[MrsTravis]

Hello All,
On February 6th my husband Travis passed away after a 28 month battle with brain cancer. He was a member of this community and a frequenter of this forum for more than a decade, with his involvement dwindling as the cancer took away some of his communication abilities in the past two years. I don’t know what his username was but I am certain many of you interacted with him over the years.

Among his belongings is an insane amount of GI Joes. Well, his collection may not be insane to some of you but I’m absolutely floored at how vast it is. I have at least 10 large totes with a mix of originally packaged, loose figures, and vehicles. Travis had a lot of time to prepare for his death and think about what he wanted to do with his legacy, and he asked me to sell his Joes as a way to help build his legacy fund which will be used to do good in his honor now that he’s gone (visit TrailsforTravis.org to learn more about our very early planning process for this). So now it’s up to me to figure out how to get the most without turning this into my life (as much as I want to love it, this was not a passion we shared... though I found his love of such a fun hobby endearing).

Thank you for any suggestions or advice you have in regards to how best to approach this task in a way that will bring the most good to others.

Travis’ obituary and more about his battle with cancer can be found here - https://teamwolverineblog.wordpress....ruary-06-2019/

[Xerofall]

I'm sorry for your loss. I lost my spouse in 2015 and it's only now feeling like my life is getting back to normal.

It's very nice he took some time to make sure you knew what he wanted after he passed. Luckily you are in a very centralized location (Ohio) and there are plenty of fans in and around that area.

If he has an extensive collection, I would reach out to a few of the larger sellers online...

Yojoeoutlet on eBay... https://www.ebay.com/usr/yojoeoutlet...p2047675.l2559

Kokomo Toys... Kokomo Toys & Collectibles

Guru Toys... GI Joe Action Figures, G.I. Joe Vintage Toys & GI Joe Collectibles - Guru-Planet

I'm sure I'm missing a few... but other locals would chime in I'm sure. My collection goes to C.I.A.D. when I go to sell as he sees fit.

Let me know if there's anything more I can do for you.... stay strong!

-Jeff Patton aka xerofall.

[SmokeBellew]

My condolences. He was obviously a helluva guy.

My advice would be to contact a reputable toy dealer who will travel to you & the toys, buy them all in one lot and haul them away. You won't get as much as you would if you were to sell them piece by piece on ebay, but you also won't have to deal with the hassle of sorting, listing, shipping, fees, non-payers and scammers. I think there's a group of Joe fans there in Ohio who have a club (Johio, I think) who could lend a hand in recommending a good local toy dealer.

Wish I could offer more help, but I don't know much about selling toys and I'm in Utah. Best wishes to you and your loved ones.

[Yojoe77]

Depending on what part of Ohio you're in, I would recommend contacting The Toy Department in Fairfield, on route 4.

[MrsTravis]

Thank you all for the quick replies. I’ll try and start with some pictures tomorrow to get started and then see wheee to go from here.

[MrsTravis]

I guessed 10... it’s actually 18 totes. I’m overwhelmed.

[MrsTravis]

A sampling

[MrsTravis]

I hope

[luc20100]

Sorry to hear about your husbands passing. Looking over the pictures in detail. Looks like cleaning and piecing them together will consume a lot of time. Except, the figures still in packages. If you have time and would like to maximize your funding for research to eliminate cancer. You would need to sell these piece by piece. According to the pictures you could get between $5k to $10k+ by selling individual figures and vehicles. If you sold them all together you limit the amount of potential buyers to around a maximum of $5k or less. You could go the route of selling them by each tub or grouping them by certain lines and could get between $2k to $7k. This is all loosely based on the small amount of pictures you provided.

If you have a little time to invest in this. Then you could contact the toy stores mentioned in the previous posts and get estimates after sending them more detailed photos of what are actually in the totes. Then possibly compare that to setting up auctions on Ebay or an equivalent site to benefit charity. The charity being your fight to eliminate cancer. Their are many ways to go about this. The Ebay auctions for charity might be a good way to go. Some people bid more if they know they are helping for a good cause. That is just some of the ways you could proceed.

[code_red_shockwave]

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I know the pain must be awful for you, and I hope things will get better for you and your family.