# Has anyone threw away an expensive thing to find out it was worth a lot? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 26, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607 "2014-10-26T23:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/21 "2014-10-28T00:27:11Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > If this Buzzfeed piece [32 Of Your Childhood Toys That Are Worth An Absolute Fortune Now](http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/gotta-sell-em-all) is any guide :rolleyes:, I could have funded my retirement with all the crap we bought for the little one. We had half of that stuff. Seriously, a Polly Pocket for $499.00? :eek: I don’t know where they are getting those prices. You’ve got a used Street Sharks figure and you’re lucky to get $5. The rest of the figures seem similarly anally derived. ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/22 "2014-10-28T00:58:44Z")
I wish I knew where all these cheap records are! I’ve recently jumped on the bandwagon of record loving, and am trying to rebuild my collection. I’m interested in all kinds - classical, jazz, country, metal, punk, and most mainstream stuff from the 60s on, and I’ve found that for anything but the most obscure or lame stuff it’s a minimum of $5, more likely $10-$20. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/23 "2014-10-28T01:17:52Z")
About ten years ago I cleared out all of the old and obsolete electronic junk I accumulated while studying electrical engineering in the late 1970’s. Among them was a Motorola MEK6800D2 development kit - a simple keyboard and LED digits to test writing assembly language programs. A quick search on eBay shows one currently going for $719. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/24 "2014-10-28T01:29:27Z")
Technically not thrown away, but stripped of value: I had several of the Lego pirate ships released in the late 80s/early 90s. While I played willy-nilly with Legos plenty, these I treated as precise models and kept intact and apart from my other Legos for years. I had the boxes and instruction manuals as well. The kits probably could have been recounstructed pretty accurately and completely, maybe minus a minifig or two. After I left for college, my mom just mixed 'em into the rest of the Legos so visiting kids at the house could play with 'em. Most of the pieces are probably still in those bins, but extracting and sorting…yeah, not gonna happen. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/25 "2014-10-28T14:57:15Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > most used records from that period you couldn’t give away. few might get you a nickel or a dime. Well, when I ditched my vinyl not that long ago (seemingly the last one on the block to go with CDs), I first separated out any albums that were unlikely to ever make it to CD and kept them. I took all the others to the local vinyl resale shop and told the owner he could have it all, and he accepted gladly. I trusted that he’d have a good idea what should end up in the landfill and what shouldn’t. It was amusing watching him leaf through them quickly and comment on them, pointing out ones in reasonable demand and others with just a “not so much” chuckle. Evidently my wife’s Barbra Streisand records weren’t worth much. I don’t think that’s a reflection on Barbra as much as on how often he must see them show up in old collections versus what vinyl lovers look for. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/26 "2014-10-28T15:16:44Z")
[This](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/it-worker-throws-out-hard-drive-loses-7-5-million-f2D11669738) poor bastard threw away a hard drive with 7,500 bitcoins, which was worth $7.5 million at the time the article was written. Now it’s worth a “mere” $2,674,317.41, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/27 "2014-10-28T16:11:12Z")
I pulled a box of old computer boards from the trash at work (encouraged by the boss, no less!) and found out they were worth about $100 each or more on ebay. I had about 28 of them! Score! Kinda the opposite of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/28 "2014-10-28T17:41:02Z")
The usual for guys my age ------- back around 1970 or so I gave all my baseball cards to some church sale. Including ones from my Dad. And his dads which were technically cigarette cards. Many of which, even in poor condition, would go well today and have brought a shitload at the height of the craze. The coin shop I work at, we see stuff like that all the time and it isn’t always the coins. One couple had some stuff that was basically junk in a cigarette tin. The coins brought $3.00 – the tin ended up bringing $1500.00 ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/29 "2014-10-28T19:44:38Z")
Apparently last year I found my old bag of cassette tapes - these were not “collectibles” or original releases, and in fact were less than a dozen years old. I figured I’d just replace them with the CD versions and tossed them. I said “apparently”, because I have no specific recollection of doing so, but I’m pretty sure I must’ve; when I’m on my “clean out the junk” spurt, I’m pretty aggressive. Fast-forward to last week when I started shopping for the CD replacements: YIKES! A single 4-tape set of **Bob and Ray** on CD was like $30, and I had many B&R tapes. Likewise for various **Lake Wobegon** sets. I had thrown away probably $500 worth of tapes (the tape version sells for almost as much as CD on eBay) thinking they were A) worthless and B) cheaply replaceable. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/30 "2014-10-28T20:47:29Z")
Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely, but too well. Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought, Perplexed in the extreme. Of one whose hand, Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe. ---
**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/31 "2014-10-28T23:30:53Z")
My quasi-hoarder in-laws desperately need to downsize and move to an apartment as both are in poor health and live in a 4 bedroom place full of stuff. Since they refuse to do it, my wife, her sisters, and I held a garage and estate sale to clear out some of the junk. Among the items that were sold were a full sized solid marble black bust of Julius Caesar with a gold leave headpiece that weighed close to 100 lbs. This piece of shit would be rejected by the most tasteless of rap stars as too gaudy, so I was thrilled when a Chinese gentleman offered $25 for it. Likewise, a large red glass vase was sold for $10. My in-laws later berated me because I gather the gold on the bust was real gold and they bought that in the 1970s for $1,200. The red vase was Murano glass from Italy and was probably a $1,000 item. To this I said “great, so do your own damn garage sale and I won’t have to do it for you.” Personally, I’m glad I sold the stuff for pennies on the dollar. Back when the whole hipster thing started, I sold a large collection of vinyl records and record player parts and got several hundred dollars for the set. I’m quite happy with the way that went. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/32 "2014-10-29T21:47:57Z")
Probably quite a lot – my dad was 87 when he died, and had hoarded so much stuff that after two years of careful sifting my brother hadn’t even made a dent (aside from cramming the basement full to the point of goat-trails, he’d filled a 2500 square foot garage to the literaly rafters, plus several additional outbuildings on the property). My brother wanted to get my mother moved in with him several states away, and I was moving to another country, so my brother turned it all over to pickrs and auctioneers, netting us a tiny fraction of what it might have all been worth. Hoarders stress me out, so while it was a shame that we couldn’t go through all of it (some of it dated back to my grandparents and their family in the 19th century), it was a huge albatross hanging on my mother, my brother, and me. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607/33 "2014-10-29T22:18:54Z")
[Shazam](http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070902122741/marvel_dc/images/5/53/Shazam_1.jpg) #1. I was 12 or so when I bought it at the Tri-County Bookstore in the town I grew up in. When I got married and moved out I tossed a lot of my kid stuff, including that. No idea how much it’s worth. I’ve seen anywhere from $100 all the way to 10K! Doesn’t mean anyone is actually getting that much. But I still wish I hadn’t tossed it! :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-threw-away-an-expensive-thing-to-find-out-it-was-worth-a-lot/702607.md?page=1)