being digitized at a monastery in Sicily that was taken over by an Artists collective.

    I hope to purge my collectron one day and look for the proper suitors or throw it back to the BINS for some new collectro to discover.
  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    There was a lengthy thread on Waxidermy about this last week.

    I've been buying record collections for a living for over 15 years and I can't tell you how many people wanted their collections to live on and be donated somewhere (library, museum etc) and I can tell that it never happens. Even if you found a university to take it (highly unlikely), they would just sell off the pieces that they didn't deem worth keeping, which would be most of them.

    Face it - your collection is a reflection of you and your experiences and nothing more. Trying to get it to 'live on' will make it a huge burden to your loved ones. If there isn't an obvious heir who wants it, make a plan for it's sale/dispersal and put it in writing or you are just inflicting a huge task on your survivors

    Unless you're Bob Dylan or Alan Lomax, it ain't happening so make other plans - even John Peel's collection was broken up.
  • PrimeCutsLtdPrimeCutsLtd jersey fresh 2,632 Posts
    I'm getting cremated with them. Ashes getting dumped at the goodwill.
  • buttonbutton 1,475 Posts
    Coming with me in my pyramid. Or my ex can have them.
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    It'll go to my boys unless my wife needs the dough, in which case they can sell it.
  • fejmelbafejmelba 1,139 Posts
    to the thrifts,
    back where they came from.
  • street_muzikstreet_muzik 3,919 Posts
    Family.
  • FrankFrank 2,374 Posts
    I will sell everything before I reach my 60s. Music and records have been the biggest factor for almost my entire adult life. I'm looking forward to the moment where I will decide to move my focus to something entirely different. Not 100% sure yet what this will be but it will have nothing to with buying or collecting any material posessions.
  • onetetonetet 1,754 Posts
    Big_Stacks said:
    Jamal said:
    Maybe try and make friends with someone who has the same love for the music.. and put that person in your will.

    Downside: He or she may try to assasinate you.

    Hey Jamal,

    That's funny, but assuming I enjoy a normal life span, my music lover friends may be gone as well. Thus, the question remains, "what to do with the records at the end of life?"

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak

    If this idea appeals to you in theory, it should be possible to meet someone considerably younger who would value the collection -- niche cultural interests can often bridge generation gaps, and hopefully that won't change over the coming decades. You might consider setting an age at which you auction off some of your higher-end pieces -- which, presumably, would stay in the hands of people who know their cultural and financial value -- and then give the bulk of your collection to one or more young, lucky folk who've shown a sustained, strong love of music and appreciation for the format.
  • dj_cityboydj_cityboy 1,478 Posts
    yeah its a tough question...for me tbh it all depends on when i die, if i die next week, i prefer my collection to go to someone that would appreciate it and use it rather then having it sit in a corner of someones basement, chances are my girl would keep it as we both have the same love for music.

    if i live out a normal life and die of "old age" most of my peeps would be roughly the same age so i cant pawn it off on them, then i would want my kids to have it, if your kids are "truely" a reflection of who you are, mine will be a dj, music producing graffiti writer and they would want my rekkids...lol

    if you have no plans of having children, definitely donate it there will always be people collecting records if i knew my records ended up in a melting pot i'd roll over in my grave...
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    If you leave your records, 3,000?10,000?, to a library it costs the library money. Lots.
    As you know records take up lots of room.
    The library will need to catalog each title. Have you done this? They will need to pay a librarian hours and hours to do this.
    Each record sleeve, inner and outer, will have to be replaced with archival sleeves.

    What is so special about your collection?
    Is it 3,000 or 10,000, very rare small press records? all from the same time period? All in the same style? That would make it a unique focused collections.
    If it's like my collection, and most collections I have seen, it is thousands of records that I just like, most of them commercially recorded and readily available to any one willing to shell out the $$$$.

    My wife knows the guy who I want to come in and give her a price to take everything when I am dead.
    I think he will be fair, business like and efficient.

    I have a story about a collection that recently went to a library I will post up here, or in the one that got a way thread soon.
  • gravelheadwrapgravelheadwrap corn 948 Posts
    I wouldn't care about my collection "living on" necessarily. I would care who it, they, them go to. If I've got no immediate family or friends that won't take it on and would rather get rid of it, that's fine. My only request would be that it all ends up in good hands. It would be a lot of work but having someone create Set Sales on Soul Strut and Waxidermy is appealing. There's no reason for my records to stay together.
  • InnerSpaceInnerSpace 443 Posts
    I would love for one of my children to keep the top tier of my collection and sell the rest off to use toward whatever they want. I hope that I will be able to instill a love for the kind of music that I collect into my children and also the beauty of vinyl. I don't want them to have a burden of the thousands that I own, just the 100 or so that are most precious to me. Almost a heirloom of sorts. This is no different of a situation than if your grandparents pass away and they have a ton of antiques. Some might be important to keep because of family reasons and others could be sold off to help pay for funeral/any other exterior expenses they may have.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    I've thought about this question and I think I'd have one of my closest friends go through my collection and pick out stuff for my daughter to hold onto. He'd get to handpick stuff for himself and then I'd probably have another friend sell off the rest and give the money to my wife and kid.

    I think the idea of trying to leave it to a library is charming but like Horseleech said, entirely unlikely to ever happen.
  • Phill_MostPhill_Most 4,594 Posts
    SELL THEM SHITS NOW
  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Phill With 2 Ls said:
    SELL THEM SHITS NOW

    To you, Phill? :lol: Shiiiit, you have a million records already, holmes!!!

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak
  • Options
    Unknown
    Rosebud.
  • pimlicosquirrelpimlicosquirrel 772 Posts
  • gravelheadwrapgravelheadwrap corn 948 Posts
    pimlicosquirrel said:

    Wouldn't that be some shit coming across all these raer and medium raers like this?
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    I'm gunning for that 40-Year Old Virgin ending, where I sell my records for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was thinking sometime in between the Brazil World Cup and the Rio summer Olympics, when Brazil Fever will be at a pitch. Unfortunately, the ones I love and would want to keep, are the ones that would bring the most money.

    But I also have pretty detailed records of the prices I've paid for most of my collection, and my wife knows to sell them if I were to meet an untimely death. My bigger concern is whether to insure them separately.
  • Options
    Unknown
    I will give them to family and not have an opinion after that. I will also tell them family members that they should not have an opinion about what the others do with their portion of the records and baseball cards. They can keep them and appreciate them, buy each other out, donate them, trash them or whatever.
  • pcmrpcmr 5,591 Posts
    sabadabada said:
    I'm gunning for that 40-Year Old Virgin ending, where I sell my records for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was thinking sometime in between the Brazil World Cup and the Rio summer Olympics, when Brazil Fever will be at a pitch. Unfortunately, the ones I love and would want to keep, are the ones that would bring the most money.

    But I also have pretty detailed records of the prices I've paid for most of my collection, and my wife knows to sell them if I were to meet an untimely death. My bigger concern is whether to insure them separately.

    will you use your site as a sale tool

    insuring records has been discussed here before and it seems very expensive (to get good value back)
    record appraisers are hard to get recognized
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