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!
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 have four tyres in pretty good condition on my car, that’s $1000 right there.
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 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 $300. So who knows.
That’s fine, I don’t think he’ll ever sell it. It means more to him than a pay day.
Oh, I always win at Book Off in Japan. If you don’t know what that is, give it a search. It’s an interesting place.
I’ve bought several expensive camera lenses for 8-20$. 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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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 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 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.
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.
