Is Your Crap Really Worth It? By “It” I Mean Your Life

I was at an estate sale. Among the hundreds of cups and glasses, I bought a dozen for $3.

Inside the house, passing a glass-encased wall display of ceramic dolls, I went to the basement. It was wall to wall hardcover popular novels – read once and then occupying shelves beyond the owner’s death. I wouldn’t buy them for a quarter, and the library wouldn’t take them for free. At $20 retail, there was at least $10,000 worth of purchases.

Leaving the basement and seeing more commemorative glass sets for sports teams and other themes, I saw that this was a theme – whatever they had, they had a lot of.

All of it cost money, and each purchase was a trade-off that initially appeared to be cash for a Stephen King book, a New York Mets beer stein, and a fourth coffee maker. Continue reading →