You need to have a BACKUP PLAN!
Life is always full of surprises. Have you given any thought to what would happen to your collection of coins if you were to die tomorrow or have a life changing emergency? Do you think its fair for your children not knowing walking into a local pawn shop or coin store and being taken advantage of? Please make it ez for your relatives by leaving detailed information and instructions on how to dispose your coins. Hundreds of our customers have left my business card with a note to contact "Jon" in the event!
A true tale... A few years back a client of mine passed away with a rather coin collection. His son needing a new car took the collection to a local coin shop. Because his father always played things close to the vest, the collection was not marked with any prices etc... His son was happy to receive a quick / approximate $20,000 for this wonderful collection. A collection that I knew was easily valued at over $100,000. Fortunately with the help of my notes and a local "good guy" attorney we were able to recover an additional $50,000 to the family heirs. Not everyone is that lucky and this could have been avoided if there were some detailed notes with the collection.
However if you happen to be a relative and ended up in this situation, take your time and find someone to trust to dispose of the collection.
e was a secretive guy so I’m assuming the invoices for his coins weren’t around and he peeled my inventory stickers off the back of the slabs which indicated what he paid. The coins were left to his sister who proceeded to take them to a “road buyer” at a local hotel. I would have paid close to a million dollars for the coins if she had called me. I’m told the road buyers paid her somewhat less than $200,000.