When old electronics nuts die, what happens to their stuff?

[Dabbo56]

Serious question. I don’t want to be morbid but as someone who is well into the autumn years of his life I find myself accumulating test gear, components and all the usual accoutrements of the electronics hobby. I can’t help worrying about what is going to happen to all my gear after I am gone. I’d like it to go to a good home where it would be appreciated and not end up on the rubbish tip. So, the question is, what happens to all the stuff?

[Specmaster]

I think that very often it will often end up on the market somewhere along the line. If the person lived alone, what often happens is that the home contents get purchased by house clearance companies, and then they decide what goes where for sale, charity shops, auction houses or eBay, Gumtree etc and whatever have you in your part of the world. I doubt that any of it would end up as landfill.

[brabus]

It vastly depends on the people around you.

In my case, everything (brand new oscilloscopes, components, power supplies, etc., you name it) would be thrown instantaneously in the nearest landfill. The major hassle would be renting a truck to carry all the stuff away.

Which would be a shame. But again, engineers in my area are seen as nerds/dorks, wasting their time joining wires together. No matter if that's what makes them earn a living.

[retiredfeline]

Depends on your family assuming you are not alone. If they are understanding they will try to rehouse the stuff with like minded people. My friend's dad was a microscopy photographer. So a lot of the equipment and photographs went to the society. Things like antique cameras will be sold. Things like music CDs probably were donated in bulk. Talk to your family about your wishes and maybe they'll try to follow them.

[Dabbo56]

How do you even find other electronic hobbyists in the local area? Apart from the ham radio guys who have regular meets. Other than that it’s a solitary enterprise, which is a shame as I know I could learn a lot sitting with a mentor.

[retiredfeline]

Maybe you could try to mentor some younger nuts and nominate some as recipients in your will.

[Zenith]

It depends on a lot of things, such as how much particular items are worth, and how much those that follow realise what they are worth, or value them for their own sake.

As someone else said, most of it probably ends up on the market in some way. Silent key sales at hamfests, general auctions, house clearers, ebay. Even if it's taken to the dump, the tip rats are always on the lookout for something they can rescue and sell.

I've heard of large collections of model trains disappearing. It's been suspected that the wife hated them and had them destroyed, even though they were worth tens of thousands.

Leave bequests or directions in your will, including the likely value and how to go about selling it, or giving it away. I know someone who's scaled down his collection of junk and only cautiously acquires more, because he doesn't want to saddle his brother with a silent key sale.

[johnboxall]

Find a solid radio club (one that's been around for a while and looks like it will continue on) and leave it to them. If they don't want it, they'll find someone who will.

[daqq]

Depends on your family/friends. If you do not have anyone who's into it, you could probably leave instructions (and hints) for finding a 'good home'. Sit down with a friend, ask him, if, should something were to happen to you, to help your family do away with your stuff. There are many people who would appreciate it, makerspaces and radio clubs are just some of them.
Mind you, selling it may be the best option, as it provides for your relatives.

How do you even find other electronic hobbyists in the local area? Apart from the ham radio guys who have regular meets. Other than that it’s a solitary enterprise, which is a shame as I know I could learn a lot sitting with a mentor.

Look for makerspaces/hackerspaces in your area.

[Jester]

If in a decent sized city, snap a few pictures and list a few of the brand names HP, Fluke etc put an ad in Kijiji and it will be sold in no time. If I came upon an ad like this I would drop whatever I was doing and check it out.

I picked up a like new 34401A for $200Cdn, the guy had two, he was into building tube amps.

[MosherIV]

Hi

As other have said, there are many factors.

One thing you can do is to write a will and state what you want done with your test equipment/hobby things.
As other have said, they may not know the value of the equipment you have.
You could provide them with a list of the equipment and your estimate of it's value.
(I would check out ebay for average values).

Many families will find specialist clearance companies that will clear properties of dead relatives.
They KNOW the value of most things, for specialist items they probably know someone who can give them
an idea.
The price of the clearance is usually fixed based on the size of property or amount of stuff to clear.

