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.
WHAT. That’s crazy! What a story- great find!
A very Douglas Adams sort of occurrence, particularly fitting I thought.
I used to frequent a thrift shop that gave books away for free, I saw a copy of Cloud Atlas and thought it would be a good read (it was). I accidentally for the dust cover a little then looked at the title page, signed first edition. Not worth much, but cool nonetheless.
I went to a Hotel Furniture liquidator for some new furniture. Saw a good looking office chair and they only wanted $20 for it.
Brought that bad boy home and only then did I find out that they had sold me a new Herman Miller Aeron for only $20. Completely insane.
I’ve heard those chairs are super nice and super expensive. Great find!
I’ve sat in one. It’s a nice chair, but… well let’s just say office chairs are very subject to diminishing returns. I’d definitely buy one for $20 though.
This one’s 20 years old, and it’s been used heavily. It’s help up really well.
Yeah. New they’re like 900+. Used, early 300+
I’m sitting in one now. It’s 20 years old. It’s time for a new one.
BUT. They’re repairable. The local HM dealer can tell you where to send it for an assessment. It’ll not have its warranty back, but for 7,000 days of heavy use, this thing’s doing well. Its back and pan are good, and it’s really just a few stabilizer bits that look like they’re the patented ‘first thing to eventually go’ struts. It could be a $200 repair and it’s back in business. But I’ll have a new one this year because my ass wants to see a new one.
Nice! I just paid $300 for one of these used a month or so ago. Found out it’s a little small for my height so I’m going to have to resale and find the bigger version or just get an expensive office chair and stop trying to be cheap
I got one as a hand-me-down from my father’s office when they replaced all their chairs. It’s pretty well worn and the upholstery is rather frumpy these days, but the bones of the thing are still good.
I remember talking about desk chairs with a friend group and on a lark I thought I’d read off the model on it to demonstrate how unassuming this no-name chair I thought I had was. So I actually said something akin to, “Yeah, it’s just some chair from some company called Herman Miller, whoever that is,” and everyone was aghast. They had to explain to me what Herman Miller actually is, and I was very embarrassed for having accidentally humble bragged about it.
A good chair is worth a lot of money. A good back can help you for a lifetime.
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…
That’s awesome! I’ve collected a few coins but none worth that. I only have one ancient coin of the Gallic Emperor Tetricus II that’s in rough condition, but I only purchased it for $10. The only surprising coin I have is an 1809 US Capped Bust Half Dollar that is apparently a rare variant with some markings along the edge, and PCGS says there are only an estimated 900 of that variant that are still around. Unfortunately, there was already a deep scratch on the front when I bought it that likely lowers the value to that of the normal variant, but I still love the history and rarity of it.
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.
If you never intend to sell it then value doesn’t really matter. It can be a fun story when someone is over for tea, but you aren’t losing anything if something happens.
It does matter if I ever needed to replace it 😬 I know I’d order some other teapot instead but I do love this one and I’d miss it.
What color is the teapot? Do you know if that color had a limited number or if it is just popular? It’s always a little funny to me when something is rare just because of a different color or something similar that doesn’t impact function compared to the normal item, but I get it all comes down to preference and rarity.
It’s by Le Creuset, and they apparently rotate out most of their colors. So you can still buy the same teapot in a different color, which is what I ended up doing for my friend. The one I got was a limited run, it’s a pretty rich purple they called “cassis”, if you search Ebay for anything in that color the prices are nuts!
Red currants :)
Edit - apparently they are black currants. Still tasty!
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.
That’s awesome! I agree that it doesn’t look all too special if it was just sitting with other stuffed animals.
I have a feeling these are gonna go the way of beanie babies and vinyl toys and be worth very little in 3-5 years.
But then again, I just dug out some of my old Matchbox cars for my 6 year old. Just for fun went looking on eBay, and if I had treated them better, a couple were worth over $300. So who knows.
That’s fine, I don’t think he’ll ever sell it. It means more to him than a pay day.
I have an old folder of pokemon cards from my childhood. Apparently, that folder is worth thousands. I have first editions of a lot of the first cards and they are all in near mint condition. Im not selling, as they have sentimental value + my local shops would probably rip me off.
I wish I had kept my cards. I had binders and lunch tins full of Pokemon cards when I was younger. A lot got sold at garage sales while I was growing up, but I may still have a few left somewhere.
If you ever do sell them, I’d recommend only selling to a shop as a last resort or if you need quick money. I usually start by trying to sell on Facebook Marketplace since you don’t have to pay fees or shipping and get the most profit. On the flip side, you usually need to wait longer due to the smaller number of local buyers, and you have to deal with annoyances like people haggling for obscenely low prices, asking you to drive far to meet them, or just not showing up to buy the item. After a while, I usually list the item on eBay which means less profit due to fees and shipping, but usually more buyers and a smoother experience.
Thanks! That’s too bad, it’s actually a fun game to play. I was one of the only ones in my neighborhood that played the game when I was a kid. So lots of dups and such.
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.
What is the model of spectrophotometer that you bought?
X-Rite i1Pro.
I have been eyeing that model for a while now, nice to have some additional confirmation about it. Thanks!
That’s a neat item, and I never really considered what work would occur for reviews like yours. Was your spectrophotometer a great deal when you bought it, or has it just risen a ton in value?
It was an unusually cheap price on ebay.
I found a copy of “The Hunt for Red October “ in a bargain bin. It looked funny and had a version of the cover I’d never seen before Bought it for like $5
It was a first printing From the Naval Institute Press.
Worth like 200$.
Nice
I’m actually reading through Hunt for Red October now, but mine is a cheap worn-out copy I got for free with another book purchase at a flea market. That’s awesome to find a first edition!
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.
What does full size mean can you get inside it and drive it around
It’s about 30 cm in width. By full size I meant it’s not a hot wheels model
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 agree something like that shouldn’t be given up. It’s amazing that it’s made its way to you and still works. While they don’t take up nearly as much space as your plane does, I have a deed, some bank statements, and some letters from relatives that are 100-150 years old. They wouldn’t be worth much to anyone but my family, but it’s great having that history to hold onto.
A number 1 plane is actually tiny. That’s part of why they are expensive. They are small enough that demand was low since most people didn’t want/need them. They only really fit in child hands.
Now they are a collectors item since people want to collect them all, but they never made many.
It’s* got wear
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.
That looks awesome! Collector’s boxes of games can be really cool. I still have the collector’s edition of Skyrim (the original release), and it’s worth a good bit. I don’t really want to get rid of the cool Alduin statue though.
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.
That’s really cool. Such a non-descript item that still holds some value all these years later.
I’m honestly not that surprised. It has a cool vintage look because it’s, well, vintage.
