What to do, ultimately, with my equipment albums/discs.

[gvl_guy]

First. I hope this is the correct location in the forum to post this question. "Use this forum to discuss what you can do to preserve your vintage equipment......". By "preserving," I'm talking about when I'm gone.

I'm not sure what's going to happen when someday, hopefully a long time from now, I leave this earth. With no children and nieces/nephews that either I'm really not close to or have no interest in my hobby, what should happen with my 4 channel pride and joy? The last thing I want is for this stuff to end up in Goodwill or someplace similar. I'll have to haunt people who got my QRX-9001 for $20 and I hope I'll have better things to do in the afterlife.

It's not like the stuff needs to be sold so the money can be left to someone. There's no one so important to me (other than my spouse) that I plan to leave any cash to. And he'll be just fine with our savings.

Is anyone in a similar situation? If so, do you have thoughts or plans?

(Just so you know, my demise hopefully won't be anytime soon. I'm not that old, healthy and looking forward to much more life. But sometimes, you start to think......)

 

[barfle]

At the age of 75, I share your desire to have your collection go to someone who would appreciate it, but having no heirs with any interest, it’s an open question.

I like to think I have 30 years left, although who knows what shape my ears will be in by then. My dad missed his 98th birthday by less than a month, my mom is still going strong at 96, and her mother made it to 102, so perhaps my prediction has validity and I have time to figure it out.

I told my wife that if I were to get hit by a bus (mostly the yellow ones here in the Boise area) to contact a used record store in town and have them deal with the media. Much of my hardware is esoteric enouh that the market for it would be fairly slim, though.

 

[humprof]

I wonder if we should set up an informal service here on QQ--sort of like the kind of thing that ethnic- and labor-oriented Fraternal Organizations and Mutual Aid Societies did, back in the day. Members could write up a Last Surround Will and Testament, with preferences and/or instructions about what should happen to their Stuff. And then surviving volunteers who live within a couple hundred miles of the dearly departed could, uh, undertake to dispose of his/her/their legacy appropriately.

 

[jefe1]

Sadly this is a topic relevant to many of us here.
You also dont want to burden your surviving heirs with tons of shit they dont know what to do with

 

[edisonbaggins]

I humbly propose a donation to the Life and Death in Surround Music and Gear Museum [working title].

I am 100% sincere in this notion. I really think there should be preservation societies for all cherished hobbies. And I will happily be a curator for one devoted to multichannel music.

 

[4-earredwonder]

As far as software is concerned, our local SUNY [State of New York] 4 year Arts college in Purchase, New York is willing to take RBCDs and DVDs/Blu Rays off my hands upon my exit which is somewhat heartening but as far as my equipment is concerned .... NO ONE other than me will know how to even turn it on!

I jokingly told my survivors to hire a huge cement truck and prop me up in one of my electric lounge theater chairs and entomb me for eternity and thus sell my house as a slab house with no basement ....... just make sure there's new lithium batteries in my remotes!

LOL!

 

[kap'n krunch]

Although I agree with Baggie with what he has proposed, we could at least start a thread or a section for someone in your family to offer the gear and discs to QQ members.
I remember that I was one of the people who helped Cai Campbell's Mom to sell his stuff, so we can do something like that...

 

[marpow]

I would sell your stuff as if you where selling to a dealer now.
A dealer, discs and equipment, has insurance, rent, salary, etc, so usually a dealer will be only able to pay 1/4 to 1/3 of the worth, collectibles, stamps coins etc.
My plan if I decide to sell discs, which a lot of people do on QQ is to sell them for a minimum of 1/2 of what I bought them for.
Or at some collectible fairs, you can buy a booth for around $250-$350 dollars and sell your stuff there, which is person to person, kind of fun, meeting and talking to people.

 

[Sal1950]

Is anyone in a similar situation? If so, do you have thoughts or plans?

Sort of. I'm 72 with no close family or younger friends and the question applies to everything I own? I just hope I'll have some idea that the time is growing near and I can will everything to be sold and given to charity.

 

[mandrix]

My wife has instructions on what to do when I'm gone. She doesn't care about the audio stuff, my Daughter either.
So I'm just going to pass it along.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

.... NO ONE other than me will know how to even turn it on!

Aint it the truth...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

1) I am currently planning on selling everything in our weekend place because we will sell the house some time this year (with any luck). I am selling the audio equipment piece by piece and hope to leave the wall-mounted OLED in place for a nominal fee just to avoid having to fix the wall.
2) The main home system is with me to the end and I have a son-in-law (and some friends) who would help my wife dispose of it all after I am gone.
3) However, I am still wrestling with my discs!! I sell them in dribs and drabs but I still have hundreds of SACDs/DVD-A's/BDs (already ripped to my NAS) to unload ASAP.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Unlike @gvl_guy I do have daughters, son in laws, & granddaughters that can handle things after my demise. If I see the end coming I would look up ebay sold prices for my equipment & put post it notes on each piece what they could probably sell it for.

