She changed her will

[Mildrivingiusmad]

Any legal experts? MIL has changed her will and I’m not sure how it is going to be enforced when she dies.
Long story short (ish) FIL collected toy cars, 100s of them. Some are quite valuable. All on display in cases, out of boxes but boxes are stored elsewhere. When he died MIL asked me to sell them (she knows I do eBay). The money is for the 6 grandchildren. I spoke to them all (5 are adult) and they agreed I should sell them as a bulk lot and split the money between them. We do not live near MIL so I phoned her to say I had arranged for two dealers to come and give her quotes and did she want a relative to be with her?
Well she went off on one. She does not want them sold as a lot, or to a dealer but each sold separately on eBay. My husband and his brother have both told her that is not practical. It would take days (and a better knowledge of cars than I have) just to match the things up with the boxes. We all work, 3 of the grandchildren have young families and no one has time to box, photograph, list, sell, find and post 100s of cars. Not to mention that they would have to be stored somewhere.
She now informs us that she has changed her will so that they can only be sold one by one. My question is - who is responsible for this? How can a solicitor make that happen? As a family we understand how much they mean to her but all agree she is being unreasonable. Thoughts?

FIL died 9 years ago. MIL is known in the family for being a bit odd - she thinks everyone thinks like she does. For example she was surprised that DH’s ex wife had not not travelled 350 odd miles to see my new kitchen!
Morally, it would not still well with me to go against the conditions of her will so I think I will take the advice given and have no further part in any of it.
None of us want Princess Di! She thinks that is worth £1000’s as well. My nephew is in the Army and when he is home on leave he works out who is in favour by looking at the labels. He has also tried swapping them round (as a joke).

She is right that the cars will get much more money that way

A specialist auction would be the compromise. You will get a poor price from a dealer- probably 25% of what you would get selling individually and you would get about 50% less than individually at an auction

Selling on ebay is easy. Wait for a £1 listing day and set a minimum starting price or do a but it now.

There are some companies/individuals that sell on commission on ebay- so they do all the listing and take a cut.

(grew in up an antiques shop- 2 parents who are still dealing in their 80s and I dabble)

OMG who would want a princess Di figure anyway

The Doulton dianas sell from about £30 to about £200 depending on model and box etc

I do sort of see her point, she wants to maximise what this treasured collection makes. Bunging it altogether as a job lot, though convenient for the seller, won't be as profitable.

I think a specialist auction would be better. Ebay is great when it works but you have over 300 chances for something to go missing, encounter a difficult buyer, etc etc. Not to mention all that packing! Maybe if you get her involved in the process - eg wrapping and labelling - she might start to understand the practicalities.

I doubt she has actually changed her will, sounds like an empty threat.

Oh she will have changed the will - she is forever having the solicitor round to give her advice etc. Must cost her a fortune.
We can not move them now. My ‘almost’ SIL tried one time, got about five in the boxes and MIL changed her mind and they all had to go back on display.
We have just had a big do over the dog / she wanted a dog, the family didn’t feel it was a good idea as she couldn’t take it for a walk and it would be a trip hazard etc
She went ahead and had the dog. After a month it was too much for her and it had to go back. I think that’s what we will have to do here - let her think she got her own way.
I only know any of this (about the will change) as she still speaks to DH’s ex once a week and MIL told her. She hadn’t told either of her sons.

Oh crikey, she is a bit of a nightmare then. Best leave well alone and do what you have to do when the time comes. Who realistically is going to enforce such a barmy stipulation?

Another thought, is she aware how EBay works? She will be paying PayPal as well as EBay fees on each and every sale. It might cost her more than she thinks to sell them that way.