Adult children inherit many things when their parents pass away: money, property, family heirlooms and, sometimes, collectables.
In many cases, it can be tricky to figure out what to do with the collectables.
A story in the New York Times told of a woman who inherited a collection of photographs from her mother who had been a photography editor at a magazine. She gave one of the photos to a friend who noticed it was taken by a renowned photographer. It turned out to be worth $14,000.
So she looked through all the photos in the box and found many more by the same photographer. In total, there were about 1,400 photos and she had no idea what they were worth or what to do with them.
Although you are not likely to inherit a box of valuable photographs, you never know what you are going to wind up with.
Whatever you end up with, you may want to take steps to preserve the items, organize them and archive them. Then you may want to have them appraised.
The important thing is finding the right appraiser for the kinds of things you want appraised. And make sure the appraiser is reputable. Take your time doing it.
