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.

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 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.

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 have four tyres in pretty good condition on my car, that’s $1000 right there.

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’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 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.

Removed by mod

I buy and sell used books. I came across one nondescript worn hardback in a box and for some reason decided to research it. It’s worth five figures. Cost about 25c.

My student loans? Child support? Repairs and maintenance?

laughcries in poor

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.

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.

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.

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.