While we have all had some fun joking about things in this thread, a lot of serious points have been brought up (even if in jest.)
Most of our families have no idea what our hardware is and what it is worth.How many people would take one look at one of our prized tube amps and say "that must be an old piece of junk - it still has bulbs in it." And even if you do have a family member that realizes that your equipment has some value, how many in that group would have the first idea of how (or where) to go about selling a piece of high end gear? It would behoove all of us to have an audio buddy who would be willing to act as a "designated seller" in the case of our untimely demise. And we should all make sure our family knows who that person is.
While we would all love for someone in our family to take ownership of our systems and love cherish and enjoy them as much as we did, the reality is that the odds of that happening are very slim. Even if one of our loved ones had an inclination to set up a 2 channel audio system, what are the odds that they will also be willing or able to dedicate that amount of space to make it sing the way you did. Sad, but true.
For many of us the most valuable part of our systems is not the hardware, but our software collections. I don't know if any of you have been watching, but the prices of used vintage LPs & CDs (especially audiophile releases) has gone through the roof in the last year or so. Take a look the used LP section of at Chad Kassem's web site
http://store.acousticsounds.com/vinylvault. You will be shocked at what your collection is worth (while this link is related to preowned vinyl the same price inflation also seems to be happening to limited edition audiophile CDs as well) So while our hardware goes down in value as it drifts further and further from the state of the art the value of our software collections seems to be be increasing with age..
And while I joked about my son wanting me to leave him my hardware and software in my will Carl brings up a very good point that by the time the will is read it could be too late. All to often I have seen "vultures descend of the home of a dead friend or relative before the body is even cold. If you have specific wishes with regards to you system make sure the people close to you are aware of them. Don't assume that rational thinking will prevale after you are gone because all too often greed overtake rationality in a heartbeat.
Not a pleasent subject, but a little bit of preplanning will go a long way towards having thing go the way you would like them to after you are gone.
