Here's the deal: Dad just turned 95 and currently lives alone. His house is filled with dozens of beautiful creations from his woodshop. His garage is jam-packed with saws and tools.

DH and I are probably going to build a house next door to his in the coming months (probably won't move in until approx. this time next year).

Dad and I agree that stuff with sentimental value needs to be divided equitably between kids and grandkids before the move. But, how to do it?

I might have just enough computer savvy to post pictures of the tables, curio cabinets and clocks online, if I knew where to do it. Then we could assign all 13 grandchildren some "Bonus Bucks" or "Grandpa Cash" and allow them to bid.

The other stumbling block is that most of the grandchildren live out of state, and one is out of the country, so they won't be able to swing by with a U-Haul and pick things up. Safely shipping a grandfather clock is not something I know how to do.

Is this is feasible? If you think so, please tell me:

• Where to post the pictures.
• How to accept bids.
• How to ship w/o having to personally package things.

We live in a very rural town, so not every service is available here. We do have a UPS hub, but some items are probably too large for them to handle. I'd appreciate and helpful comments and suggestions.

Twinks:

I think it's cool to do this. Your grandchildren will be honored to have such treasures.

Perhaps after they bid and win, you could bring the really hard to pack stuff, well, you could bring it to the local UPS office (they pack very carefully), and they could pack it for you.

I watched a commercial on the television and they said something like "no package is too big for us to pack".

So give them a call and ask some questions.

If they do this, then that's one problem solved.

Now about how they could bid. There are several bidding sites online, but they use REAL cash, and that's not what you are talking about right?

I have no idea where you could post pictures that your family can bid on.

That's a tough one.

Why not do this. Take a camera (or webcam and make a video of the whole lot.

Assign a number to each piece of furniture.

Mail the video to each family member (if they have a computer), or take snapshots of each piece of furniture.

Then you can make flyers.

On the flyer you can post all the pictures (numbered)

Anyone who is interested can phone you and say, (for example).

"I'd like the Grandfather Clock, Item 13, my bid is $200 Grandpa dollars"

You can have a white poster thing on your wall and write everyone's bid.

It's like a game.

And then when another person calls up, you write their bid next to the other person's bid. So you'll have names and bids.

Then you give it a deadline and let's say the deadline is Saturday night at 8 p.m.

All bids must be in by that date and time.

When it's 8:15 or so, you look at the poster thing on the wall, you'll see that so and so bid $300 for Gramps grandfather clock, so he gets it.

You can do this for ALL of the furniture.

That's how you'll really find out who really wants what.

It's a big project but it can be fun.

You can get your father to participate. He'll have a ball!!!

Just my two cents.

Melody

Thanks, Melody, but it makes my head spin to think about fielding phone calls from 13 people. There are many many items, so I really don't want to print them on a brochure.

Sorry I'm being so difficult. Just hoping someone knows an easier way to accomplish this.

Thanks for the kind words!

twink, would you like me to copy this post to Member's Mall?

others who have online businesses can probably help best.

why not set up a private myspace page? you can post the pictures and they can leave you comments.

*added

contact some moving compainies. many times they will ship furnature on truck if they have room. also help you pack it up.

A private MySpace page? Hmmm, I will check into that. Thanks!

Added: Member's Mall might be a good idea too! I need all the help I can get!

Is grandpa up to "gifting" the items?
He could decide who gets what and then place a sticker with the name on the back of the item for "after".

the recipients could do exchanges "after" if they feel like doing so.

If there were a way that everyone involved could be together for the event, we could just pull names out of a hat and allow trading afterwards. But where that isn't possible, I'm not sure how well emailing each other for exchanges would work.

Dad's health is good, but he would be totally overwhelmed trying to figure out how to equally divvy up his creations between 13 grandchildren. I mean, does one curio cabinet equal 2 clocks, or 4 jewelry boxes?

Also, there is a possibility that those who live far away and/or have no need for more furniture would not be interested. Everyone has at least one clock that Dad made.

Having said that, maybe it would be simpler to lump things into somewhat equal "piles", and draw names. Then people could decide whether or not they wanted to arrange for shipping. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that.

Thanks!