The value of something, like art, is in the eye of the beholder.
But can everyday objects have the potential to increase in value that are not necessarily limited edition, signed works of art?
All you need to do is to go on eBay to find out.
While you're there, you may find plenty of random items you thought were worthless at one time is going for a king's ransom today.
"What is cheap right now but will become expensive in the near future?"
The depletion of these three things sparked its own thread.
Decreasing Commodity
"Cork, vanilla and many fish. The sources for them are not being properly maintained and are shrinking."
Vanilla Value
"Vanilla has already more than doubled in price since 2015. There was a hurricane or something that wiped out most of the crop in Madagascar, which is where the vast majority of vanilla comes from."
"About a decade ago I bought a 16oz bottle of fancypants vanilla bean 'crush' (aka vanilla paste, basically a syrup form of vanilla extract) for a little over $20. Nowadays that same amount would run you at least $60."
"Alcohol-based extract is generally cheaper than paste, but still way more expensive than it was as little as 6 years ago."
Cork Stigma
"Many mass producers of wine have shifted to synthetic corks or twist offs. The stigma of twist offs is already few years gone unless you're drinking something with a bit more age to it."
Thoughts On Fish
"Sometimes when I eat fish I think about how it could be a scarce delicacy in the future that only rich people will get to enjoy."
– letter99
"History major here: it already is, at least partly. Best example is salmon. Back in the 18th century, there are examples of house-people 'rioting' because they were sick of eating salmon at least 4 times a week. Now you'd have to be pretty rich to eat salmon nearly everyday, here in Europe."
Keeping up with the latest technology, while convenient, has a financial setback.
"Owning" Devices
"Companies are lobbying hard to fight right to repair legislation that would make it so you can't actually fix your own devices or have a repair shop do it for you. It's already pretty bad with companies like Apple, Tesla, and John Deere. They design stellar products but if anything goes wrong with them you're almost always going to be told to buy a new one (apple) or to ship your heavy piece of machinery both ways for days to weeks to have it repaired when you should otherwise be able to do it yourself."
"Farmers are moving back to ancient tractors since they can fix them themselves and get parts for a reasonable price, or they're using bootleg Polish JD software to bypass the DRM in their tractors so they can actually fix these things in a timely matter. Sometimes having a $100 sensor break in your tractor can cost you upwards of $5000 with shipping, rigging, and labour. Not to mention a potentially lost harvest if it takes too long to fix."
A "Global Scale Issue"
"It's kinda a global scale issue right now. Poor people just can't afford ecological stuff."
"My dad always mentioned that he'd buy electric heating system for the house, electric car, solar panels, etc. if they were actually affordable in a lifetime. Now he's stuck using 20+ years furnace that runs on wood and and burnable trash, 20+ year car, some old tractor, and actually he got subsidies for the solar panels, so that's nice."
Some of the most basic things used in our daily lives may no longer be attainable without spending beaucoup $$.
Sucks A Bunch
"Bananas. At least, the kind of bananas we're used to now, the cavendish banana. The fusarium fungus is slowly spreading through the world's cavendish banana plantations, killing all of the plants. https://qz.com/1691363/fusarium-fungus-could-wipe-out-the-worlds-favorite-banana-again/"
– ratsbane
People Who Made A Lot Of Money From Something Totally Random | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Big Brother Is Watching
"Relatively speaking, privacy."
– Voxico
"NordVPN: Because our servers are more trustworthy than their servers."
Simple But Necessary Indulgences
"Chocolate or coffee."
"Either that or I'll be dead when that happens."
Good Morning Drinking GIF by University of PhoenixGiphyGame Preservation
"Games in general really."
"Lack of game preservation by companies in recent years (Nintendo just ignoring most of its backlog with the Switch, Sony getting a massive backlash for trying to pull the plug on the PS3 PSN store, which it seems like it won't be the last time they attempt this considering they still went ahead and did that for the PSP despite the backlash), emulation still being stuck in a legal gray area that makes it easy for the sites hosting older games to be taken down, and disks/carts being destroyed due to neglect by owners, are all going to make the used game market insanely expensive."
"If you have a local retro game store in your area, make sure to support them. They're basically the only ones still making older games remotely affordable."
– TokoWH
Second-Hand Vehicles
"They've already started to go up a huge amount, but used cars."
"90s Japanese cars are outrageous now."
Chump Change
"Pennies."
"They already cost more than a penny, because of the copper."
"Edit: yes, pennies are mostly zinc, not copper. Got it. Why do I get all the upvotes when I say something dumb?"
I never thought cologne increased in value, but apparently, it does.
I used to shop at an apparel store called Ruehl, which was owned by Abercrombie & Fitch and catered to the post-collegiate demographic between the ages of 22 and 35.
As with their Abercrombie locations, Ruehl stores – which were themed after New York's Greenwich Village – pumped the store's eponymous fragrance throughout their stores.
