I want my family to stack my games- building a giant pyre. Then burn me Darth Vader style on top of them.

Honestly, as you get older, start selling them if you have no family to handle them after you croak. Many have lists that their heirs or wives can use to get a fair price for each game.

Good idea. I have a crapload of baseball cards no one in fam will give two shakes about when I’m gone, maybe they can be the kindling.

Each one of my kids will get to pick one. The rest will go to my wife and she will decide from there.

My instructions are crystal clear. If the kids do not want to keep the games and play them, sell them and take the money. I have even explained to my son the best way to sell the games and how much they are worth. What a great inheritance.

My request is that my coffin look like the cabinet on TWDLE. I love that game and want to be buried in it but the game is worth too much money... cabinet decals are enough.

It’s been discussed quite a few times but always good to rekindle.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/youre-pins-after-your-death/

The issue I see with the museum idea is most of those museums fail and assets ended up getting auctioned off. So basically there is no guarantee they will live on in a museums collection. If you don't have family to pass them down to maybe the best thing to do is have something in your will to send all your assets to auction then have money from auction sent to a specific charity.

I look at things two ways - first off once I am dead what do I care what happens to my stuff. And secondly 25 years from now things will be different so even if I decide to donate something the place I donate to might be gone.

My mom was a well loved college professor and when she passed away they did a wing of one of the buildings in her honor. Sadly that building is now gone and she has been long forgotten. Crazy how much happens in a 20 or 30 year span of time!

I have explicit instructions for them to be donated to a group of pinheads here in the cities and they are NOT to be sold.

Thought about this a little more. Not about the games I have and after I go, but the previous owners of the games before I have them.

I'd say maybe 20% of my collection was due to someone passing away. Fortunately most of this applies to wedgeheads and they passed away in their home due to old age. Unfortunately I have a newer Stern that was sold because their kid passed away from a rare disease and they liked the license so a pinball was bought for them. A sobering reminder to enjoy what you have when you have it, I don't mean just pinball.

It makes things easier on family if they know what and where things are and if there is some guidance on what to do with it if they don't want it.

Now is good time to buy a farm!

Seriously though, I keep my wife informed on the valuation of my pins and I made a list for her just in case I croak.

When the time is right I'll auction them all off (Banning style) at once, along with everything else I own. From there on I'll probably donate the money to various organizations starting with the Human Society...

John

My wife said she is going to heap them into a huge pile in the backyard, then set them all on fire and invite all the neighbors over for hotdogs and s'mores. Should be fun.

My current plan is for Jodester to sell my entire collection other than Doctor Who and give the money to my wife. If the wife wanted to keep one in addition to DW that would be okay, but a liquidation event will happen.

Well, Lloyd is getting my collection.

Of course first bulb that goes out will be panic and immediate sell off.

Funny you mention that. Many years ago similar threads appeared on RGP. And several people posted or contacted me about leaving me a game or more. To use at my events, have them on free play and signage to remind people of who they once belonged to.

LTG : )

I have six/seven pins now. I hope to sell them before I die and travel or just eat a lot of pizza. I shouldn't have any pins in my collection. If I do, I don't care what happens to them, I'll be dead...

It all gets sold and the kids and my wife get their shares. Very simple. No one is really interested in dads silly avocation.

It's up to my wife as I'm 100% sure she will outlive me.
I told her to call captains auction and sell all the games there.
Also told her to tell all of our friends to go fuck themselves, so don't even try approaching her about buying the machines for a "friend price".
I fully expect some of our friend to come at my wife with bullshit about how "he would have wanted me to have the Circus Voltair" for a friend price or some bullshit like that.
As soon a I'm dead, its about those who are still living and the games are just another line item in the estate.
Hopefully they wind up in the hands of people who will enjoy and preserve them for the next generation, but once you have left this planet all bets are off.
Even if you donate them to a museum, no telling where they go from there.

I only have one
So my 4 boys can Rock Paper Scissors for it

Levi will scoop
Them up and tell the new generation how they are worth more than their silly modern games.

He’s waiting. All the LE’s will be under his control. Why do you think he calls him Levi?
Limited edition vault institution. He knows what he’s doing.

Your kids will miss them and pay double and triple to get them back, to reconnect with their wise father who only bought the finest LEs. The shame of their misspent youth playing digital games will haunt them when they play pinball. That’s why they’ll never make it to a single wizard mode, shame.

A friend of mine passed on some years ago, he was an old time operator and had a collection of pinballs, jukeboxes, vintage hi fi etc.. he also did repairs for people so some things were honestly possibly in his possession at the time of his sudden passing. It is unreal how many worms crawled out of the woodwork to go after his stuff, telling his widow this was mine or that was mine or T wanted me to buy that from him at such and such a price.. She ended up sadly being ripped off for a lot of stuff before some of his closer "real" friends stepped up to help his widow.. very sad that scumbags can do this to a new widow.. I'm leaving detailed instructions that NO ONE buys direct, go away! It all is going to go to one big auction..

My wife and kids are fully aware of which of my friends are good people and which are not.

I've also given them the names of the two they should contact if/when they decide to sell. They're the two I trust the most and won't steer them wrong.

I have a friend lined up ready to liquidate my machines so my family doesn't have to be encumbered with them. Arranged that at the start of the pandemic.

I don't believe this one bit and I don't think your kids will allow it.