And they are not required to. This is the heartbreaker, but at the end of the day what you’ve got is a 1989 Cavalier Z24. Your hard work and upkeep does matter, but not as much as you might think.
Hypothetical:
Car value: $2,000
Uh-oh, clutch is worn out! Car value with worn out clutch: $1,250
Cost to replace the clutch: $750
Car value: $2,200
Uh-oh, brakes are worn! Car value with bad brakes: $1,800
Cost to replace brakes: $300
Car value $2,300 (with new clutch & brakes)
In no world is the value of the car: $2,000 + 750 + 300 = $3,050. If the work is relatively recent and documented it certainly is worth more than it’s garden variety brother with worn but servicable clutch & brakes, but mostly what you’ve done by repairing the car is prevent a REDUCTION in value for having an inoperable vehicle. Cars cost money to maintain and that’s just a fact of life. And a clutch you replaced 10,000 miles ago will have minimal impact on the overall value of the car.
But now we’ve moved past the issue of repair, and are just quibbling over what the fair market value of the lamp was. I say it’s worth $1000. You say it’s worth $5. It is up to both parties to do the research to prove their case, and negotiate. I might say that my lamp is usually worth $5, but might be worth $1000 to a highly-motivated-buyer-after-a-worldwide-apolcalypse-in-which-all-other-lamps are-incinerated-except-mine, but that’s hardly “fair”, is it? What do similar quality lamps usually sell for? Is it closer to $5 or closer to $1000?