What happens to my test and measurement devices if something happens to me?

[RK_aus_S]

Hello everyone

I've been thinking for many years about what happens if "it" happens? I'm talking about when something happens to me and I say goodbye to life?

Maybe some people are laughing at me now, but I'm pretty serious.

Over the years (and decades) I have accumulated many, many measuring and testing devices. Some quite new, some a bit older. Either way; When my wife has to "manage" this huge estate, she has neither the time, the desire nor the slightest idea what is worth or how much (!). And she probably has other worries too.

These are the best conditions for valuable devices to end up in the bin, or at best for them to be ripped off by some "interested party" (if there is one)- i.e. bought for a few dollars and then sold again at a good profit.

I would ideally like to be able to make all of the valuable equipment available to a school, perhaps abroad and/or in poor countries, so that young people growing up can enjoy it and perhaps have a future as electronics technicians or engineers or whatever.

But how, where and to whom?
Have others here in the forum thought about this - and perhaps have some advice for me?

Or wouldn't it be nice if a kind of "hub" were set up via this forum for exactly this purpose?

Best regards
Roman

[Squarewave]

A friend or relative sells them or gives them away, that's what happens.

[LaserSteve]

Last Will and Testament,  get one. Otherwise the local version of the Probate Court [US name) decides. Your family will be miserable  if you don't have one.It takes months/years for a court to do anything

 Estate planning is essential. Here in Ohio for example, estate planning is the difference between
done 5 years or more before passing can mean the difference between Medicade getting the house and assets, or your family being taken care of.

Steve

[RK_aus_S]

Last Will and testament,  get one. Otherwise the local version of the ProbatevCourt decides. Your family will be miserable
if you don't have one.

Sure, a last will.
But my question would be, how do I find institutions in need - worldwide?
I can't pass the whole thing on to my son or any friends and relatives, they can't do anything with it.

I'm pretty sure that there would probably be many, many schools, educational institutions, etc. that would be grateful for an oscilloscope, power supplies, etc....

[Haenk]

I assume your wife will respect your last will.
Look around locally, there might be a "right to repair" group, some HAM club, a tinkering workshop at the local university - contact them and ask them if they are interested. Inform your wife, leave a sticker on the equipment "Donate to xyz. Contact abc."
Don't leave it to your wife, find a solution in time, that will certainly help her most.

[LaserSteve]

Google: "engineering school near me"

[RK_aus_S]

Google: "engineering school near me"

Every school, every company, every institution would probably open their hand if there was something to give away, right?
But the point is not to leave it to those who can afford it anyway and/or already have everything, but rather to those who really need it, don't have it and simply can't afford it.

Some of the answers here make me doubt whether I have expressed myself accurately or whether my "cobbled together" English is the problem...   

[tszaboo]

Google: "engineering school near me"

I don't think any engineering school would accept random test gear. They are working with syllabus specifically written for the equipment they have, and 15 students or whatever many needs to use the same type of equipment. The student club at the university is a different topic.

[mendip_discovery]

Made me think,
"After I go please don't let my wife sell my stuff the the price I told her I paid".

Sadly we have all benefitted at some point from somone selling off a relatives stuff for not a lot.

But it is often a worry for us all. Might help to do regular valuation of your stuff for the contents insurance. Make sure your family is aware of that list so they have an idea when a person comes in a says I will pay you scrap value for it.

In the past I have seen friends helping doing the selling.

[Dan123456]

Firstly, just wanted to say, I hope you are doing OK mate 

You could look for hacker / maker spaces near you if you want to donate it  I imagine a lot of them would be more than happy to take it and you know it would all be used  Plus a lot of them run on donations so might fit your criteria for people who can’t afford it etc. 

Once you find a place that is interested and that you like, the you can pop a note in your will to donate whatever you like to them 

Another option, you could provide your family with a list of your stuff and how much to sell it for etc. and they could pop it up on the buy/swap/sell here or on eBay or wherever for a fair price 

I don’t know your financial situation but sounds like you have accumulated a fair amount of stuff so might be an option to help put a little bit of cash in their pockets p during a tough time once your gone 

Hope that helps a little and please take care mate 

[luudee]

Sure, a last will.
But my question would be, how do I find institutions in need - worldwide?
I can't pass the whole thing on to my son or any friends and relatives, they can't do anything with it.

I'm pretty sure that there would probably be many, many schools, educational institutions, etc. that would be grateful for an oscilloscope, power supplies, etc....

Roman,

Why do you want to look world-wide ?  Look at your equipment, specially the older items.
Think about how much they weight, and what a logistical nightmare it would be to ship
those items all over the world. And remember the recipients (possibly poor) still have to
pay import duties on those items.

Find a local school or college, and tell your wife to donate everything to that place.

Perhaps you have local friends who are in this field as well, you could ask them to
distribute your stuff as you want to !

