Other than a house or motor vehicle. Either purchase or resale price.
I can’t think of much myself, other than a few pieces of Stickley furniture that were a couple grand a piece. No idea how much value they retain. Tho they are expensive, we love the style and they will last forever - be handed down to our kids and grandkids.
But other than that, I’m not sure I own anything else that would be worth more than a couple hundred.
My wife has a couple of pieces of expensive jewelry, but not me. No art, expensive collectibles, antiques, etc.
If you count the tools, my rollaway. 30 years of hand tool collecting all in one big ass stainless steel rollaway and chest. It’s worth a whole lot more than my car too. Throw in all my tools and other tool storage, it probably approaches the value of the place I’m living in right now.
Probably my bed. My partner’s bed is worth more, and we do own these things in common, but we didn’t actually pay for that one. It was just kind of thrown into the purchase when we bought our flat, despite being worth about £3000 (yes, pounds sterling. I can’t believe an ordinary bed can cost that much. Call me old-fashioned!).
My fiancee has some amazing posters from the Cannes film festival that are framed up. They’re collectors items and hard to come by in the States and they’re supposedly worth a decent amount. Probably not thousands, but they’re nice. She also had an extremely rare Charlie Chaplin poster from the Chicago Film Festival that runs quite a bit.
The most expensive thing (at the time of purchase) in my house is my TV. That being said, however, I have several items of jewelry and silver that would be appraised much higher than the TV.
I also have some stock certificates that are worth considerally more than the TV but technically.
I have my grandfather’s pocket watch (circa 1910) and mother’s engagement ring (circa 1946).
Some artwork by regional artists that has appreciated a bit, this poster (original, framed), and a few pieces of antique furniture I got when my mother moved. Maybe some of my signed First Editions.
A collection of failed American handgun designs from throughout history including:
1845 Allen & Thurber Pepperbox
1860 Savage & North Revolving Pistol
1883 Protector Palm Pistol
1959 Dardick 1500
1966 MBA Gyrojet
My wife also has some fancy French furniture from the early 1900s that has been passed to us from her great Aunt that we recently had reupholstered. That’s definitely worth several thousands of dollars.
Single item: I own a copy of a c.1910 art book on jewelry that can be found for ~$400 if you can find it at all (I got it for about half that). Those of you who are less extravagant can buy the reprint for around $14.
In aggregate: I am on a mission to collect all issues of La Mode Illustree (French fashion magazine, with patterns!) published between 1900 and 1929. I’m about half there. Retail value of the 400+ issues I own (based on “I’m buying this right now, no time to comparison shop!” prices) would be around $12K (be assured I did not spend that much - patience and buying in large lots saves much cash, even on the collectables market).
Baseball card collection from the early to mid 1950’s. My grandma didn’t throw them away! Cost, five cards plus a good piece of bubblegum for five cents. Today’s value for 1,000 plus cards? Uh, a LOT!
Probably my computer, which is just a run-of-the-mill Dell PC. Of course, now that the computer is several years old, my $200 organic chemistry textbook is probably worth more. :rolleyes:
ETA: My binoculars were $300 new when I bought them a few years ago.