What item do you own that has an unexpectedly high value?
What item do you own that has an unexpectedly high value?
This could be something that you bought for a higher price than what most people would guess based on the item, or it could be something you bought for a normal price that has gained significant value as time has gone on.
What made me think of this question is a LEGO minifigure I got with my "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" disc. It is Bilbo Baggins in a blue coat that was apparently only sold in that movie box only at Target stores. Even considering the exclusivity, I would have guessed maybe $10-20 for such a tiny piece of plastic, but there are sold listings on eBay from $80 to $225. I could possibly even get towards the higher end of that number since I still have everything in the original box in good condition. It's not worth a ton compared to some other items people may own, but I think most people would not expect nearly that amount.
I had a free book reward from Thriftbooks, which I used for a copy of Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams. When it came, I was kinda bummed that some kid had scribbled on the title page, but eh, it was free. At least it was a first edition in otherwise good condition, I won't complain.
As I was reading, I got a little itch in the back of my mind, and it of curiosity looked up his signature. Turns out, it looks like some kid's scribbling
Probably why no one realized.
So I got a signed first edition, which goes for about $200, totally free.
The single most expensive item I own is a gold coin from Imperial Rome, an Aureus of emperor Antoninus Pius. I bought it about three years ago when I was just starting to collect ancient coins. I came across this particular coin on a "regular" gold & silver bullion site in my neck of the woods, for 3K. Not knowing too much about it, I bit the bullet (which is actually an incredibly stupid thing to do, akin to gambling). Turns out it's very real, mint state, and worth about 2K over what I paid for it right now. I have since continued collecting ancients, especially Romans, and by now know the entire history of Rome and all its emperors in detail. Which again underscores how incredibly stupid it was to buy something so expensive without decent prior research. I was just incredibly lucky that an actual reputed bullion dealer apparantly had come across this coin and got rid of it far under what it was worth.
I don't expect to be able to repeat this feat, but I'm definitely on the lookout...
I had a friend over who complimented my teapot, I love it because it's a nice color, good size and has a stainless steel infuser that fits inside. So I offered to get her one of her own only to find out that this particular color is highly collectible and worth 6-7x what I paid for it originally. Now I have a nice teapot I'm paranoid about anything happening to, haha.
My son has a stuffed animal in his bedroom worth about $5,000
He won a sweepstakes prize while we were collecting squishmallow cards. I built him a plexiglass cube to display it, but if not for the display, it's a very unassuming stuffed animal.
I have four tyres in pretty good condition on my car, that's $1000 right there.
A spectrophotometer - the sort used for display calibration and color sample matching. I paid about $180, which was extremely low; the current version from the same company is ten times that new. Colorimeters, which look similar and can also be used for display calibration cost far less.
I mainly use it for flashlight reviews.
I discovered that a small strip of dead land at the side of my friends’ brand new house was available to buy for loose change from the original land owner (a once giant estate that had been broken up into parcels at auction) Fast forward three years or so later and the developer started stage two of the house building, another 850 houses. Guess whose tiny parcel of land was needed for utilities and access due to the terrain? We basically picked a number out of the air and the next day the cheque / check arrived. Paid off the mortgage, sold the house and paid about 90% the price of their dream home straight away and had a bit left over too. Can’t help but think that somebody somewhere lost their job/contract over that.
I own a full size Batmobile model from a canceled game bundle Batman Arkham Knight: Batmobile Edition. It was canceled due to quality control issue and was shipped to select people before getting canceled. So that's a pretty rare find. All the electronics still works and it can switch normal and battle modes with a remote. Had some people offering multiple thousand bucks for it, and I got it just randomly without knowing it's rare.
Great grandpa was a woodworker, there's been at least one in every generation, and some how got a hold of a late 1800s or early 1900s Stanley No.1 plane. I think it sells for around 2k to 2500. Its got wear, but it still works just fine.
I rarely use it, but it's something that's been in the family for over 100 years. I do a little woodworking, mostly utilitarian stuff like boxes and shelves, but I'll never sell it. 3 generations of people used it to make a living.
I have an old book from 1932 called “The Theory of Relativity” by Albert Einstein. It smells ancient and is worth a bit of change last time I checked.