Their gimmick worked and I bought myself a bottle of the good stuff and was subsequently mocked by my colleagues about how I'm such a sucker for egregious marketing and wasting money on "crap."
Well, a friend of mine recently apprised me of a listing on eBay of the discontinued bottle of Ruehl cologne and asked me if I still had mine.
I do have my half-used bottle of RUEHL No.925 R-7 Men's Cologne Spray. And apparently, the "crap" I initially spent $40 on is now roughly worth $250 according to this listing my friend showed me.
So who's laughing now, huh?
Had I known it would appreciate that much in value a few years later, I seriously would have stocked up. Sigh.
Redditor H5N1BirdFlu wanted to discuss the moments in life that left us haunted and shook, so they asked:
"What is the creepiest or most unexplained event that you have ever experienced?"
I've seen so much creepiness I wouldn't know where to begin.
Deal
Walter White Wink GIF by Breaking BadGiphy"One car from one direction, and another car from the other direction stopped in front of my house. Both drivers got out and one gave the other a briefcase. Now that I am older I am guessing it was some kind of drug deal or something but at the time I found it very weird."
yapastaocho
'The Entertainer'
"We had a little copper music box that would start playing on its own. It was a man sitting at a player-piano and it would play 'The Entertainer' song. Now, I know that music boxes and such can spring (for lack of a better word) forward and play a few notes, but this thing would act like someone had wound it up and would play for a minute or two completely at random."
MercuryCrest
He?
"Me and and someone I used to know in high school way back when met to catch up. We were talking about our views on religion at some park. When we were walking back to our cars some guy said he had overheard us. We interacted a little and then went to our cars. I told her how awkward I felt knowing he overheard everything. She looked at me and said, 'He?'”
"After some comparing notes we realized we’d seen and heard entirely different people. She’d seen an elderly woman. I’d seen a middle aged man. Only problem is we only talked to the one person."
AccomplishedAuthor53
Overnight
"I usually go hiking and stay in the forest overnight, sleeping in a bivy and sometimes under a tarp. Now it's important to say I'm based in Europe. So no wild animals to be afraid of because usually they just boot it as soon as they notice you."
"So one winter night I'm sleeping under my tarp which connects to the ground on one side. It's in an area where there were fierce battles in the forrest on the border between Germany and Belgium in WWII."
"I hear something walking in the leaves, which is normal. There are always deer and ferral pigs on and about. But this time it comes closer and closer until I hear it right on the other side of my tarp and it starts growling. Its a noise I gad never heard and for a moment I was frozen trying to figure out what it might be and what to do."
"But I just decided to yell back and that did the trick. The animal walked a few steps and then turned back to growl once more before finally retreating."
"Let's put it this way, I didn't sleep for a while after that. I looked up the noise and think it was a badger."
Forest_Walkin
Devoured
Episode 4 Abc GIF by The BachelorGiphy"My family used to raise cattle. One morning I came out to check on them and I found one of the heifers had been more or less completely devoured."
"This same cow was perfectly fine the day before. There was nothing left but some hide, bones, and intestines. Thing is none of the predators that are in my area would be able to kill and eat an entire cow within the course of one night. Much less leave so little behind."
Aussieshepman
Poor cows. They live a rough life.
The Night Before
Get Out Omg GIF by Get Out MovieGiphy"When I was a kid, we lived in a kinda rural area. One night we came home late from an Uncle's house and there was a car parked up the road from our house with the headlights on."
"My mom suggested to my dad that we go see if they need help, he said no, so we went inside. Next morning police knocked on the door, a cyclist had spotted a body in the ditch exactly where the car was parked the night before."
Tpeest
Documents
"I have had a strange thing happen recently. I was waiting for my tax documents to come in so I could do my taxes. I had three documents that I put on my bedside table until I had the time."
"I decided to do it the other day and I couldn't find one of them. I tore the house apart, quizzed my husband (who swore he never touched it), checked the garbage, etc. I had resigned myself to the fact I would have to request another one, when it arrived in the mail."
"It was the same one, exact same information. I was really confused but grateful. I checked into it, it was not sent twice as far as the office could tell me."
"I don't know what to think. I KNOW I had that document because I had done some calculations with it. It's been itching at me like crazy."
monitormonkey
About 30 Feet
"A few months ago I was sitting in my living room on the couch, watching tv with a family member late at night. We have a high ceiling with a couple of rectangular windows at the very top of the wall just under where it meets the ceiling. The windows are so high (about 30 feet) we really only have them for natural lighting."
"So on the night in question, a green laser beam suddenly shown down through one of the windows, seemingly scanned the entire living room before stopping and pointing the beam right next to my family member for about 10 seconds and then disappearing entirely. It had to be either a drone or from some sort of flying aircraft. I live in a relatively secluded place which made the situation all the more unsettling."
