Collection appraisals

[bandrow]

Greetings,

I was recently asked by a potential donor for a referral for a collection appraisor and would like to ask the folks here if anyone can recommend someone? I know that Connie Hurt has been a reliable source of collection appraisals for some years, but apparently she is not available at this time.

If anyone can direct me toward someone capable of providing such a service, I would be very grateful...

Thanks!
Bandrow

[exoticimports]

I've done a couple and had spoken with Connie about it. Depending upon the quantity and type of specimens it can be very time consuming.

Essentially, the going rate is $4/ pinned and labeled specimen. Beyond that, more valuable specimens are valued at retail. The last one I did was 14,000 specimens, mostly not commercial stuff so valued at $4/specimen, but still I had to photograph 144 drawers and count 14,000 specimens. I made a spreadsheet with a row for each drawer, description, count, and gross value.

Anyone reputable and with a knowledge of insect values can do it. Question is who has the time. It probably took me 30 hours to do it.

Chuck

[bandrow]

Greetings,

Thanks for the response - the time involved is certainly one of many reasons so few folks offer such services. Fortunately, we heard from the donor that Connie is back in action and is apparently helping him. Seems like she could have the market on appraisals cornered as long as she wants to keep doing them!

Cheers!
Bandrow

[trehopr1]

I would think appraisals are very difficult to make in general as regards our hobby; but, not impossible. It seems it would take a fair amount of time as well as a measure of scrutiny of what it is one is looking at. So many variables.... to be honest.
Besides the fact that a collector is selling or perhaps donating his specimens; he probably wants some sort of return on the cost of the drawers he has the specimens housed in. Additionally, he will probably want to sell any literature that he has as well. After all, what good are they if your willing to "rip the heart" out of your collection in moving off the specimens...
Then starts the questions: Are the drawers new(ish) / tight fitting all around or some loose-fitting older drawers made half-assed in somebodies idea of a garage carpentry shop! Is the foam stained or discolored from some fumigant used? Will they have to be refurbished or are they useless or resellable? If resellable, are they worth at least 1/2 price? A new Bioquip Cornell with foam sells for between $55 and $65 a drawer depending on the type of foam used. I know because that's what I use.... How about the literature? Are we looking at a lot of stuff that 10,000 copies were made of or are there maybe 20 books in the lot that could easily sell for $90 a copy on up... Who passes that judgement?
And then there is the matter of the specimens.... $4 to me sure sounds like a lousy low price for just about anything. Oh, I suppose if all one did was push a pin thru an insect and stick some handwritten label on it (like it was some kind of a high school biology project); than I could see only getting $4 a pop for what you have. However, when it comes to the material actually BEING collector quality material (where it is spread nicely -- if not professionally); than $4 is an absolute insult !! I would rather BURN IT IN MY BACKYARD or AUCTION IT OFF ON EBAY than "give away" anything -- even common stuff for such a pittance. Spreading things to look natural or appealing to you or others in the hobby shows that you really care or have a deep seated love of the hobby and what you do with it. You appreciate all these things -- on another level. That should never be shortchanged or undersold.
We have all seen the prices that well spread material fetches at insect fairs all over Europe. If it's truely well done and collector quality you better show up early to get the good choices; otherwise you get the leavings or (with some measure of luck); something others have overlooked.
I have to pinch myself at this point to keep from going off on a tangent about "appraisers" low-balling the life work, dedication, and appreciation of "dyed in the wool" true collectors. Maybe, about the time old collectors decide it's time to hang up the net and part with the collection; they are half senile and have forgotten how many thousands of hours they have dedicated to spreading and curating this lifelong love in their life. Hope it never happens to me!

[nomihoudai]

Chuck, does $4 also hold for noctuids that you catch in your own backyard? I do understand that this is only for tax purposes and so the "value" is higher than what you would ever get from somebody when selling in bulk. I have sold my moth collection 3 years ago and I got 1€ a piece in cash, I was lucky enough to still have access to a museum that bought for cash.

[exoticimports]

$4 per set, labeled specimen is the apparently accepted rate. That includes small noctuids from your back yard. You sold your moth collection wholesale at 1 Euro each. For US tax purposes, there is no reason to assume it's to be sold wholesale. I'm sure if I got to cherry pick your moth collection there would be a number that I'd pay ten quid for.

As a whole, one might claim one or more specimens aren't worth $4. Then again, the overlooked new species can be auctioned for naming rights for $10,000. That's balance.

If IRS wants to find another expert to refute my estimate, go to town. They'd have to pay an expert, who's going to use $4/pin anyway. So the only thing to reconcile is the additional value. When it's all said and done, if two experts disagree by $6000 (which only takes $2k off taxes) the IRS isn't very far ahead, are they? And if I want to be a real PITA I'll get a third opinion. It just isn't worth the tax man's time to nickle and dime valuation on a topic they know nothing about.

[kirkwilliams]

By my calculations 4$ per specimen would not come close to reimbursing the postage paid over the years for parcels sent and received!

[jshuey]

Here’s a long-ish answer to a simple question.