I have seen some stuff come on ebay, where the seller has stated they are selling items off from a dead relative.

Hope this helps.

[jmelson]

Serious question. I don’t want to be morbid but as someone who is well into the autumn years of his life I find myself accumulating test gear, components and all the usual accoutrements of the electronics hobby. I can’t help worrying about what is going to happen to all my gear after I am gone. I’d like it to go to a good home where it would be appreciated and not end up on the rubbish tip. So, the question is, what happens to all the stuff?

A friend of mine from way back recently died, after a long spell in the hospital.  He was very into ham radio, and had a lot of gear.  Just a week or so after his death, there was a local hamfest, and I collected a bunch of his gear and dragged it to the hamfest that I had planned to attend anyway.  His gear sold WAY better than the stuff I brought there.
So, it does get passed on  to others who can use it.
Jon

[Miyuki]

I know when my grandpa died, some equipment was sold to a local jumble shop for a few bucks
Things from a garage and most of the parts stock were just thrown into garbage as most of it was like 20-30+ years old hoarded parts
And a collection of old magazines, no one wanted it so it was also thrown away
There were plenty of unfinished projects just hoarded for decades
Oh, how I see my future 

[wilfred]

I heard about a Swedish word "Döstädning" which apparently means death cleaning. The act of ensuring you don't burden family with the task of clearing your stuff. Particularly at a time they are grieving.

The best thing to do is deal with it whilst you still can.

If you're worried it will just go to landfill and still don't sort it out yourself take comfort from the fact you'll be too dead to keep worrying.

I say sell what you just don't need and give them the money before you die. When you see how much work it can be you'll be glad you saved someone else from having to do it.

[tszaboo]

They bury multimeters and other tools with them, so they can use it in the afterlife. Also, to please Charon. They have to help Sisyphus with his boulder, but they are only allowed to ever use open source hardware and tools.

[edpalmer42]

If there is a Makerspace in the area, I'm sure that they would love to get a donation of equipment, parts, whatever.  I think most of them operate on a shoestring budget so such a donation would be a real shot in the arm for them.

Ed

[Messtechniker]

My nephew has been instructed as to which items contain any batteries
which he must remove first and what might be of value.
And then flog my suff though ebay or the likes.

[PaulAm]

Make an inventory, including s/n, condition and associated materials (probes, manuals, etc) and a disposition.  Make it part of your will and it will be the executor's problem to do what you wanted.  If you can afford it, try to not use a family member as the executor.

I have a couple of items that will go to museums, the rest will be posted to lists and forums for people to choose items.  If you are going to donate something to a museum, check with them FIRST to see if it's something they could use.  Otherwise, it will just be a longer path to the landfill.

Local radio/ham clubs are also good venues.

[james_s]

There are so many factors that there is no way to make a generalization. If you have a neat tidy lab with clean well maintained equipment and somebody in your family knows that it's valuable then it will probably be sold. If you are one of those guys with a huge disorganized hoard with lots of good stuff mixed in with lots of garbage or stuff that looks like garbage then it is likely it will all just get hauled to the dump. Your best bet is probably to organize things and make sure all the high value stuff is separate from the junk, and make sure somebody in your family has a rough idea of what's valuable. Ideally do some networking, find some younger friends that are into electronics and give their contact info to whoever will be handling your estate when you're gone so they can work out a deal. Either cash, or trade gear for help sorting through and disposing of everything. If there is a local hackerspace or hobby club you might contact them ahead of time. This all is assuming there are no other electronics enthusiasts in your family that would want to inherit the stuff. When my dad passed away I gave away a lot of tools to some of his friends that helped me go through it all, there was a lot of stuff that was duplicates of things I already had and either not worth enough or too niche to bother trying to sell.