0friday
Find Her
"Pretty sure I witnessed a kidnapping once and it still lives rent free in my head (the woman lost her slipper when she was trying to get away and i took a picture of it that i still have for some reason). I did indeed report it to police right after I saw it occur but they were pretty blasé about it and I never ended up being able to determine what they did to investigate."
ergaster8213
From Behind
the exorcist shadow GIFGiphy"I was in Jr High and had really long hair. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and almost tripped on a shoe on the floor. I bent down to move it and it felt like someone grabbed my entire pony tail and yanked it. I also could not sleep facing the wall for the longest time because it always felt like someone or something was right there behind me."
cheeseburgerphone182
Never face the wall. Life lesson.
These were some harrowing experiences, and we're glad these Redditors made it out to tell the story.
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
Redditor NeedSomeSparkInLife wanted to know who would be willing to share, so they asked:
"What makes you not want to be intimate with your SO?"
I'm an easily turned off person.
So it doesn't take much.
Desire
Bored Season 5 GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Taking a moment to realize I'm the only one that makes sexual advances in the relationship. Makes me not want it. People think men only want sex for face value but a lot of men actually want the feeling of being desired more so."
Relative-Hour-9359
Anger Issues
"I've always heard of fighting then having sex after. Fighting has always made me not want it. The last thing I want to do when someone pisses me off is have sex with them. What made it worse is she always wanted to when we were arguing which made the argument worse when I refused."
DaMoonRulez_1
"I think you're supposed to resolve your fight, realize that you care for each other a lot, move past it, then have the passion because of that. Not fight right into sex."
Ksp-or-GTFO
Take a Shower
"My ex and I were together for nearly 7 years, but his hygiene never improved, so we stopped being intimate like, 3 years before I finally broke up with him. He showered only once a week, but he worked in kitchens, so he was sweaty and greasy all the time."
"He had an infected tooth, so he constantly had bad breath, but he refused to visit a dentist, even when he had the money to afford dental work. He stopped working out within the first year of us being together, which sucked because he would get jealous if I went to the gym by myself or with my girlfriends, but he refused to come with me."
GreenChorizo
Sober Time
"Personally, the only issue I have is my SO's drinking. He just becomes an unattractive person when he's drunk. It's one thing if we're both out socializing and drinking together occasionally, but he drinks almost every day, sitting on the couch in front of the TV and to the point of sloppy drunkenness way too often. His face changes, his posture changes, his personality changes... I just get so turned off."
WeptSiren3113
Hang Up
Art Hello GIF by LINDSEY L33Giphy"When they are glued to their phones non stop! Put that s**t down and look at me before we go to bed!"
Palmwine
"I really dislike this too. Makes me feel alone in the relationship."
RealBrownPerson
No phones in bed. Hard rule for many of us to follow.
Step Back
Be Quiet Go Away GIF by Ryn DeanGiphy"When I make a move, and then get the feeling she's not really in the mood/would only do it to please me. I want us both to have a good time, not only me. So when she seems not into it, I take a step back."
Level-Plate8372
Calm Down
"To be brutally honest, her anxiety and insecurity makes sex such a hassle. She doesn’t believe anything I say about wanting her, she can almost never relax during sex, she doesn’t take time to enjoy it, and if God forbid I have any trouble finishing, she takes it more personally than anything, which of course puts more pressure on me to finish, which then makes it almost impossible."
Ben_Franklinstein
When at Wal-Mart
"When they’ve done something really nasty/unkind that day. Cruelty is the most ugly thing a person can show, in my eyes. I had a boyfriend that I went to Wal-Mart with and he ended up flipping off and storming right past the sweet little old man that checks the receipts at the door."
"It was partially about how I used to check receipts and I remembered how I felt when people treated me like that- but I also remember the look on the little old man’s face and just how disgusted I was with my partner being so nasty about it."
"I couldn’t touch him after that and I got grossed out when he touched me. And then I started to notice how he was nasty to other people as well. It eventually led to our break up."
spxdergirl
33 Years In
"My husband used to dislike his job - he’d come home and do nothing but bi**h. After awhile, I just gave up trying to cheer him up with sex - you can only try so long. So, we had a long dry spell - like, whatever you think a dry spell would be, it’s longer. When someone is constantly annoyed, well, it’s hard to feel amorous."
"Anyway, he early retired (54) like a month before Covid kicked in and by autumn that year, well, let’s just say we’re back to what we were like when we first met. He’s not pissed off all the time. (I’m retired as well, and let’s just say, afternoon nookie is such a perk, as is morning nookie and 3am nookie because you can sleep in!) I’m glad we stayed together. Going on 33 years and we’re just so happy."
NicInNS
Rage
Angry Inside Out GIF by Disney PixarGiphy"Feeling angry. I hate feeling angry. I don't like being around other people when angry. So I'll go for a walk, a drive etc, and just clear my head."
jackfaire
It seems like "dead bed," as some folks call it, can stem from many things, from mood, attraction, hygiene, and more.
Do you have anything to add to this list? Let us know in the comments.