A bit of a narrow audience, but I bought The id Anthology - basically a greatest hits collection of id Software's games up to Quake.
I bought it for a laugh really a few months after it came out for about £25, and kept the cool trinkets inside it.
These days, it's worth anything from fifteen times that to fifty times that, judging by eBay's completed listings.
It's cool, and I've no plans to flog it, but it's nice to know that there's a small holiday's worth of funds tied up in it.
This isn't a high price, but higher than what I expected when I first thought about it. Growing up, my family had this chrome GE Bakelite toaster. Very dependable, never broke. The very definition of "they don't make 'em like they used to". I took a liking to it, so my parents gave it to me.
I started getting the history of it. My father had bought it at a garage sale in about the 1970's or 1980's. Before that, it was sold in the mid 1950's. I don't know what this one would actually go for since it's seen around 70 years of constant use, but similar toasters on eBay are going for $25-$70. Not bad, considering that people can't even give away many newer toasters.
Oh, I always win at Book Off in Japan. If you don't know what that is, give it a search. It's an interesting place.
I've bought several expensive camera lenses for 8-20$. Since they have no electronic components, they work fine. I use them to document work I do for various people or myself as a marketing too for my business. Worth every last one of those 8 dollars! Some are worth quite a bit of money.
There's a vacuum tube on my desk worth a bit. I found it for 3$ in a junk bin. Turned out it worked, so I built a weird, cursed amplifier out of it as a joke, using some old Soviet scrap and mystery Chinese ICs. Probably not worth anything anymore! -- but hey, it's a tube amp that works entirely at 5V! So weird!
I have a beautiful set of unused old ink stones from a famous manufacturer in China. I paid around 10$ for it. These are actually quite expensive and worth hundreds of dollars. Certainly less than a thousand though.
I also have a singing bowl, made of cast bronze. I don't know much about it, except it's old enough to predate modern machining (it was clearly sand-cast). It's probably also cursed -- someone sold it to me by accident for a few dollars when I asked for something else. Then I didn't notice until I got home. It's probably worth some money to the right person, but few people value such old things in my country and I don't want to sell it to an overseas buyer.
Oh and I have one of the original victory fliers from when the Japanese defeated the Russians in 1904. In perfect condition. I have no idea what it's worth, but certainly much more than I paid for it, haha. I should probably find a museum for it one day.
I bought a mosin nagant made in the 30s with a hex receiver for $80 when I was 18. They are getting closer to $1000 now. I should have bought more. The place had a whole crate of them.
One Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me an unopened bottle of whisky they had in their cabinet for a while. It was some of the best whisky I've ever had. About halfway through the bottle on Boxing Day, I took a moment to look up the cost (it's since gone up in price, but you'll get the idea)
https://dekanta.com/store/suntory-hibiki-30-years-old/
I. Was. Horrified. I have exactly two ounces left, that I will probably consume with my wife on my deathbed.
I don't own them anymore, but vintage Hewlett-Packard calculators, the RPN variety for engineers. An acquaintance moved into hospice a few years ago, and his family cleared out the house. I went over because they offered us sailors pick of his old boat gear, but I poked through the pile of electronics destined for the recycler, too. I grabbed several old calculators, a printer unit, and some programming books for them, as I was vaguely aware that maybe some people collect them. As it turns out, I got almost $700 for them on eBay.
The ones that I do still own are several IBM Model M keyboards that I picked out of the $1 keyboard bin at the university surplus shop back in the day. Although, after using one of them for 17 years (with no signs of wear), I realized that 5 spares would long outlast me, I sold a few for almost $400 total.
Another friend unexpectedly passed away earlier this year. A neighbor is helping to liquidate his vintage computer collection. I stopped by the house and saw a Northgate OmniKey Ultra in a pile, and asked how much would he take for it. Turns out, that was a recycling pile, so he just gave it to me. I could probably get $200 for it after cleaning it up, if I didn't need it.
I have a hideous lamp that I hate that’s worth about a grand. It doesn’t look like it’s worth that much, just a heavy brass base and reverse painted landscape shade.. but all antique and sought after.