I’ve done a few large-ish appraisals over the years for tax purposes. I don’t like to do them, but sometimes you feel like you have an obligation to humanity… Or sometimes they offer you something that actually makes it worth it. The key to an appraisal is that it needs to be defendable. The appraiser is providing a “market value estimate” to clients who then use the estimate to reduce income taxes. If the estimate is crazy, the IRS may challenge it, and it is the appraiser that is on the hook, not the collection donor. If you end up defending the apparasal, you can’t just say that “I think it’s worth this much…” – you have to say “based on the following factors, I assigned a value of…”.

So, there are a few ways to skin this cat. And here are two I’ve used – the first method for small, generic collections, and the other for higher value holdings.
The easiest way is “The Bug Guide way” (https://bugguide.net/node/view/907141). This gives you a defendable number that comes pretty close to the $4.00 per spread specimen Chuck mentions. Count bugs and multiply – it’s fairly simple. And it gives you a defendable number. I think that it gives you a value that is on the low end, but it's defendable and simple.

Sometimes – you simply know that a collection is worth much more than 4-bucks per specimen. But how do you document that? I’ve attached pages 1-4 of an appraisal I did a few years back (the entire appraisal ran 94 pages and included extensive documentation). You can see how I approached the problem overall from the Executive Summary, and then there is some detail relative to the pinned portion of the collection. It apparently did not raise the ire of either IRS or the attorney at the receiving institution (most appraisals of “valuable gifts” get reviewed by the receiving institution to ensure that they do not jeopardize their own standing with the IRS).

Note that this appraisal was not conducted to determine the highest “market value”. It was very conservative – and points out repeatedly factors that could significantly increase the value if these factors were assigned monetary value.

Over and over again it points out that it is a conservative very estimate of value. Two reasons underpinned this. One – I was not going to stick my neck out on pushing forward with a true market value estimate for the collection – simply to cover my own rear-end. And the collection owner fully understood this from the beginning.
Two, the collection owner was donating this to an institution, and based on their modest income, didn’t need me to push the limits. I’d guess that the appraised value came in at over 2X-3X what they could deduct from their income during the allotted time. So why push it?

As an aside, although I earned no actual money doing this one - I was paid generously for my time in dead bugs. A few hundred papered neotropical skippers and some amazingly rare North American bugs that I later turned into cash. I spent about 40 hours working on this and the cash so far is what I earn in real life… with a few other bugs to potentially unload. Which, by the way, is a lot better than the “obligation to humanity” appraisals pay (which would be zilch).

[exoticimports]

John, thanks for the great resource!

Trehopr, let me tell you something: some day your collection will not belong to you. You might sell it, donate it, or let it go to rot. You will be gone, perhaps burned in the back yard (hope not) or rotting in the ground. What happens to you then?

I consider myself a steward of the collectibles in my possession. Some I've caught, some I've made, some I've restored to like new. I will not own them forever. I have been blessed with the short time I have to care for these items, and when the time comes they will belong to somebody else.

I will donate most of my reference insect collection. Not for the tax deduction, but because it best serves science in a museum. The tax deduction, if anything, will be a bonus.

No appraisers try to screw anybody. Those that I've done were done as John says as "an obligation to humanity" without compensation. I've not known any appraiser who tried to under-value a collection. Connie IIRC charges $800 which is obscenely low considering the work required.

Do what you want with your research, burn it if you like. If you're going to Ebay it, start now because it takes FOREVER to sell thousands of specimens. And wait till you see what you get for them, you won't be happy. Don't forget to knock out the 25% Ebay and Paypal fees too. And shipping set specimens- what a chore! Wish you luck.

Chuck

[bandrow]

Greetings!

John - thanks for the thorough explanation of how the collection appraisal process works - I think this will clarify a lot of things for members on here.

Chuck - Thank you too for your many helpful comments adding to the clarification of donating material for a tax deduction. And your comments concerning the inherent and scientific values of passing one's collection on to a museum for posterity.

Trehopr1 and kirkwilliams - I fully agree that the standard IRS value of $4.00 for a pinned, labeled specimen sounds low, but I think John explained the reasoning. Additionally, this is not a 1:1 monetary value - $4 in donated value does not translate to $4 saved in taxes. The total amount donated gets added to one's itemizable deductions, and then the IRS math happens - a charitable donation of $5,000 worth of specimens may provide a return of less than $500, all depending on all the other factors in one's return. Key word here - "charitable".

Making a charitable donation of one's collection is never a way to recover value - real or imagined - be it money invested from direct purchases of specimens, travel costs to go collect, hardware bought to house it, vacations for the wife for letting you run off with your collecting friends, etc... It is a way to pass your life's work on to future researchers, and in the process, gain yourself a little bit of immortality in the form of your data labels.

If recovery of the value is one's goal, then selling the collection intact would be an option, although private buyers for collections are few in number and museums or universities rarely have the funding necessary to purchase collections. Piecemealing it on Ebay or in other ways is an option, but as explained earlier, is a slow and unpredictable option.

Thanks again for all the helpful information and comments...

