Priceless Junk

[happyfilmluvguy]

There is a quote that Belloq makes in the film, "Radiers Of The Lost Ark"

BELLOQ LIFTS UP A POCKET WATCH

"Look at this. It's worthless, ten dollars from a vendor in the street, but I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years and it becomes priceless."

There is a resemblence between the storyline of the film and the vintage lifestyle. Items of the past that were once considered normal over time become priceless relics of the past, and people spend plenty for them.

But did you ever consider your own personal items? Paperwork, credit cards, wallets, shirts, socks, handbags, hats, remote controls, phones, watches, sunglasses, anything that to you is just normal everyday things. In a hundred years that wallet you carried in your pocket or purse could become one of the rarest items on earth.

I admit I am somewhat of a junk collector. I find things that to other people are worthless and keep them for myself. I imagine that note I wrote to my friend or that debit card I kept in my wallet could one day be found by someone else, who thinks so much of it. Things like what they have found from my possessions become priceless. They may try to learn who I was by the items I owned, just like we do with others items before us.

So are these thoughts completely unrealistic or am I onto something?

Let's hear other's thoughts

 

[MrNewportCustom]

So are these thoughts completely unrealistic or am I onto something?

Yes and no.

I occasionally wonder the same, which is probably part of why I and my family are incurable packrats. On the other hand, items made in the past were made in much lower numbers and higher quality than most everything made today, so its future value will probably be respectively lower due to current abundance and the "built-in-obsolesence" factor of todays future artifacts.


Lee

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

I wonder what the very watch they used as a prop would sell for on eBay.

I heard Picasso once claimed he could make money ten times as much worth. Then he either signed a banknote or sketched something on it and was instantly proven right.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I've often wondered the same thing! I recently sold most of my CD collection because of Mp3s, but then I wondered "What if I have a kid and he/she wants to start a retro CD collection?" I'd have had a goldmine!

 

[ScionPI2005]

On the other hand, items made in the past were made in much lower numbers and higher quality than most everything made today, so its future value will probably be respectively lower due to current abundance and the "built-in-obsolesence" factor of todays future artifacts.

That statement simply explains why my Waltham pocket watch, which is now 103 years old, runs perfectly fine, and I had to replace my cell phone last week--a phone I've only had ten months...

 

[Diamondback]

The otherr thing is the risk of certain paperwork and identity-theft--my old ATM cards once they expire go into a box to be used as targets on the range: who's gonna try to use a card that's 1. expired and 2. full of bullet-holes?

 

[dostacos]

There is a quote that Belloq makes in the film, "Radiers Of The Lost Ark"



There is a resemblence between the storyline of the film and the vintage lifestyle. Items of the past that were once considered normal over time become priceless relics of the past, and people spend plenty for them.

But did you ever consider your own personal items? Paperwork, credit cards, wallets, shirts, socks, handbags, hats, remote controls, phones, watches, sunglasses, anything that to you is just normal everyday things. In a hundred years that wallet you carried in your pocket or purse could become one of the rarest items on earth.

I admit I am somewhat of a junk collector. I find things that to other people are worthless and keep them for myself. I imagine that note I wrote to my friend or that debit card I kept in my wallet could one day be found by someone else, who thinks so much of it. Things like what they have found from my possessions become priceless. They may try to learn who I was by the items I owned, just like we do with others items before us.

So are these thoughts completely unrealistic or am I onto something?

Let's hear other's thoughts

my thought? In 1936 $10 for a watch was darned expensive

 

[Starius]

Im kind of a stickler at saving most everything... not just everything, but the packaging it may have come in, manuals, promotional material, etc as well. Not necessarily for future collectable purposes, but mainly just because it seems more "complete" to me to do so.

I mean, its probably a borderline OCD or something. Nothing dehabilitating, but I do have several hundred Jones Soda bottles tucked away somewhere because they all have different photographs on them. My mother, thinking most stuff I save is junk and stupid, suggested I just take the labels off and save them but that thought horrifies me. "They would be ruined!" I explained in frustration.

 

[Foofoogal]

It is almost painful for me to buy new items as a dealer. I always think ok if I buy these curtains I will have to wait 50 years for them to then be worth selling and to make a profit. lol
Linens and antique furniture are the ones that I am amazed at the most.
Tons or hours of embroidery for a song and as far as furniture it is getting harder and harder to find all wood furniture. What will be left of the pressed board stuff 20 years from now?

Maybe one day someone will download a copy of our conversations here at FL. Maybe even this one.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

my thought? In 1936 $10 for a watch was darned expensive

Yes but $10 in 1981 was cheap.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

BELLOQ LIFTS UP A POCKET WATCH

"Look at this. It's worthless, ten dollars from a vendor in the street, but I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years and it becomes priceless."

my thought? In 1936 $10 for a watch was darned expensive

Dostacos is right. In the 1930s, vendors in the street -any street- would have been selling pocket watches for much less than that.

.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

The otherr thing is the risk of certain paperwork and identity-theft--my old ATM cards once they expire go into a box to be used as targets on the range: who's gonna try to use a card that's 1. expired and 2. full of bullet-holes?

Shredders are made for that purpose.....

But I suppose the gun-happy need to justify having one...so shredding by gun ..good as any excuse i suppose

 

[Diamondback]

Actually, it's not "having a gun as a shredder", it's more like "Can I reliably hit in a credit-card-size area?"

All about the accuracy, ma'am, and development of same...

 

[Jay]

The Mercer Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Museum), which I visited last year is built on this principle. Every day-to-day object from about 200 years ago is stored here and it's one of the most fascinating places I've been to. Surgeons' equipment, hand tools, old shaving brushes, gallows, old furnaces, everything that is interesting to folks like us is stored there.

Back on to topic, I tend to horde all the things I think no one else is saving-old forms of ID, junk from places I've been to, movie tickets, furniture, typewriters, the works. I figure someone like me will be interested in how I lived now, even if it's 50 years later.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm a big fan of ephemera -- there's a drawer in my desk that hasn't been cleaned since my grandfather died in 1980, and it's full of precious little bits and pieces he left behind. There's his WW2 Aircraft Warning Service ID card, an old drivers' license, a bunch of rolled up cash register tapes from the gas station, some old rubber stamps, a book of credit receipts, some empty coin rolls, a couple of bottle caps, a dried-up bottle of ink, his pocket magnifying glass, a typewriter eraser with the little brush on the end, a pack of pipe cleaners, and a "Texaco Star Dealer" uniform patch, among a lot of other scraps. Nothing of any great significance, and yet, when I open that drawer, with his stuff just as he left it, it's like he's still here.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

...and a "Texaco Star Dealer" uniform patch,

Back when not only did the attendant wear a uniform with a cap, but the owner did, too!

"Trust your car to the man who wears the star!"

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Actually, it's not "having a gun as a shredder", it's more like "Can I reliably hit in a credit-card-size area?"

All about the accuracy, ma'am, and development of same...

But can you shoot it edgewise and split it? That, my friend, is the test.


Lee

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Anyone else think their personal items could become relics of the past in the future?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Anyone else think their personal items could become relics of the past in the future?

I'd like to think so. I'd like to come back and visit in about 500 years or so and see my paintings and drawings hanging in museums.
As far as everyday plastic throw-away stuff? [huh] Who knows? If it doesn't end up recycled, it could become rare. Even Commodore 64 computers are sought after by collectors I hear.