I like auctions. Cash the day of the sale.
Hopefully there is a provision for somebody to come along in advance and purchase the whole lot.
As is, where is, no warranties of any kind.
Ideally someone who has the wherewithal not to move it, can you imagine someone having that much financial ability and talent when it come to real estate too?
I always felt so disappointed when I had to pick up working surplus and move it straight to storage myself. There's so much real junk out there and it would be such a shame to let it become co-mingled.
Hopefully, bulk buyers will be able to make rescue bids after piecewise bids have been taken and totaled.
There's lots of individuals that could afford it, real billionaires and stuff, all it takes is the right stuff. The kind of guts most people just don't have, whether they are very well-heeled or not.
Regardless of how it's sold in the end, there will be some sum total dollar amount that it all amounts to.
And people will know whether Allen's work was respected well enough to be maintained as an intact collection representing a great man's life's work, or if it ended up dispersed in a way that is only fitting for things like Allen's great art collection. Art is a different kind of life's passion. Allen's long-term collection & preservation efforts are not as diminished when the less-interactive non-tech artworks are dispersed.
After the hammer comes down, people can then play armchair quarterback, to see which of their favorite billionaires can be rated as to whether or not people think they would have been able to afford keeping the museum going financially if they really wanted to.
Plus any high-rollers can be more or less compared to what percentage of their net worth some random (and not so random) youtubers are dedicating to preserving other rare milestone tech gear out of respect for other great technology pioneers.