In terms of raising money for the family its more complicated when selling even a small business. When en entity buys a small business what they are really buying is the name. Generally the original business is shut down and a new one started with the same name. This is invisible to the customers but makes a clean start for tax and liability reasons. The value of the name is brand recognition and an established customer base. This would be the most valuable but there would have to be someone who really wants to start a custom and stock poker chip business interested right away. I won't go through all the hurdles after that.
The second most valuable is the intellectual property rights. In this case the designs have value, maybe to Sunfly, maybe to another chip designer. If there was no one interested and we anted the designs to live on I suppose we could raise funds as a group to pay for the design licenses and have the family legally release them as royalty free. Then we could all use them without having to form any legal entity. This may be the best way to raise money for the family and to keep Sal's amazing work alive. The advantage here is the only thing we would need to do now is respectfully ask the family to please be sure to preserve Sal's files, or better yet his whole computer system until they are ready to discuss further.
The third and probably least valuable will be the physical assets. My guess is this includes his sample inventory, proto-types, lots of blanks and maybe some miscellaneous cards, cases and so forth. This could get sold off on eBay or here buy whoever was willing and had the time. Maybe we let them know we as a community are here to help them appraise and value the items for sales.
If we want, as a community, to reach out further and help we must do it from a purely altruistic point.
The second most valuable is the intellectual property rights. In this case the designs have value, maybe to Sunfly, maybe to another chip designer. If there was no one interested and we anted the designs to live on I suppose we could raise funds as a group to pay for the design licenses and have the family legally release them as royalty free. Then we could all use them without having to form any legal entity. This may be the best way to raise money for the family and to keep Sal's amazing work alive. The advantage here is the only thing we would need to do now is respectfully ask the family to please be sure to preserve Sal's files, or better yet his whole computer system until they are ready to discuss further.
The third and probably least valuable will be the physical assets. My guess is this includes his sample inventory, proto-types, lots of blanks and maybe some miscellaneous cards, cases and so forth. This could get sold off on eBay or here buy whoever was willing and had the time. Maybe we let them know we as a community are here to help them appraise and value the items for sales.
If we want, as a community, to reach out further and help we must do it from a purely altruistic point.
