However, he waited and let his widow handle the sale. It put her through hell.
Why so?
1) It was the last thing she needed or wanted. She needed time out. Instead, she had to sell his guns.
2) She was not a big gun fan in the first place.
3) She had no idea what they were worth
4) She's a naturally suscpicious woman, and she had no idea if anyone was cheating her.
Luckily a mutual friend of ours who's retired helped compile the inventory and handle a good part of it all. The widow also used his favorite LGS to dispose of the bulk of his collection. If my friend had been looking ahead, he could have sold most of what he had and still kept his favorites. As it was, the widows was pulling out guns from under the furniture for weeks-- I'm still not sure she has them all. Yes, she's probably going to realize quite a bit of money out of it all, but not if her husband had been doing it for her. As it was, he was buying new guns up until a week before he went in the hospital for the last time.
Another thing: A good part of his collection was not in the best of shape. He'd had health problems and not been cleaning them. A good number of the weapons were non-functional when we got them. They weren't all rusted up or anything, but they were in noticeable neglect. As a result, they were not going to fetch top dollar. This is where the plan can really go afoul. A guy needs to unload these things before he can no longer service the collection.
