What's it Worth?

How often have you thought you had something of value only to find out its not worth much? A new car loses 20% of its value as it is driven off the lot.  How about jewelry, seldom worth what you pay for it. Now in this sluggish economy, house values have plummeted, along with everything else. What is value? Oddly enough it is demand. Value is driven strongly by demand. It's only worth as much as someone is willing to pay. Another aspect to value is time and need.  How long have you had it, how quickly do you need to get rid of it, and how much does someone need or want it?  And the last most important thing to throw into the mix, what is the personal value to the owner or buyer.  Value can be highly subjective.  Point in case- a woman on the Antique Roadshow on PBS brought in a small rug that she dug out of the dumpster.  She had asked the owner was it OK to do so and they said yes they did not want it. She tried to give it to her daughter who had moved into a new house and she didn't want it.  The rug that was dug out of the dumpster was worth $150,000.00.  Wonder if they would want it now?  The internet and other media have made it easier for people to find out if they have something of value, but they again have to think it is worth something in order to take the time to look in the first place.  Of course the down side to that is that places like Ebay have made everyone's treasures assessable, flooding the market with things that were once thought rare and valuable only to make their worth plummet. You can see this value thing is very circular and uncertain, maybe that is why hoarders hold onto everything, its just entirely too scary to make the decision to let it go. So whats my point? Value is what you want it to be, so be confident in that, because after all there are lots of dumb smucks like me waiting to find a lost Picasso at the Goodwill, because for me the value is all in the hunt.

                            Not sure I would think this was worth buying if I found it.