Think of it like this... You're retired, the cost of everything continues to rise while your retirement stays the same. It has been decades since you had enough "disposable income" to drop a grand on something you had no need for, but bought just because you wanted it at that moment. You have a pile of guns in your safe you no longer shoot and seldom even drag out to look at. You don't have any family to leave them to. So, what makes sense? Adding to the pile? I don't think so... I think selling them off until you are down to the family heirlooms that are still important to you and the few guns you actually shoot on a regular basis makes all the sense in the world. If something comes along that does a better job of filling a need, then it makes sense to buy and use it to replace the gun that it just made obsolete (but, it's amazing how seldom this happens!). I think people who feel this way are users rather than collectors.

Even if you are a collector there comes a time when you have to start thinking about what's going to happen to your collection when you're gone. Do you want to leave your family with its actual value or let someone with a pawnbroker's mentality steal it as your grieving family members try to figure out how to legally liquidate it? You may be five or ten years away from understanding all this but as you settle into retirement, start downsizing to an approrpriately sized empty nest, and have an opportunity or two to go eye to eye with the grim reaper, I bet you'll see what we're talking about with greater clarity......(adjusted for your personal situation, of course). Or, maybe you escape all this common sense.