My cats are probably going to break it so I should sell it but it was the last lamp my mom refurbished before she died (why it didn’t get sold and I got it in the first place)
I also have a brass fairy floor lamp that, with no shade, is worth about $1500, but that one looks valuable, and is very rare (and super cool)
I have a pair of front seats for a car.
Got them in trade on some work, was just so I could replace worn out seats, but when I got them I noticed they were special option seats, only came factory in one car in Japan, and an option in ~7 various cars/years in Japan. They're worth ~$3000. For 2, unassuming blue and black seats.
Geese. We got them to cut down on the number of chickens that hawks were taking. They live exclusively on grass so they cost nothing to maintain. We haven't lost a single hen to hawks in the three years since we got them.
So that's all about saving money. Where is the profit? Goose eggs. In the spring they lay eggs that are 5.5 to 7.5 ounces each. Chicken eggs are only 30% yolk. But goose eggs are 50% yolk. A single egg has a yolk almost 3x the size of three chicken eggs. These are worth money as food at $7 each or as hatching eggs for barter with other homesteaders that want geese and have incubators.
Edit: forgot to add that they are the best lawnmowers ever. They have dramatically cut down how much we need to mow. Which saves fuel and W&T on the mower as well as time.
Not sure if these would be unexpectedly high values as most people know they fetch a little bit, but I have all my old N64 games still boxed with most of the original inserts too. The one I know most would be Conkers Bad Fur Day, that always seems to fetch a nice price.
A couple of my Funko Pop figures are possibly worth a few hundred but nothing more.
And I have the full set of Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Lego sets which I know go for a bit over the original price.
10 years ago or something I bought a collection album from an artist I liked. I just did it because I like collecting CDs and I liked his music, but it turns out that it was a limited edition and only 1000 were made, each one had a unique number on it. I've seen them go for a few hundred on discogs a few times. I don't intend to sell mine though, it's in a pretty used state because I didn't really realize the value. I'd also rather have it than have a few hundred euro's.
I own a Zune. Despite owning it for over a decade, it's still worth about what I paid for it.
According to pricecharting.com my video game collection is worth in the neighborhood of $20k. Now, this is kind of bullshit for a few reasons, many of which come down to "just because it says the games are worth that much doesn't mean you could actually get that much by selling them." And I have no intention of selling anyway...i use pricecharting to track what I have, not for the supposed value. But it's surprising to see such a high number considering there's not a ton in my collection in terms of super rare stuff...the highest value things I own are ~$200.
I have some rare coin collection that I inherited. When my great uncle passed away he just asked everyone to be fair when they go through his stuff. I told everyone they could go ahead I wasn't too worried about getting anything of his as he didn't really keep much sentimental stuff. My mom put a few things aside in a box that she thought I'd like. When I finally had time to go through everything I noticed a binder that looked rough and weighted a ton. Sifting through it I didn't see much reason to keep it but to be safe I decided I'd go talk with my neighbor who owns a pawn shop and knows more about coins than I do. Come to find out I have 2 VERY limited coins that were nearly perfect for their time. Something about them predating US currency. Total value of all the coins is anywhere between $50k-100k. Selling them takes a life time though.
The most valuable thing I own is my pokemon card collection. I was obsessed when I was kid, but unlike everyone, I kept going through Rocket, Gym heroes and challenge, all the way to Neo Destiny and Legendary Collection. Possibly the rarest cards I have are two 1ed foil discovery Tyranitars and one 1ed foil Blaine's Charizard. My cards are very well loved and things have calmed down since the pandemic, but it was very weird, especially considering I got a booster box of Neo Discover for 50 bucks in 2009
My two most valuable records are the Katamari Damacy vinyl from Fangamer & the Sonic Adventure 2 vinyl from Brave Wave. I got both for $40 at different conventions and they've never been re-pressed so they both go for $250 sometimes, even used.
I have a Lego ninjago mask that's worth like $80 with both parts of it. I didn't know how expensive it was until checking my collection a couple days ago.
I have quite an extensive book collection between my wife and I who are both avid readers, turns out due to limited printings even unassuming non-“collector” books appreciate quite well. I have several books purchased for 20-30$ that are now worth hundreds if I wanted to part with them since the company just didn’t print many and doesn’t do reprints.
