r/WatchPeopleDieInside • u/Agitated-Quit-6148 • 8d ago
He paid the equivalent of between $3000-5000 in the 50s.
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u/SpoonyDrip 1d ago
Its also not just a desk, its a built in wash basin unit pulled from a ship so its definitely something that a collector might want.
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u/WittyAndOriginal 2d ago
Well OP's title is wrong. £52 in 1950 is more like £1000 in 2010 (I am assuming this is from around 2010, but even today it would only be £1600) . So he only lost £600-1200 as well as the cost of holding it for that long.
Not a big deal, but a disappointment I am sure.
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u/axonxorz 2d ago
they all base their calculations on
some specific objectand the comparison of the price today vs thenMany specific objects, most of them staple commodities.
A dozen eggs today is the same basic unit of goods as 12 eggs was a hundred years ago. A bushel of wheat was still a bushel of wheat a hundred years ago.
and pegging the price of inflation to any 1 product is just asinine.
Seeing inflation calculators all mention CPI and ignoring that is asinine. You can argue that changes to the CPI "basket" hinders stable inflation calculations, but that's not what you're claiming here.
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u/WittyAndOriginal 2d ago edited 2d ago
Dude the issue is that OP is way overstating the amount of inflation that exists. It isn't about being exact. It's about being in the ballpark versus completely making numbers up.
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u/WittyAndOriginal 2d ago
You can also use math: A = P × (1 + i)n
Where A is the current value, P is the principal value, i is the nominal yearly interest (inflation), and n is the number of years.
Using your value for A, and my estimate for the number of years (A = 4500, P = 52, n = 58) we can estimate the interest to be 7.994%
Using this formula just gives a typical interest where it is assumed to be the same every year. In reality it is low some years and high other years. However, and I am not super familiar with British history in the later half of the 20th century, I would guess that an inflation rate of 8% is on an extreme high end. I would bet just a few years had an inflation rate higher than this. Most years are probably in the 3-5% range.
In conclusion, 4500 present day value is extremely high and likely inaccurate. The 1500 present day value is more in line with the expected yearly inflation rates.
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u/WittyAndOriginal 2d ago
Yeah, you have no idea what you are talking about.
The equation is the same for both concepts. I was worried that would confuse you. I looked up the equation to use the conventional symbols and I repeated the names for the variables that I found. I tried to clarify, but I should have just left out the word "interest".
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u/WittyAndOriginal 2d ago
True, it's a hard thing to calculate and there is no true answer. But £52 to £3000 in 60 years is like a 7.25% inflation rate conpinded yearly. And that's the minimum of OP's range. I think my number is significantly more accurate.
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u/JohnsonJohnilyJohn 2d ago
What are you talking about? AFAIK using a basket of goods has been normal for over 100 years, let alone just 50
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u/No_Historian3842 2d ago
Makes me full of joy thinking about all the stuff that dad has at his house "that's gonna be worth a fortune in a few years time".
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u/YVRkeeper 2d ago
Dad: and it’ll all be yours when I’m gone…
Me: please no.
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u/No_Historian3842 2d ago
Some of it will possibly be worth something, he was a bank manager for years and collected coins.
But some of it is just absolute junk. And it's gonna be daunting going through it all.
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u/IfIWasCoolEnough 6d ago
Trumpers trying to sell Trump memorabilia in the year 2050.
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u/jimmydeansroger 3d ago
It really does get old. Cooking subs, everything. These people have a problem
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u/johnmayersucks 3d ago
Every damn thread on Reddit. It's kind of amazing.
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u/ghostmaster645 3d ago
At this point im leaving subs when hes brought up its so exhausting.
Im running out of subs....
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u/NotBannedAccount419 3d ago
They have nothing else to do. Who else are they going to blame for living in their mom’s basement?
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u/Yukine_Katashi 3d ago
To be fair, that is a very real issue in current politics. No one can afford to move out, lmao
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u/johnmayersucks 3d ago
Sure but it’s not related to like antique furniture subs.
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u/Yukine_Katashi 3d ago
Fully agreed. I hate Trump with every fiber of my being, but I do not want to hear about him when he isn't even tangentially related to what the original discussion was.
Just found it humorous that the classic basement dweller insult is kinda ruined by the current state of the US2
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u/EntertainerBig4313 6d ago
No. This would imply the value has gone up from the already comically inflated price they got it at originally lol.
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u/HoldEm__FoldEm 4d ago
No, as you can see he originally paid today’s value upwards of 5k pounds.
It’s now worth 400 pounds, at most.
The value has gone done from what was clearly an inflated price, originally. Same as you’re explaining from Trump stuff.
What exactly are yall watching? How do you have upvotes?
