Wes,
 
No one has taken you up on this subject, publicly anyway. So we could
mention here other responses to the questions many of us get from time to
time about disposal of a collection.
 
As soon as COA gets its full tax exempt status (which is in the works) it
would welcome receipt of shell collections for resale in the COA auctions.
A donated collection would bring a tax benefit. Some might rather do this
than go through some of the other hassle associated with ridding oneself of
a collection, particularly an inherited one. Often we might have COA
members nearby who would be willing to pack and receive the collection. And
the shells then would be sold to the benefit of the conchological and
malacological community: most of proceeds would go to grants to malacology
and to help run COA.
 
Also there is the avenue of museum donation. I know that too carries some
difficulties along with it, so perhaps some museum professionals would like
to further address this subject. (I believe it has been discussed before,
but would bear mention again. Conch-L doesn't have a static subscriber list)
 
But there would remain the need for an appraisal in either of these
avenues. Appraisal would not, presumably, be a factor in outright sale,
unless the donor wanted one in advance of sale?
 
Lynn
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Louisville KY Home of an upcoming GREAT silent auction series, containing a
LOT of shells from an old collection! June 27-July 1 1999. COA Louisville.
Be there if you can!
 
.>As there is a lull in CONCH-L lately, I will bring up this subject.
>
>Lately, I have received a number of requests about how to sell large
>collections.  Usually they want to sell the collection as one lot.  I
>answer that I can't do the sale for them due to the vast amount of labor
>involved and costs of shipping.  I recommend that they get in contact
>with a reputable local shell dealer that does a fair volume of sales.
>Local so that the dealer can look at the collection before shipping it
>if possible.  People usually don't indicate where they live, so I can't
>pick out one dealer for them to contact.  I also strongly recommend as
>the first order of business that they insure that data remains securely
>with the shells.
>
>I would appreciate it if you dealers would inform me if you are
>interested in this type of business so that I wouldn't refer people to
>dealers not interested.  Many other of the CONCH-Lers probably get the
>same requests.
>
>Any further suggestions?
>--
>                     Aloha from Wesley M. Thorsson
>Editor of Internet Hawaiian Shell News, a monthly Internet Publication
>           122 Waialeale St, Honolulu, HI  96825-2020,  U.S.A
>       http://www.hits.net/~hsn                 [log in to unmask]
>
>