Collecting Planes: What do you do at the end of the line?

I've gone through a number stages in my collecting over the past 15 or so years. A process I believe most tool collectors go through. When I began, the exitement and exhuberance of learning, searching, finding, cleaning and/or restoring, was nearly overwhelming. I spent hours each day doing something I found so rewarding that I'd lose track of time in the shop or on the internet. After a couple years, as my knowledge base grew I decided that because there were so many others like myself, in search of information and answers to questions I had early on, I would share my new found knowledge and create a site where new or even not so new collectors and users could go to perhaps find some of those answers or to build their own knowledge base, maybe then pass on their expertise and "pay it forward". Hence the birth of "plane-dealer.com" and "Random Thoughts". A lot of fun (and a lot of work as I soon found) but rewarding to see so many folks interested, At the same time my collection grew to include some very rare and some quite expensive examples so to help defray expenses, I began restoring derelict planes to use and then sharing them with folks who did. My collection grew a bit more...slowly. I was fortunate to have made a few friends who understood my interests and through them found some very rare stuff that also ended up on the shelf to be admired and shared on this site.

Now during this time I got older, had a few serious health issues, survived the "epidemic" and because of my generous friends and others, had ammased an amazing collection of rare and unusual planes, some one of a kind. all of which have been included on the pages of this website for your parusal. The few remaining on my "needs" list were not yet to be found nor likely to be in the very near future. Consequently, I spent less and less time looking, Trips to antique stores became more futile, infrequent and usually disappointing. The website is still a great reference for folks but updates are farther and farther apart and this is the first thing I've composed in several years.

Then, about a year ago, about the time I turned 70, I began to have questions about my collecting future. Though I still loved the concept I struggled to find reasonably priced inventory for resale and, so it seemed, the market for restored user planes had dropped off considerably as did selling prices. It is a free market and quite volitile when talking about such a specialized product. Cash flow from sales all but vanished which had some impact on my discretionary buying, just like any small businss might experience. All that aside, I still had a collection and as thoughts of my mortality invaded my mind, I wondered, as I think many collectors wonder, what will happen to my collection when I'm gone? No one in my family has much interest in hand tools, let alone planes, especially collectable planes. My wife loves shoes, not planes. I know one collector whos wife told him that she wasn't especially fond of his collection and in spite of the value, if he died before she did she intended to donate it to charity. What a way to dispose of a lifetime of collecting. I would hate to see mine go that way. Another collector, with some foresight, was able to sell much of his collection to a well known reseller, some of the rarer

items of which now adorn my shelves.

I've had conversations with my wife and she not only knows my wishes for my remains, but what remains of my collection after I leave "...the heavy shackles of this life" and move onto the next. I have collector friends who have had the same conversation with their spouse. I lke the idea of me being able to liquidate my stuff and less fond of leaving the job to someone else. But it seems that while I struggle to part with even the most common pieces, my wife, with no attachment would, I believe, have no problem swapping my #1 size Bailey vertical post or Chaplin's patent #1, or even my type 1 #2 for a sharp looking pair of shoes. I jest of course but easier for someone else to move it than for me to spend the waning years of my life trying unsuccessfully to part with any of them. After all, you don't just sell your children to the highest bidder. (well there were times during puberty when that seemed like a viable option to raising them).

This conundrum is one we collectors all must eventually face, that is unless we have established a trust fund or foundation for the preservation of Mark Nickel's hand plane collection. Some collectors have established private or even public museums to keep some of these precious tools available for viewing. Probably a better option than leaving one's estate to the family K-9...no thumbs.