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u/EntertainerBig4313 4d ago
The value went up technically, just not adjusted for inflation. I'm saying Trump shit doesn't even clear that technicality but yes you are correct. People are just agreeing with the sentiment that Trump shit sucks while not taking it as seriously as you, we deeply apologize.
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u/GogolsHandJorb 6d ago
Well it might become like Nazi memorabilia and find a market.
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u/ArtisticTraffic5970 6d ago
No. Never in a million years.
The Nazis were fucking degenerate racist shitbags, but they had taste. The shit the nazis had always looked coolest. Coolest uniforms. Coolest planes. Coolest daggers.
But Trump and his idiot helpers? They look like clowns. Trump is literally wearing a shitton of makeup, and I have never seen him wear clothes that actually fit. It's absurd.
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u/wikingwarrior 3d ago
I dunno man, the allies had some fucking drip.
And how dare you suggest any Nazi plane looks better than the P-39.
It's a fully automatic flying bullpup anti tank gun and still looks gorgeous.
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u/PatriarchPonds 4d ago
I direct my honourable friend to Nazi approved art. Taste is not the word. Bland, dull drivel.
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u/chupacadabradoo 3d ago
I agree, but their uniforms and gear inspired vast genres of homoerotica. Trump gear is just turning people into shocked-looking fish-people who can’t move most of their face.
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u/wikingwarrior 3d ago
If classic homoeroticism dictated what contemporary good taste was we'd still be dressed in togas.
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u/Interesting-Rope-950 6d ago
My great grandparents bought their home for $3k
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u/firedudecndn 3d ago
What was his annual salary?
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u/Interesting-Rope-950 1d ago
Not sure what my great grandfathers was but my grandfather bought his home for $30k, monthly mortgage of $125 and income of $425 a month from a city job. So he only ended up paying about a quarter of his income for it and did that with one job and 4 kids. Id kill for that
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u/feel-the-avocado 7d ago edited 6d ago
The best antiques roadshow moment I think is actually in the USA version, though I much prefer watching the UK version as they emphasize less on the sale value and more on what they should be insuring it for. Talking about money for profit is a bit of a turnoff.
A guy bought in an old indian tribal blanket that didnt look very pretty or didnt have much of a fancy design. It turned out to be a national treasure. Not sure what he ended up doing with it.
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u/Agitated-Quit-6148 6d ago
I remember that. He sold it
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u/mountainskier89 3d ago
One of the comments on the video says it’s now at the Detroit Institute of Art
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u/GallusTom 7d ago
Billy Connolly said it best about antiques roadshow: I love to see toffs gettin' fucked
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u/nothing_in_my_mind 8d ago
People gotta remember, not any old item is a valuable antique.
It has to be something rare, something people collect.
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u/DickweedMcGee 6d ago
I was gonna say he should count his blessing it has value > 52 pounds today. A lot of things from 50 years ago are worth $0.
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u/ironwheatiez 6d ago
I tried to throw out an old naked cabbage patch doll covered in marker scribbles and filth at my parents house. They pulled it out of the trash and admonished me for throwing away a "collectors item". My eyes haven't rolled that hard in a while.
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u/Substantial_Sea7327 7d ago
I've found a niche and satisfying category of collectibles, and it involves reeaally old, antique books that detail forgotten lost skills.
skills that were around the time it was made, but no longer considered relevant. like wooden ship building from the early 1700s. or homestead surveying and establishment. preparing to survive winter. those things
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u/flaccomcorangy 7d ago
Yeah, my brother has been into video game collecting. Without knowing a lot about games you might think the most valuable games are Mario and Zelda or something like that. Which they can be If they're still sealed or something, making them rare. But in reality, the most valuable loose games are crappy games that hardly anyone bought or the title of the game changed and the original edition is rare. Games like Stadium Events or Little Sampson are valuable games that probably no one's ever heard of unless they're into the hobby.
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u/motleyai 7d ago
Even then it can be a wash. Colleague I know was trying to sell an antique gold watch and could only find buyers willing to buy it for less than the weight of the gold that was in it.
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u/ReputationApart5983 7d ago
He bought it years earlier for £52 old pounds in the 50s and he thought it would be worth something but its worth even less now than what he paid for it. He basically bought a toilet thingy. 52 old pounds in the 50s is worth more then 2 grand now.
heres the full clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg-xmFf_Trc
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u/TheDarkWave 7d ago
He bought a chamber pot with extra steps...
Welp, it doesn't do good to buy furniture that really has no practical use...
A vanity, a buffet, a myriad of bedside tables, even a duvet...
But chamberpotcabinet is a very niche...something or other.