I'm donating it all to my best friend, he'll decide what to do, lol

Good Luck, and don't worry too much !

rudi

[Stray Electron]

Sure, a last will.
But my question would be, how do I find institutions in need - worldwide?

   Institutions???   You'll be fortunate to find an individual that will take your old TE.  Institutions (other than perhaps a museum) don't want old TE, particularly that from an untested and uncertified source.

   I just picked up an entire carful of old TE from an estate a few weeks ago, everything that I got was very high end HP, Fluke and Tektronix gear but no one else locally wanted it. We literally filled a 28 foot truck with the rest of it and we took that to a large local hamfest but almost none of that sold. We literally paid more to rent the truck and rest the parking spot at the HF than we earned from the sales. 

   If you want your TE to go to new homes world wide or even country wide, then you need to put it on E-bay or list it on one of the TE specific forums and you need to be willing and able to pack and ship it.  Not something that most estate administrators are willing to do or that they have the time and ability to do, so unless someone is willing to sell it locally for what-ever you can get for it or just give it away locally then most old TE ends up in the trash.

  There was a thread on here a few months ago from someone in Virginia that was trying to dispose of some very nice TE but it didn't sound like he was having much luck.  No one was willing to drive 800 or 900 miles or more to get it and he didn't want to deal with shipping. 


   Arguably the best way to dispose of old TE is for the owner to rehome it while he is still able to. But I for one, don't intend to part with any of mine until I'm dead and gone.  My children have no interest in my TE so unless they can give it away locally and someone will come and get it immediately, most of it will probably go into a dumpster.

[tom66]

Look for local hacker/makerspaces with electronics divisions, put a clause in your will that any test equipment (you may want to define exactly what, like model numbers) is to be donated free of charge to this institution.

You don't need a lawyer to draft a will in most countries, as long as it's straighforward.  There's the famous case of the farmer who was crushed under his own tractor, who died as a result of the accident whilst pinned down for hours.  Before he passed, he scraped into the metal of the tractor "In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo Harris".  The will was upheld in court.  https://romanosumner.com/blog/holographic-will/

[madires]

After an old friend died I helped the widow to clean out his ICT collection and to clean up a few internet related things (he did run a few servers). We sorted his collection into differents piles: stuff for family members, e-waste, things to sell, stuff for me and things too good to throw away. The latter pile was given to a local repair cafe which happily took everyhing.

[Dan N]

With old tube based equipment there's 100x more people that will pay a few bucks for the tubes and leave the now worthless equipment behind.  I can't blame relatives for taking the first cash offer.

[nctnico]

Last Will and testament,  get one. Otherwise the local version of the ProbatevCourt decides. Your family will be miserable
if you don't have one.

Sure, a last will.
But my question would be, how do I find institutions in need - worldwide?

By that time nobody wants your old crap. You have to be realistic about this; I know it is tempting to see your own stuff as valuable as you may have spend quite a bit of money on it a long time ago. But by the time you pass away, it is just old crap. This is even true for 99.9% of jewelry no matter how much work went into it or how pretty you may find it; typically it is worth only the weight of the materials it is made off.

[RAPo]

Make a spreadsheet with all your stuff. Add a column After I'm dead, I would like to pass it on to XXX [for a price of yyy].
For the XXX, contact now the most favourable organisations in your opinion in a range of about 100km.

If money is important, state: never sell the whole lot in one go.

If speed is important, state that the item can be given away people have to come and get it. If it is not picked up after two months, bring it to the local disposal centre.
Make this part of your will, where you can add a special directive: I would like that person Z to take care of the activities as described in the spreadsheet.

[CatalinaWOW]

Dealing with an estate is a huge burden.  Just finished one, and even with all the proper legal work done by the decedent it was two years and hundreds of hours of tedium.

If you want your gear to get used you will have to do it yourself,, before you die (or become incapacitated).

There may be third world institutions that will value your gear, but as others have pointed out first world institutions outside the hobby world won't.  The third world ones will have few resources to acquire your gear so you will have to arrange for all export compliance, shipping, duties and any other costs.

Recognize that your older gear probably won't be of interest to many, possibly nobody.  A VTVM was once wonderful, is now a heavy, power hungry and limited piece of gear.  GPIB was once the marvel of automated data collection and is now disdained by those who demand Ethernet or USB or even Bluetooth connections.

My advise is to go through your collection carefully to examine what you will likely use in your remaining days.  Keep in mind that energy and capability are unlikely to increase.  Climbing that 150 ft (50 meter) tower and heaving around that 80 lb (40 kg) signal generator will be activities that are going away.  Take the rest and start disposing of it now.  Write to aid agencies and educational ministries in the areas you think might benefit.  Start a local club and teach electronics.  Recruit others for your club.  Sell on eBay.  These activities will keep you busy for quite a while and you will have reduced your stockpile to a core that you use regularly.

I'm doing this and it is a long job.  There are many things that end up getting trashed because no on wants it.   The hardest part is realizing it really isn't too good to throw away.

