[Dwight Gruber]

You have broached an interesting topic. I think your ad-hoc, draw-lots military solution would be difficult to administer on the kind of scale as is represented by the ever-shifting internet, and could only work by advance iron-clad agreement by all parties involved. You might accomplish the same thing by simply making a list of your collection, making a list of people you would like the items to go to, and note so in you will. I'm sure that the effort would be about the same.


As a more general comment, this has been on my mind as well, but from a slightly different direction--I expect, in the fullness of time, to inherit a large collectin of military books, some quite rare, which I am not interested in but do not see any point in breaking up and selling piecemeal. I will probably approach the local library and see if they are interested in establishing the XX Memorial Reference Collection. If you are truly concerned about the disposition of your Luger and associated material collection, you might be think of doing something similar.


You might find nearby a local military museum, or if you live in a small community and have long-time family ties there a local history museum, who would be interested in the donation of your collection. You might want to arrange in advance what kind of display might be most appropriate. Bequeathing an amount of money to help defray the costs of setting up such an exhibit is appropriate, and would certainly be appreciated. Make sure that you understand the museum's policies for acquisition and de-acquisition, once your collection is in their hands they can move things around as they see fit. You might want to include a condition that the collelction never be broken up.


There is a lot more to this topic, but you get the idea. This is one way to avoid the vet's widow or the un-caring descendants just selling this stuff off, and it allows the maximum number of people to appreciate a well-considered lifetime collelction.


--Dwight