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u/Ok_Mention_9865 7d ago
My dad keeps a bunch of 1970s ( best guess ) rusted out metal lawn chairs in the garage because he swears the are worth big money. I even offered to buy them from him since he keeps saying he plans to sell them just to free up the garage space. Most of them have holes in them big enough to put my fist through.
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u/Visible-Scientist-46 8d ago edited 8d ago
know what it is?
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u/overcoil 8d ago
It was a combined sink/ toilet combo from a ship. You filled a tank at the top and basically had a whole bathroom in a single unit. Absolutely no idea why you would keep one unless you had a super niche idea for your bathroom.
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u/Overwatchingu 3d ago
I could see it being worth money to a collector if it came from a particular ship with an interesting story to it, but the fact they don’t say which ship it was from tells me it’s nothing special.
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u/nofatnoflavor 8d ago
"52 old pounds"
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u/danabrey 8d ago
They were different to the current GBP.
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u/ScreamingDizzBuster 8d ago
Only 14% more.
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u/NinjaTEK7 8d ago
So he didn't pay $3000?
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u/ScreamingDizzBuster 7d ago
£1,222 according to this: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
But the point I'm making is that apart from a 14% devaluation in 1967, the old GBP are the same as the current GBP.
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u/Adventurous_Appeal60 8d ago
These where predecimal pounds, compared to the "new" pounds which we know today.
His 52 pounds were each 240pence a piece
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u/ScreamingDizzBuster 8d ago
This is wrong. The penny was revalued to be 100 per pound, but the pound's value stayed the same.
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u/azjat 8d ago
Hey, this isn't Facebook. The pound never changed. With decimalisation, we switched from 240 pennies in a pound to 100 pence in a pound. That also meant that a shilling became 5 pence, a florin became 10p. The farthing had already gone and the halfpenny and penny disappeared. But the pound never changed.
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u/Siludin 5d ago
How were wages calculated and what was the mean wage before and after decimalisation? I would already agree that it shouldn't have an effect on valuation but neither should stock splits (yet they do), but if the perceived value of a pound or a pence changed, and how people were compensated changed, then it would definitely have an effect on overall pricing dynamics.
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u/ScreamingDizzBuster 8d ago
There was a 14% devaluation in 1967.
That said the rest of your post is correct: the penny was decimalised while the pound retained the same value.
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u/Jamesyroo 8d ago
It is worth noting that antiques are only as valuable as people are willing to pay at the time. That cabinet might have been worth £3000 in the 50s, and it might it only be worth £300 today, but it could go back to being £3000 in the future if it becomes popular again. Worthless today doesn’t mean it will always be worthless
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u/MonsieurGump 8d ago
There’s a “sweet spot” for classic cars. It’s about 30 years after they are made.
People, usually men, want the car they couldn’t afford to buy when they were 18.
That’s why a mint condition cosworth is 100 grand plus.
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u/oshinbruce 7d ago
Stamps were the big collector thing when I was a kid, and now as people pass on they are dumped by the ton as nobody values them. Good lesson there
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u/blodblodblod 7d ago
My brother has just bought back the actual car he had when he was 18. He's now undoing all the ridiculous modifications he did to it at 18.
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u/tinytyler12345 7d ago
And the cheap spot is 15 years. Play your cards right and you can get some really cool shit for cheap just because it's on its third owner
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u/SummitYourSister 8d ago
lol you didn’t seriously just say that all the classic cars right now are from 1995
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u/deadbalconytree 8d ago
Actually yes. Many 90s cars are in fact super popular right now with the kids that had them on their wall around then.
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u/mongolian__beef 8d ago
No, he didn’t. You’re filling in blanks and applying the concept to ALL classic cars.
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u/frydfrog 8d ago
Everything is “only as valuable as people are willing to pay at the time.”
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u/Reddeer2 8d ago
Nah, some things create value for you so their value exceeds what someone who can't use it would pay for it.
For example, a microchip printer. I can't use one and I would possibly pay not to have it, but if I was the only one who knew how to use it, then I could make billions of dollars from it.
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u/BigBananaBerries 8d ago edited 8d ago
A couple of years back a friend was clearing out his shed & had loads of motorbike parts. I said to get prices for what he'd want for them & I'd put them on ebay for him (he wasn't very tech literate). I expected he'd know what an auction was & come up with reserve prices. He came with a list of brand new, dealership prices & thought he was in for a fortune. He got super annoyed when I laughed him out the room. Eventually he came round but that was a dose of reality.
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u/anothersip 7d ago
Haha. That's pretty funny, honestly.
But really, it's like anything you're trying to sell: You research exactly what it is that you're selling, then inspect your own item and determine its condition based on its intended functionality and appearance, then find out what it retailed for originally, then look and see what people have sold them for historically and recently (and not just what they're listing them for), then take photos, and then finally post your own listing based on all of the above... With a reasonable/fair asking price that will attract that one specific buyer who you're aiming for.
