Practical question on valuation of old systems

When dealing with ebay one must keep in mind..... The ebay sale price is but a single bidding increment over the top price the next higher bidder is willing to spend. It is not what the buyer is willing to pay or values it at. The asking price or starting bid, represents the smallest value the seller is willing to part with it for, in the case there is only one bidder. Often if you get a deal on ebay it is because no one else watching cares about the item as much as you do at that moment in time. When the bidding goes to new highs from the viewpoint point of an observer, then it is due to the desire of two or more bidders looking to fill the same need that is not shared by the observer. Multiple collectors digging throught the same pile of junk will come up with differant treasures each for their own personal reasons. I would guess better than half of us here is over 50 and have children who will be stuck with the choice of the dumpster or ebay to deal with our collections when we are no longer able to store and protect them. Unless we start document our collections now, what are the chances of our children or for that matter our grandchildren understanding the value when the time comes? It is in the self interest of every collector to find the deals and freebees without much fanfare, collectors will often tell great stories about their best finds, long after the fact. Collectors build collections. Dealers break collections up and attempt to profit from their disposal, long sighted dealors are often also collecting investors and often hold out choice pieces for their own collections and future sale when the market is right. Dealers are always looking for collections to breakup and collectors and investors to chery pick their most recient lot. Investors take many forms, ask most collectors and they will either think collection will increase in value over time while others are not quite sure why they continue to save all this junk anymore. My question is how do we value our collections for insurance purposes, or god forbid as part of our estate for tax purposes ? If one was to build and host an online ComputerCollectables list/gallery, could a knowledge base be created to document collections that someday would be usable as a price guide. Or would such an attempt be doomed, due to lack of input from the real world ? One last thought ... On the subject of ebay, it supprises me that the ebay "make offer" option is not used more with computer collectables. I guess that few are willing to pay the higher listing fees by setting a higher starting bid, while at the same time revealing the fact that they might be willing to take a lower offer, if there is little or no interest. later .... Bob Bradlee