I'm not sure how much they would want to keep. My older SiL has an Oppo 205 that isn't hooked up, just sits on a shelf. Both of them have Sony PlayStation's & if they play a disc at all it's on that. Otherwise it's all streaming. So what to do with not only equipment but software is up to them.

This thread brings to mind a related thought.... my father & his were a generation that made real, usable things. Furniture for the house. Hell some even built the house they lived in. Things that could be valued by the next generation. Now many of us spend our time on upmixing or ripping discs to data drives. What can I say, to my daughters I bequeath all my FLAC & JPG files?

 

[4-earredwonder]

DID ANYONE FLOAT THE POSSIBILITY THAT PERCHANCE THE GRIM REAPER IS AN AUDIOPHILE?



AND I SUGGEST CHANGING THE NAME OF THIS DISCUSSION TO 'HANGING ON BY A THREAD!'

 

[Bill B]

Man, I know this is a cop out and I think about things like this as much as the next guy but...
Don't we worry enough about our possessions while we are alive? We might be better off if we try not to worry about them after we are gone.

Assuming there is someone to whom you are leaving your possessions, the best thing to do is to make them aware of anything that is valuable or may be valuable to someone. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to make a hi-level list of anything that can bring in real money. I figure someone will need the money enough to make it worth them trying to sell it on ebay.

I won't care by then because I will be trying to score tickets to the Hendrix concert..

 

[mlrocker]

we could just make a list of people here that want to be beneficiarys of said collections and equipment. At least you'd be assured that it's going to a "good" home, sort of. sadly, everything eventually gets traded, sold, or junked. Putting it back into the marketplace is cool, or donating it to a music school, college, or a library, although they can get picky because of the cost to handle and store collections.

 

[humprof]

we could just make a list of people here that want to be beneficiarys of said collections and equipment. At least you'd be assured that it's going to a "good" home, sort of. sadly, everything eventually gets traded, sold, or junked. Putting it back into the marketplace is cool, or donating it to a music school, college, or a library, although they can get picky because of the cost to handle and store collections.

Yes--in situations like @gvl_guy 's (where there are no obvious heirs or beneficiaries and no one to leave instructions to--not even a need or a desire to ensure that his stuff is sold at "market value"), a solution like this would at least stand a chance of keeping his collection alive in the community, dispersed among people who care about it.

I've spoken with librarians at both my county and university libraries, and the only reason any of them are interested in taking donations of books or CDs is so that they can sell them at their semi-annual fundraisers and/or pass them on to a "picker" or a wholesaler for pennies on the dollar. But for the most part they'd rather not mess with donations at all.

 

[Sal1950]

DID ANYONE FLOAT THE POSSIBILITY THAT PERCHANCE THE GRIM REAPER IS AN AUDIOPHILE?

RIP Charlie Daniels !

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Man, I know this is a cop out and I think about things like this as much as the next guy but...
Don't we worry enough about our possessions while we are alive? We might be better off if we try not to worry about them after we are gone.

Agreed. Aside from de-acquisitioning my CT stuff so that we can sell the house, my only concern for the ultimate de-acquisition is to make it easier for my survivors.

 

[kfbkfb]

Then there's the software longevity issue:

I don't know the estimated lifetime of magnetic tapes (in my case, compact cassettes & Beta & VHS) - some analog master tapes have deteriorated in (proper) storage conditions and require heroic measures to play them back once for archiving.

I started buying Beta & VHS prerecorded cassettes in 1984-07, I played my VHS Beverly Hills Cop recently to try out original Dolby Pro-Logic decoding, the tape has held up, my Beta VCRs are now broken, but a few years ago, I made DVD-R copies of my Beta (music) Video 45s (B2 linear audio, no Beta HiFi), they played ok, but as with Beta 2, adjustment of the tracking control is critical for minimum picture interference.


I haven't looked up the lifetime estimate of PVC, my oldest vinyl records (about 60 years old by now) look ok and still play (with a lot of noise since I didn't know anything about proper LP handling until ~1972).

It seems that with a few ultrasonic cleanings and playback with a true Shibata stylus + pop/click removal (software?), vinyl records can sound "like new" for decades after manufacture (except for skipping problems).


Optical discs on the other hand...the "Laser Rot" fiasco in the LaserVision/LaserDisc system in the mid-1980s.

In one case, I bought the Olivia - Physical LD in 1982-02 [made at the new Pioneer LD factory in Japan], it played fine for over 25 years, then "Laser Rot" started on outer edge of side 1 and now only the first few videos play.

About 20 years ago, Philips stated that stamped CDs have an estimated lifetime of 1000 years, but in the worst case scenario (high temperature + high humidity storage), that is reduced by a factor of 50 to 20 - so 20 years stamped CD lifetime worst case.

I've had 1 Blu-ray fail/"rot", in my oldest Blu-ray player, it won't start playback, my newest Sony Blu-ray struggles with this disc and does begin playback, but gives up shortly after.

I have quite a few UHD Blu-rays and a player, on rare occasions, the picture will freeze, but it starts again quickly and isn't repeatable so I don't think it's "rot" (my oldest UHD Blu-ray was purchased on 2016-01).


Kirk Bayne