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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,825
31,562
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
If at that time they're worth anything. Remember Beanie Babies? I knew people that emptied their savings to bank on them as investments.
Why did people think it would work out.
Tobacco has had a good run, thousands of years in fact. We're seeing it's final years in our lifetime and 50 years from now, someone will either wonder what those odd little wood and plastic straws were used for or find other uses for them only knowing the brand name by what is stamped on them.
No way tobacco is going to be with humanity in some way until one of us is gone. It's too engrained in our DNA literally to ever fade completely.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,825
31,562
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
In the model rocketry hobby, there are so many people in their 60s and 70s that are aging out of the hobby that there is a glut of "valuable" hobby stuff out there. This year alone I handled three men's model rocketry inventories. Last year was four. We're talking about a lot of stuff and the motivation for all of these men was to declutter their lives and not saddle their families with a pile of stuff that they considered to be "valuable."

What is "valuable" anyways? Some stuff is. A lot of stuff is not.

It used to be that a lot of Elvis Presley ephemera and memorabilia held value and were considered to be collectible. But one day, the bottom fell out of the Elvis Presley market. Why? Because the generation of people that collected Elvis stuff started dying off. There were fewer potential buyers! Fewer still has the years rolled on. The market was saturated with common "collectible" items that no one wanted to collect anymore. There still is a collector's market, but some stuff you just can't give away anymore.

Same with Beanie Babies. No one cares anymore. That went out 25 years ago.

Day of reckoning is coming for the model rocketry hobby as the Baby Boomers and even Gen-Xers who were into this sort of thing age out. This sort of attrition is occurring across all sectors, including pipes and pipe smoking.

Take stock in what "valuable" stuff you have. Is it valuable to just you and a small niche market? Is it currently valued by your family? If it isn't valued by your family today, will your death make them value your stuff more? Will the valuable stuff still be valuable after 250,000 guys just like you die and leave all their valuable stuff for their families to deal with?
You never know what will be valuable in collectables. I am still shocked at how much we got for my Grandmothers hummels. Shocked to find out there are young collectors of that stuff.
 

sardonicus87

Lifer
Jun 28, 2022
1,394
14,194
37
Lower Alabama
Just don't have kids... the spouse gets everything and can decide what to sell or trash.

Easy.

Now it's just a race to die before she does so she has to deal with my estate and all my junk rather than me having to deal with hers.

All jokes aside, you should get with an estate planner, one well-versed in your state's laws (because it differs state-to-state). Having a will in place helps, but it's no guarantee that it'll be followed. The executor only has to do what's in the best interest of the estate (not the heritors technically, but what's in the best interest of the estate is what's in their best interest, it's kind of complicated). At any point, any potential heritor can contest the will, or the named executor, or the chosen executor's actions.

The process generally goes that all money assets get consolidated into an estate account (generally any stock options get sold, but retirement accounts might have their own separate distribution). Creditors get paid first and if there's not enough to pay them off, physical assets get sold until they can be paid off. Then you can sell all physical assets, distribute them, whatever.

I'd caution against collectibles unless you hate your chosen named executor. Often times whether something is of value to a niche community they can be sold off for higher money, but there's so much crap to do that nobody wants to figure out the value of your rookie cards or collectible coins or whatever else. They generally get tossed or sold at an estate sale for whatever people will buy them for to move them quicker, there's bigger fish to fry and more important stuff to deal with.
 

MisterBadger

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 6, 2024
618
4,528
Ludlow, UK
I just want my pipes and tobaccos placed with me on my funeral pyre. If anyone wants anything, they’ll have to fish it out of the embers after the fire has gotten going good. As it is written, so may it be.
By a strange coincidence, I was thinking about this only a few hours ago, and before I saw this thread. I wrote my will a few months ago, and at the time merely added the direction that I wish to be buried. I am now considering a specific direction to have my pipes and tobaccos buried with me in the coffin. And matches. My executors and heirs will be cursed forever if they don't include a couple of boxes of Swan vestas.
 
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woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
12,912
21,590
SE PA USA
I have one wife and one daughter. Neither gives a rat’s ass about the pipes, tobacco, or vast array of firearms, reloading gear, tools and other cool stuff jammed into every available crevice of our modest abode. For them, my death will mean more available floor space, and no dottle on the piano.

Stop by after the memorial service. Bring a trailer.
 

jpmcwjr

Lifer
May 12, 2015
26,263
30,341
Carmel Valley, CA
I will be incinerated, already bought and paid for. No pipes or tobacco will accompany me- nor any other item.

I've put everything, with two major exceptions, into a living trust for the benefit of my sole heir and excecutor; nice and simple with no wife and one heir.

Oh, advice I got from a seasoned executor: Never leave bequests as a percentage of the estate; takes forever to close the damned thing.
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
45,233
119,125
No way tobacco is going to be with humanity in some way until one of us is gone. It's too engrained in our DNA literally to ever fade completely.
We just pass from one interest to another. If banned, folks will find a replacement. No tobacco in vapes and I already see more of them than cigarettes. I was the last actual tobacco user left at my company when I retired.
 

rectifythis

Might Stick Around
Sep 3, 2024
89
1,301
Arizona
I think I'm more concerned that in decades to come, they won't even be able to legally move the tins. That is, if selling or shipping tobacco products is completely forbidden, then the investment is moot unless you have a local buyer. And if pipe smokers have mostly retired by then, the value might be low.
 
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mortonbriar

Lifer
Oct 25, 2013
2,809
6,127
New Zealand
It sounds stressful.

I don't like anything around this relaxing hobby/habit/vice of mine to be counterproductive. I stopped purchasing anything (other than bic lighters) in 2020, just to keep the hobby from having a monetary component. One of the last things I did was drop $$ on a lifetime supply of pipe cleaners. I grow tobacco to keep my cellar from depleting.

If the kids want to keep pipes as a memento, or throw them out, or sell them; it really does not matter to me. The tobacco I have is a very modest supply, but if my years happen to be shorter than my cellars then again, the kids can give it away or throw it out, or if they really wanted to sell any of it then they could I guess.
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
4,176
54,729
Casa Grande, AZ
I think I'm more concerned that in decades to come, they won't even be able to legally move the tins. That is, if selling or shipping tobacco products is completely forbidden, then the investment is moot unless you have a local buyer. And if pipe smokers have mostly retired by then, the value might be low.
As some states have done with firearms.
 
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