Finder. A lot of credit should go to my wife, who has trouble keeping track of the glasses on her face. Without her, I’d have no lost items to find.
I routinely lost everything as a kid, but one day I grew up and decided that all things should both have a place, and always be returned to that place immediately after that thing is no longer being used.
It’s true. They are different than normal purchases.
Certainly someone who finds, say, a valuable work of art that no one realized was valuable at a rummage sale (which occasionally happens) is a find. So it should probably apply to very-underpriced normal goods as well.
Thinking about more stuff I have found: Four phones, one wallet, easily over $50 in assorted bills over the years.
And then I remember that I was unable to return one of those phones to its owner. I found a cable to charge it, then started calling numbers in the address book saying “I found this phone, do you know whose phone it is?” and asking people to have the owner get in touch with me. I talked to like five people over about a week, all of whom said they’d tell the owner. But no one ever called me to get it.
Who loses a phone and doesn’t even bother to go pick it up? I ended up just giving it to goodwill.
For those who are net finders of stuff, why do you think that is?
Are we counting hair in this? Cuz if we are, I’m a net loser on a logarithmic scale.
Lost my whole wallet when I was still a teenager. Had to replace my social security card, driver’s license, and probably library card. This was back in the early 1970s, so no worries about identity theft then. And I wouldn’t have been carrying much cash, but whatever amount it was, I never got back.
In more recent years, I have lost a cell phone, three $20 bills all at once, and a couple of credit cards. I have found maybe $30 in cash total over my lifetime; maybe once I found a tenner on the ground and didn’t see anyone around who’d dropped it.
I’ve lost and then found many things in my home. Sometimes it’s years before the lost thing turns up: CDs, paperwork needed to file taxes, keys, credit cards, etc.
I’m like Seinfeld – I break even. Probably because I rarely lose anything and I’m not out and about enough to find anything. :smack:
Probably net loser, mostly because of my uncanny ability to “lose” things without actually parting with them, simply by forgetting where they are. Many “lost” things turn up in moving boxes in the basement years or decades later. 
My best win-win:
I dropped a $100 bill in the grocery store parking lot and it just disappeared into thin air. I searched for an hour, no dice.
The next week I was walking my dog at a park/ballfield and she started sniffing and pawing at a spot on the ground. Yup, she unearthed a $100 bill. The park was totally deserted, so I figured finders-keepers.
Net finder. I’m one of those people who looks at the floor a lot when I’m walking; I find money on a semi-regular basis.
My favourite was when I was a totally broke backpacker, in the few weeks between getting a job and getting paid. I’d paid up for the place I was staying for the month, and I had something like Aus $2 left to my name until the end of the week. I was walking up the street, and a $20 note fluttered towards me. No-one else nearby. I stood there for a few minutes, just in case the owner appeared, but nope.
I’m pretty good at finding stuff for other people too, I’ve found and returned a few lost wallets (and the one time I lost mine someone returned it to me, slightly dog chewed, but with all cards intact- no money, but then there wasn’t any in there when I lost it), wedding rings, and escaped pets.
I could open a thrift store with the stuff I find under the chairlift where I ski. Also found cold, hard cash a few times, about half a dozen cell phones, credit cards and two driver’s licenses last season.
I once found a $100 on the sidewalk at LAX. Looked around, found about $40 more in smaller bills.
Good times. 
So you gave the C-note to the dog?
I’m by far a net finder. Even more so since I started picking up litter in our neighborhood. True, most of that stuff is pretty much worthless but I’ve decided to keep a collection of odds and ends I’ve found just for the heck of it. I have, however, found a couple of items worth thirty or forty bucks, if bought brand new.
Oh, yeah, and a fire extinguisher. Someone decided they absolutely needed to clean out their car right now, which meant in front of our house in the wee hours. We came out in the morning and, on our parking strip, found about a dozen empty disposable lighters, a bunch of old lottery scratch tickets, some other detritus… and a fully charged, perfectly fine fire extinguisher. I decided right there and then that it would just about cover the cost of cleaning up some thoughtless person’s trash. It lives upstairs in our bedroom now.
I haven’t lost anything of value in nearly thirty years. That was my wallet, which someone found and returned. Nowadays, I may lose something but I know it’s in the house somewhere. It may take months but eventually it turns up.
I’m a net finder. I have found $100 twice (although once, I located the owner, but got $40 reward), and $20 twice, and $1 more times than I can count.
The only time I lost money was once when I lost $10.
I have lost coins in machines, but I have also found coins in machines tons of times, and I think it balances out. Plus, I have sought recourse for lost coins.
My husband is a net loser, though, so we average out.