[CatalinaWOW]

As James says it depends on lots of things.  One thing to consider is that the market is relatively small, so sales at full value will go slowly.  Which is a burden on anyone following up on you.  If you are concerned about the value (either historical, usefulness or financial) the best approach is to clear it out before you die.  I started doing this a few years ago, and it really has little impact on continuing the hobby.  Projects that have been on the 'when I get around to it list' for decades are unlikely to finish in your remaining span.  Those parts you treasured when money was tight are probably worthless now for a variety of reasons.  If you have no reason to believe you are going to die in the near future you can be very leisurely about the process.  When you have finished this process the stuff you are still using will be a manageable package for friends/relatives/executors.  The extra space and organization while you are still using it is nice also.

Another thing to note is that Ebay asking prices are a very good indicator of a price that you can assure will get you a piece of equipment.  My experience is that they are very unreliable as an indicator of what you can sell it for.  Even if you look up sold prices it can be misleading. 

[nctnico]

Reality check: every now and then I see such collections pass by on local 2nd hand trading websites and it is mostly old, useless junk. For example: I have some relatively new Festool woodworking gear that will likely still be dear to me 40 years from now but by that time other people will qualify it as junk because it is old, beaten up and much better tools exist.

@CatalinaWOW

Another thing to note is that Ebay asking prices are a NOT A very good indicator IN ANY WAY of a price that you can assure will get you a piece of equipment.

Fixed that for you 

Either way, once you get older it is good to think about what you no longer need. An older relative of mine that used to have extreme amounts of gear and materials has been offloading a lot of his stuff the last few years as he is no longer able to use it anyway. I'm very happy because it will save us from having to go through -literally- metric tonnes of stuff at some point in -I hope- the far away future.

[mag_therm]

I purchased over past 15 years about 7 TE units from 1970's ~1980's mostly as "not working for parts" and restored them to functionality rather than originality.
Many parts were unobtainable eg the bent pots of the Tek466 scope so I used similar Tek ones and made adaptors.
And the Ne reference tube in the HP141T S.A. was replaced with a TL783 on a piggy back and the crt was repaired with non original 6kV harness etc.

They all work well for me, still having real use of them, but I consider myself to be the last user and that they will be scrapped.

The only item of concern is the vintage 1939 lathe acquired "pick up only" in 2012 from nearby Ebay broker who couldn't sell it and  was just about to scrap it.
It is in excellent condition with few nicks, minimal wear, and came with drawers full of of accessories, original docs and purchase receipts.
Was the home shop lathe of the owner of a business in Detroit making specialised fluid couplings.
I would like it to get a new home after me , even if given away. However as time goes on there are less users trained in these completely manual machines, they have no safety features at all and mis- use or lack of constant attention can damage both the machine and user.
Lathes are difficult to sell being so heavy, the freight is costly and difficult with packing etc.

[CatalinaWOW]

@CatalinaWOW

Another thing to note is that Ebay asking prices are a NOT A very good indicator IN ANY WAY of a price that you can assure will get you a piece of equipment.

Fixed that for you 

It was correct as written.  You can almost always buy equipment at the eBay price.  Selling is a different story.

[edpalmer42]

The only item of concern is the vintage 1939 lathe acquired "pick up only" in 2012 from nearby Ebay broker who couldn't sell it and  was just about to scrap it.
It is in excellent condition with few nicks, minimal wear, and came with drawers full of of accessories, original docs and purchase receipts.
Was the home shop lathe of the owner of a business in Detroit making specialised fluid couplings.
I would like it to get a new home after me , even if given away. However as time goes on there are less users trained in these completely manual machines, they have no safety features at all and mis- use or lack of constant attention can damage both the machine and user.
Lathes are difficult to sell being so heavy, the freight is costly and difficult with packing etc.

If you haven't already done so, you should hook up with like-minded people in your area so that you can support each other now and in the future.  One forum that I know of is vintagemachinery.org .  I'm sure there are others.

Ed

[CatalinaWOW]

Based on my experience if you post your interest in disposing of your lathe on the appropriate page of this forum

http://www.machinistweb.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=ca666399250f68d07d383bec2013428d&f=1

you will get some response.  Same problem exists, the machinist hobby people are also thin on the ground and it will need to be someone semi-local to keep shipping or pickup possible.