Cheers!
Bandrow

[trehopr1]

I have no illusions about taking anything with me when I go. I will enjoy my material for as long as it continues to captivate, fascinate, and enlighten my life as it always has. If I should decide I can part with it or sell off a section (down the road) then all I have to do is put the word out that some of it is for sale -- and they will come. This is how I have acquired many of my nice things (keeping my ear to the wind) and a pocketbook to open.
I'm certain the best will belong to some one else and so they too will enjoy it. Some of it will go to my kids (along with any contacts)should they decide to sell any. I cannot say where all of the more common stuff may go but, so long as I'm breathing you will never see me sell off my time and labor and life's passion for.... Chump change.

[jshuey]

To respond to Treehor1’s comments – I think there are at least two mindsets that result in building a decent insect collection. Here are the two stereotypes I have in my mind (sorry If I offend either group).

At one extreme – you have “collectors”. Insects are a thing – just like coins, stamps, arrowheads porcelain cats – you name it. They are really cool to look at and there are lots of different kinds. You make a decision how deep you’re “going in” – and within that realm – “you gotta get’em all”. The bugs are objects – they are typically viewed as financial assets. So when the collection is disposed of, the assets are sold at the highest market value to recover that financial value.

At the other extreme is the pure entomologist. Dead bugs with data have scientific value – and the more dead bugs in the collection, the more scientifically useful the collection is. They generally specialize in certain taxonomies, and go deep (“gotta get’em all”), such that the collection is a rich resource for distributional data, habitat use and includes obscure species that few have ever heard of. The actual beauty of the bugs may not come into play (I know a guy who mostly collects flies), but “the collection” is viewed as a thing of intrinsic beauty. Value is defined subjectively as scientific value, and when the collection is disposed of, it is done in such a way as to protect and maximize that scientific value. In other words – the collection must remain intact, and ideally, it is housed at an institution where the data will eventually be accessed.

I think many of us fall on a continuum between these two extremes. I know I do. I have four cabinets of neotropical skippers and three of mixed Lycaenidae and Riodinidae. – mostly unremarkable looking things. They include records of species far beyond their reported ranges. They include species that do not have names and many of the ones that do have names, you’ve never heard of. They include short series of every species I’ve ever encountered in the field at every locality I’ve ever seen it (intentionally rich in distributional data). I have made arrangements for it at a national research institution that likewise sees scientific value in the collection.

At the same time – I have owned some bugs that had real value. For example, over the years – I’ve had a few xerces blues (from my stamp collecting days)– that I have sold to maximize the monetary value I could extract. There are lots of other examples where at one time – I wanted this or that rare bug, so I purchased or traded for it. I recognize that value, and over the last few years, I’ve extracted that it back out of those bugs by selling them. Ironically, I’ve used that money to invest in increasing the scientific value of the collection – typically hiring collectors in South America to collect “worthless” brown skippers (with personally valuable data of course).

In many ways – the collection I provided the appraisal details about was a true midpoint between the two extremes. There was a huge “gotta get’em all” collection of North American species (probably around 95% complete at the species level and >50% at the subspecies level). And a deep artic collection that was truly world-class. The owner valued the science value more highly than money and it was donated to a university.

Ironically, he paid me in bugs, and I turned a few of those into a couple thousand dollars...

[trehopr1]

John, the above post is a good one and a fair one. There are extremes at either end of the spectrum and indeed those who fall between. I do admire those such as yourself who are researchers and true scientists within this discipline. It is the pure entomologists who help sort out, explain, and enhance our on-going knowledge of insects. So all due respect. As for myself, I am a pure hobbyist. I do this to enrich my life. I am fascinated to no end by these creatures in every sense. Many have a beauty beyond belief while others lead diverse lives which touch every part of nature's ecosystem.
As a collector of these things their diversity and beauty has always captivated me since the age of 5. About 1/2 of what I own I've collected myself. I am a small game hunter and for me it is the "thrill of the hunt" which keeps me going back to the fields or forest. I find it exhilarating ! ! On the other hand, the other 1/2 of my collection is exotic stuff. Virtually all of it is of things I could not possibly hope to ever find or collect myself. So, there is an allure to own at least a piece of it. I am not a guy who has to "get it all". I have never had such resources... I just like to own some of those nice things available out there because opening a book and looking at a picture just does not do it for me.
I do place a certain somewhat "heightened" value on the things that I have acquired as most of them never came to me "nice and easy". If it is exotic than I probably paid for it or waited a long time for the "right" specimen to come along (in which case I probably paid a premium to have first "dibs"). Personal captures of coarse have personal meaning to me and I also know that even there I've labored hard to catch nice choice specimens, spread them, and label as well as curate them.
I will not likely ever pass anything of mine to any institution. They have enough and they certainly don't need mine or a whole lot of the same they already have. My things will find good homes and prospective owners who will care for them with the same un-bridled pride which I have had for them.
It did admittedly come to me as a shock that collection specimens are seemingly worth so little across the board; so naturally I had to scoff at that pricing as I fully know that true collector grade material (A1/ Spread Nicely/ with good data) is not to be had out there for 4 bucks. Least not here in America.