[daqq]

They get sent to a farm to measure and play.

[2N3055]

Best thing is to get rid of the things you don't use ASAP as a general principle.
Any T&M equipment keeps value some time, as long as it is in active support from manufacturer.
After that is still valuable to you if it performs function but resale value is fraction what you paid for.

[tggzzz]

This is a standard problem with no easy answers.

Dealing with an estate is a major time-sink, and most beneficiaries will balance the money they get with how much of their remaining life they are prepared to spend on things that don't interest them.

I doubt a college etc would take anything old: won't fit their curriculum, won't want to deal with unknown functionality/safety issues.

A hackspace/makerspace might take it, iff they have room. Their (young) members won't be interested in anything "old". If/when they bother to play around with it, they will damage it. Damage can include forcing wrong connectors together, floating a scope etc etc.

Your beneficiaries won't want it, and will simply want a clear empty house that can be sold. They will use "house clearance specialists", who will either dump it or take it to a local auction house.

The local auction house knows how to classify some things so they can be found when browsing. Such classifications include china/silver/taxidermy/tools/cameras/"scientific instruments"/radios. It won't fit into any of those, so it won't be classified, and will be difficult to find by browsing. They won't know what a "spectrum analyser" is, and will probably mis-spell "oscilloscope" and brand names, thus reducing the ability to search for them. Since it is unlikely that two people will notice and bid for an item, they will sell for the starting price, at best. Test all that by visiting https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/search-results?searchterm=oscilloscope and then trying to find the similar items in that auction

A better bet is an auction house that specialises in surplus equipment, e.g. https://www.ramco.co.uk/ or https://www.ppauctions.com/ or a local equivalent. They will at least classify things sensibly, but purchasers won't be able to see them switched on and working. Your beneficiaries will still have to go to the trouble of getting all your "rubbish" there - iff they can be bothered.

Hamfests in the UK are now little more than flea markets, with only a few people that only want to spend a pittance. It is unlikely they would have more than £100 cash on them, so even if they want something decent, they won't buy it there. I've recently picked up microwave sources for £5 and 200ps risetime (1.7GHz) sampling scopes for £25.

I've been through all that recently with my parent's treasures, mainly antiques and taxidermy. We looked at several neaby auction houses, and settled on the one that would come to the house and catalogue items decently, and then take them all to the auction house. It took several people several days to do the catalogue, and the removers over a day to load and move the stuff. Even though that auction house did a decent job of cataloguing the items, they do struggle with test equipment - to my benefit

For my stuff the only thing I've been able to do is point out to my daughter that the items are worth far more than she guesses. They aren't just bits of wire and boxes. I keep a document listing the points above, the principal items and the likely selling value, in the hope she will pass that on to an auction house.

Other people I've seen have decided to gradually thin their herd so their beneficiaries haven't got the hassle.

i also have a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side

[harerod]

Quote from: tggzzz on Today at 18:20:14

i also have a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side

Well, at last, in the end Marvin was at peace. 
I am also managing an estate at the moment. A certain relative who never cared about his family by now has become rather eager to get his lawful share. He wants to know the value of the furniture and relics in the abandoned home. As my wife commented rather dryly on the estimate of the clearance company: "Now you can tell him, how many minus Euros that stuff is worth."

The whole experience also reminded me to start getting rid of my own stuff rather sooner than later. Rather sobering thought.

[Squarewave]

You often find out the real value of people, when they think they can financially gain from the death of someone who they cared so little for.

[Someone]

Some of the answers here make me doubt whether I have expressed myself accurately or whether my "cobbled together" English is the problem...   

Your english is impeccable, do not worry. To add to all the good information above:

If you gift something for nominal or no cost the recipient may not value the item the way you (or others) would. Equally if you sell something onward with good intentions for a friendly price, the buyer may well sell it on at a profit and there is nothing practical you can do to stop this (asking intrusive questions to buyers will put them off).

Once the items are out of your ownership they are out of your control. I have sold off all sorts of "valuable" assets for friendly prices, most buyers reply with thanks and kindness and warm feelings are shared by all, a minority of buyers will make you feel bad about it to try and extract even more value from you (can you add some more freebies, or deliver it for me, or cut the price in half) which is why most people I know don't even bother selling things and just dump them in the bin or donate to charity.

[Microdoser]

At some point, you just have to let go of your stuff or make sure it goes where you want it to. Having recently undergone a minor version of dealing with my stuff, being downsizing home, and having to decide 'sell, keep, or throw' for everything, I realise better the final destination of all the items I own. That end result is either someone else has immediate value for the item, the item has sale value, or it will end up in the bin or a skip.
 
If there are particular items you wish to have specific homes, I would advise including them in your will after arranging transfer of ownership, because knowing how these things go, anything not explicitly in the will is just included in the 'crap I gotta deal with' for your relatives, and they either keep, bin, or sell.