I agree with Rifleman1776 about that. When you are gone, the stuff you have will be disposed of somehow. Your heirs may get ripped off by selling to unfair buyers who pay way less than market value, or they may get market value, or more perhaps if the heirs are good businesspeople. But when that happens, you will not know about it. My Dad has always had a hobby of dealing with plants. He makes rock gardens, has a green house in his backyard, has various plant growing stations set up at the house (we always joke that the cops are going to figure he's growing drugs but it is all legit plants). He's got plants everywhere and is always doing stuff with them, puttering in the garden or the greenhouse, etc. One day my mother asked him what to do with all the plants if something happened to my Dad. He said he doesn't worry about that at all and does not care one wit what gets done with them. He said that plants are his hobby and he is enjoying them while he is here and he does not worry or care about what happens after he has passed.
I forget the exact number, but it is something like 10,000 people in America turn 65 years old each day. So, lots of people who have accumulated some nice historic and classic firearms. But through moving to living arrangements that do not make it practical to continue to own all of their guns, or ultimately when they pass away there are likely going to be a lot of older, classic, historic firearms coming onto the market. That concept has already killed the market for dining room sets (you can't give them away in many places because so many baby boomers are trying to downsize their living arrangements and the younger generations do not want those big expansive table and chair sets). The concept will also lower the prices of many collectibles. How many of today's younger people really want a classic Mustang? Not nearly as many people as wanted them in the 80's and 90's. So as the 5 million + Winchester model 94's that are in people's closets and gun safes start to come onto the market in increasing amounts, that might be a stimulus that could drive down prices. Then you have the fact that today's young people want an AR-15 with a Surefire 60 round magazine, not a lever-action 30/30. That could drive down prices. But you know what? They are not making any more of those pre-64 Model 70's and pre-64 Model 94's. And in many states, such as PA, we can buy, sell, trade rifles with other fellow citizens without any paper trails. And, as I pointed out above, there is always that background tension about how the government could try at any time to limit our God-given rights to self-defense just like they've done throughout the rest of the English-speaking world over the past 200 years. THAT FACTOR will always push the prices up or at least maintain a floor for prices for firearms in working condition.
I've got some old Model 94's that I like owning but I never shoot them because it is just not fun for me at all to try to use iron sights. My vision is such that it is just very frustrating, so I have not shot any of those classic model 94's for years. I don't really need them, and since they are locked away in a gun vault it is kind of pointless for me to have them. But I like having them. I thought about selling all but one but I keep coming back to the ideas that they are not making any more of those pre-64 Winchester model 94's, and they are all in working condition and very well cared for, and the government may make access to a supply of new firearms very difficult or impossible sometime sooner than we'd all like, so I am going to just hang on to each one of them. A model 94 takes up very little room! A Colt Trooper or Python or a S&W 19 takes up even less room. No need to sell them. I don't have any kids or even any younger generation relatives who have any interest in firearms, so my lawyer has the name and contact info for a gun shop owner that I trust, and my family members can get him to sell the guns for whatever he thinks is fair when that day comes.
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