If you are going to collect guns, coins, stamps or anything of value and die before your wife you need to make her aware of the real value of the guns. On top of that you need to leave clear written instructions of how and where to sell your stuff for a fair value. If you do not do that you are almost making it a certain fact that your wife will get screwed out of a major part of the value of your collection.
My list is already done and the wife knows where it is and what to do. I do not have any gun that would bring 15k or so each but the shear number of guns I have make it a decent total dollar collection. Just as I would not like to give the government half of the value I do not see the need to give a dealer more than I need to just to convert my guns into cash.
I have seen several gun show deals that follow your original post but the seller had no real fair market value to work with. Just a buying dealer telling them that they are getting top dollar. Like going to a car lot to sell your car without any clue what it worth. Sounds like this lady had most of the information that she needed to not get taken for a ride. How informed is your wife?
