Your course should be dictated by your objective.  Since you've phrased the question in terms of
whether you (or your spouse) will receive the highest financial outcome, I will presume your
objective is exactly that:  to get the most dollars.  If so, then the first consideration is to
estimate your surviving spouse's tax bracket.  If she'll be in the 15% bracket after taking the
standard deduction, then a donation, at most, will only return 15% of the appraised value, before
expenses, if any, involved in donating.  If she'll be in the 28% bracket, then the best would be 28%
of appraised value.

Next to consider is whether you believe a greater amount could be realized by "wholesaling" the
entire collection to a dealer, assuming you can find one willing to take it "all or nothing."
(Actually, "all-or-nothing" in this case won't buy you much since the dealer will only assign value
to those shells he believes he can rapidly resell, but will take the rest of the collection
essentially "on speculation.")  The advantage here is that it's simple -- a single transaction.  You
could also "wholesale" off just the shells with high resale value (from a commercial dealer
perspective), and donate the rest.   As long as you get more than the tax deduction would return,
you'll come out ahead.  You can even identify one or two dealers willing to do this now and have the
details worked out before your demise so that your spouse will not have a "hassle."

The best advice you've already received is to dispose of the collection now rather than leave it for
disposal after.  This way you are in control, have the knowledge and can make decisions to optimize
both dollars and/or donations (you could do both).  Once you are gone, unless you've made prior
arrangements or have a commited, knowledgeable executor to dispose of the collection, I doubt your
objectives will be realized.

If you choose this later course, let me make the following suggestion to overcome many of the
problems others have noted and optimize the dollars.  Assuming you are willing to spend some time on
the disposal process, break the collection into some kind of orderly lots.  Create a list of what is
in each lot.  Use Conch-L or notices to shell clubs to announce your sale and request interested
parties to mail you direct to request your lists (email only so you can return mail the lists via
email).  Offer each lot on an "all or none," minimum bid basis.  Price the minimum at or slightly
above 28% of what you believe is a reasonable "retail" price.  Sell to the highest bidder.  What you
don't sell (no minimum bids), donate or lower your price and try again.  You might note that this is
much the same as a garage sale -- and as you may suspect, most people do not declare garage sale
proceeds as income.

As to the "obscure stuff - micros - that never show up on a list," and for which you cannot
determine "market prices," you can include it in the lots so you'll be able to unload it; or you can
put it in separate lots and offer them on a "best offer - no firm commitment to sell" basis to
Conch-Lers.  There are probably a lot of workers/collectors in specialized areas who, if they were
aware of what you have, might be very interested in having it.  By announcing what you have in this
category you might be able to negotiate with individuals and getting value where dealers would not
offer any or where appraised values are unavailable (and, therefore, you cannot gain a tax
deduction).  I don't believe Conch-L would object to being used for this type of transaction.  You
would be making available rarely offered, noncommercial material on a one-time, non-dealer basis.  I
for one, would love to see Conch-Lers offering each other this category of shell specimens
impossible to obtain via normal dealer channels.

Hope this is helpful, that you choose to direct sell to Conch-Lers, and that you spent the next 10
years having fun and making friends doing it.
--
Marlo
Merritt Island, Florida
[log in to unmask]


G Thomas Watters wrote:

> When I die, which could be any day now, I plan to donate my collection to
> some appreciative institution so that my spousal unit can take a tax
> write-off. But I've been told she could do better by selling it, which I
> find hard to believe because so much of my collection is "obscure" stuff -
> micros - that never show up on a list. I've also been told that she would
> not be able to declare the total value of the appraised collection if she
> donated it. Anyone have any info on this?
>
> *****************************************
>  G Thomas Watters
>  Ohio Biological Survey &
>  Aquatic Ecology Laboratory
>  Ohio State University
>  1315 Kinnear Road
>  Columbus, OH 43212 USA
>  v: 614-292-6170  f: 614-292-0181
> ******************************************
>
> "The world is my oyster except for months with an 'R' in them" - Firesign
> Theater
>
> "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he
> has to buy a license" - GTW