In the late 90s early 2000s, it was the CD era. Everyone was throwing away or selling vinyls really cheap. I was always broken so having like 12 vinyls for the price of one CD was the way to go for me. I now have a nice collection of hundreds of albums. Lots of prog rock, jazz, etc. I remember paying 2$ for Jean Leloup's first album. This specific one never got a repressing (and probably won't), so it sells for around 200$ now.
Not me but my mom. Her great grandmother gave her her "mad money" stash that she'd saved over the years, all in silver dollars. She didn't think much of it, just kept it as a memento.
Turns out it's 300 silver dollars minted between 1900 and 1905; some of them are worth over $1k by themselves.
I have season tickets for the Raiders. I had them in Oakland, and we got 1st priority when they moved to Vegas. I jumped at the opportunity bc I knew by Mark Davis moving the team to a tourist destination that there would be demand from both fan bases at every game. My theory is that the extra demand would allow me to sell most games for profit, and I could go to 1-2 /year fully paid with the profit. So far that's worked swimmingly well. I paid the PSL off in year 1 with the profit, and now make ~$3-5k / year selling tickets.
The PSL ran me about $4500/seat and I got 2 seats. They are selling at $30k apiece rn. It's very tempting to sell them for profit, but I enjoy having the ability to go to a few games and making a bit of profit selling the rest.
Yes, I realize I'm a scalper. Yes, I realize I'm part of the reason our home games have so many away fans. Having said that, I really don't care. Mark Davis made a business decision to move the team out of Oakland where we had die hard fans like myself going every week to instead moving to a tourist trap 10 hours away. In turn, I made a business decision to profit from that move.
My pocket knife costs 200€ but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it. Obviously it's not that valuable anymore especially now that it has my name and the purchase date engraved on it.
Kidneys
The 10th anniversary Sonic the hedgehog crystal cube. Bought it on a whim back then, honestly don't even remember what website I got it on, and when I got it I pretty much just kept it in the closet because I never wanted to put it out because I figured one of my cats would knock the damn thing over.
It was actually only a few months ago that I was talking about it when Sonic the hedgehog came up and I decided to Google it and I found out they only made 500 of the fucker.
Nothing crazy relative to some cards but I didn't expect this to be worth much.
I've got a game in a pile of about 100 sandwiched in between some penny priced games that is worth $500. I'm not creating a shrine for it. Just putting in with the rest of the group.
I’m not cool like everyone else here who got bargains or things that went up in value but for things that are more expensive than they seem to rational people, I have $6k headphones and up to $9k pens. Got them for a little under msrp (for the headphones, the cost of the pens went up).
Rational people don’t generally expect the prices of things like that to get so high, but they actually get a lot higher, I’m also not cool like the people who have those. There’s likely other things like this I can’t think of rn, but pens and headphones easily get the biggest “what’s wrong with you?” probably because they’re handheld non-jewelry
I have some old magic cards. There's a few lotus in there. I don't do much with 'em now but they were fun at the time.
I picked up a used Bucky O Hare NES cartridge for $8 back around 2000. Had no idea what the game was, but the picture on the cartridge was ridiculous. Now it sells for $150-$200 on eBay. More like $600 if you have the box and manual.
Also have Sparkster for Sega Genesis including the box and manual which sells for around $400.
I have a handful of games like that. They were either bought new when I was a kid in the 90s or I bought them cheap in the 2000s. I might sell them when I'm 80.
Just recently got what I think is an RCA RS2767IF 300W after looking it up just now. Walmart has it listed out of stock for ~$150. Now, mine isn't anywhere near new condition considering it can't read CDs in the 5 CD changer and has some other cosmetic issues, but for $14.99 at a thrift store, I think I got a great deal. Especially since I can plug my phone into it using aux to RCA Y adapter.
Bought a (two actually) donkey kong game & watch for some 20-30€ each, with the box (quite used) manual etc. goes for maybe 150 now.
Missed out on an old curtas for like 200-300 though 🥲 such a beautiful mechanical piece with such a history behind it, if I get rich one day I'll definitely get one.
