California – community property. My spouse of 35 years has spent over $400k of our money on his stamp collections. He has a safe in his den and I am not allowed to go in it. I have kept track of at least some of the expenses over the years (so I have the cost basis). As we are divorcing, he will not be declaring any of this as assets. Yes, he has done the work in deciding what to buy, but this has eatten up all our savings every year as he obsesses over his collection. His safe is locked. But he is going away for a few days. Who can I call that would make a trip to my house and let me show them the safe? He knows the local stamp dealers. I called one out of town and he acted like this was unethical. I can open the safe, but don’t understand how to value or list the millions of items in there. The lawyer just wants a list of assets and their market value. This doesn’t work in this case. Not only do I not have access to what is in the safe (except for these two days) but the stamps are in 70 books. If I don’t get their value now, this stuff will disappear soon to another location. Anyone know who I can call or alternative ways of valuing this kind of thing. No, it is not insured because they required him to list the items and he has refused. Hence, the fire proof and water proof huge safe.
Have the safe removed from the house and put in a secure location. Tell him he can have it back when you have a list.
ok 500 pound…not going to work.
Get in a small team of people/friends split the binders between you and all take the pictures – think about the return on your investment – paying $1000 to get a team of people in to get $200,000 return…
If time is of the essence and couldn’t get anyone to give you an appraisal. What about pictures of the stamps and Items lay them out open and pics of them in safe, with your sister or brother as witness . Or maybe a friend you can trust of course , ask your attorney what he thinks about this idea. Maybe he could bring an assistant and they both could be witnesses.Food for thought
I would take the binders out of the safe and take them to an appraiser in another town. The stamps are marital property and you deserve to have half of it. It doesn’t matter who’s hobby it was… the value of the stamps should be considered in the divorce.
Honestly, if he was going to be unethical, I would just remove the items from your house either permanently or until he gave you a detailed list of everything in there and the worth of it. The real worth, too… no bull****
“he acted like it was unethical” gee ya think? file the divorce and issue a discovery demand on the value of the collection.