[chris vickery]

Hi Fellas. I thought I should air some dirty laundry here with respect to this post...

Several years ago a certain friend of mine passed suddenly, at the ripe old age of 55. He had just retired, intent on spending his golden years puttering around in the shop, restoring all the stuff he had amassed. Lo and behold, the Man took him early.

I would have to say that I was his closest friend and confidant. At the time of his sudden illness, the subject of his property was on my mind but how does one mention the disposal of ones goods, especially with the hope of a full recovery on the horizon?
My friend had told me verbally about some items he would like me to have, in the event of his death. It never went to paper, we always had gentlemens agreements and such. Over the years we traded square back and forth, never changing a dollar by hand.
To make matters worse, I also had some of my own projects etc stored at his property.

Well, one day I get the call. My friend had passed. I made a visit to a relative, the one who was in charge of the estate. In his opinion much of my friends "collection" was junk although he wouldn't let any of it go, afterall, I, being the close friend might just be trying to rip off the estate!
I was politely told that anything I wanted could be purchased at auction and that since I had nothing in writing, my word was useless. I did manage to convince this fellow to allow me to remove a couple items that were legitimately mine prior to the sale.
Of course I was totally pissed off, I had full intentions of helping the family catalog and establish values on many of the items. So, my offer of assistance was put aside in favour of going to the auction as suggested... Up until this point I was willing to even advertise and help sell off items to collectors because of the connections I have here and elsewhere in the militaria hobby.
To make a long story short, I walked away from the auction with thousands of dollars in merchandise purchased for a pittance, all due to the ignorance of the family and their stubborn and mistrusting attitude. The point of the matter is, I had offered a great deal more in cash on many of the items I ended up with anyhow for a lot less...
I am sure many, many collectors got a steal that day on stuff, when afterall, the family would have greatly benefitted from private sales and / or some common sense.
My word of advice to all, put it on paper no matter how uncomfortable it is. The days of gentlemans agreements are long gone.
In this case, greed of the executor and expediance in disposal of the estate outweighed any level headed thinking. I know my friend would have been ashamed of how his collection was handled, as well as the other assets of his life. Thankfully there were many collector types there that day to save much from the scrap heap. I still shake my head when I think of the thousands lost at auction though.

I am sure many of the MLUers out there know who I am speaking of...