It's just... not as straightforward as a lot of people first assume it is. It's a decent friggin' amount of work. In your friend's case, I guess he assumed he could charge whatever the dealerships happened to charge new. Rofl.
I mean for sure, I'd like to imagine that I could pull the old, rusty ~45-y.o irrigation pump out of my own shed, hose it off, snap a photo, slap it on Ebay and immediately list it for $850 if I wanted to adjust for inflation and hope that someone with a 1980's Kubota tractor happened across it and decided that they really wanted to get ripped off that day... But in reality? It's just a heavy-ass hunk of scrap cast iron at this point, full of mice nests and spider webs - worth whatever the hell the junkyard/recycling center offered me for its per-pound melt value or whatever. 🤦♂️
I bet that was a great laugh you had, though (at his expense, for sure)!
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u/BigBananaBerries 7d ago
I did feel a bit bad tbh. I just showed him old auctions of similar stuff & the sale prices & gave my account name to keep an eye on the auctions himself. He still wasn't happy but accepted the situation. Like you say, you need to price it reasonably & hope you get lucky with several interested at the same time but that's out of your hands, for the most part at least. Depending the item, there may be more favourable seasons of interest but it's still luck the buyers browsing during the sale.
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u/Alienhaslanded 8d ago
My friend has Pokemon cards from the early days. They were worth nothing when he got them, but they're very valuable now. Depending on how the economy goes, they might be worth nothing in the future.
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u/PeeB4uGoToBed 8d ago
I still had all my old original cards when they very first came out in the blue and red packs and sold them all recently for a nice chunk of change, mainly because of the mint condition charizard, the rest of the cards weren't worth nearly as much
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u/VariousOperation166 8d ago
If and when Pokémon cards become the next Beanie Babies, there will be a lot of disappointed guys wondering how they will be able to retire...
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u/iSightTwentyTwenty 8d ago
I saw something about how in-home organs(the piano thing) are similar to the price of a car when they’re new but their resale value is literally negative because no one wants to buy them and you have to pay someone to get it out of your house.
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u/Aethermancer 8d ago
Cast iron tubs. $5000 to buy new today, and I'll pay you $100 to take it off my hands.
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u/VariousOperation166 8d ago
I haven't checked recently as I am not in the market for one, but 15 years ago I had my choice of upright pianos for free if I were willing to have it moved out of the owner's homes
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u/Princess_Slagathor 8d ago
Hope they weren't quality wood. If so, it could have been donated to reuse.
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u/Rikkards_69 8d ago
Pretty much, it's also outside big names like Yamaha, Steinway nothing really is worth more than free. There are tons of early 20th century pianos because everyone had one then and they have moved through the system. Basically other than the above you have to give one away as the move cost easily starts at $400.
I know a place near (Kingston Ontario) has got their hands on a good couple and set them up around town, piano players are like cats when they see something on a table, we can't resist sitting down and play something quick
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u/Infinite-Condition41 8d ago
He'll be dead long before then.
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u/mologav 8d ago
I imagine he is long long dead, very old video clip
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u/telephas1c 8d ago
Looks like early 90s ‘grain’ to me. I was about then
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u/HalfSoul30 8d ago
1950s, plus 50 years, equals 2000s. It's weird, i was 9-19 in the 2000s, and see videos from then looking all grainy, and i'm like "damn, those look like the old days now"
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u/telephas1c 8d ago
Maybe yeah. It just gives me the 90s vibe but who knows maybe early 2000s plus a bit of modern day compression = 90s vibe footage
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u/HalfSoul30 8d ago
We were still recording home movies on tapes in the early 2000s in my household. I got a digital camcorder in 2008 or 9 and would record so much with it. I'm glad i still have those videos, i don't really record anything anymore, maybe because everyone else records every little thing to upload. I got off topic though.
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u/Infinite-Condition41 8d ago
Oh, I thought it was filmed with a turnip.
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u/LousyReputation7 8d ago
Fucking ripped lmao. Poor bastard
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u/joevenet 8d ago
Don't worry, he also bought a house for the same amount of money that will sell now for 2 mil
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u/Orgidee 8d ago
Yeah if you think this man owns a 2mill house you’re a man I have an interesting business proposal for.
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u/MagmaTroop 8d ago
What a weird comment
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u/Orgidee 8d ago
I’ll translate to stupid for you next time
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u/MagmaTroop 8d ago
Everyone is downvoting you but I for one liked that comeback, 7/10 not bad at all
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u/GopheRph 8d ago
Maybe for the sentiment but the execution has some real "Your brain has the shell on it" energy.
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u/Bri_Hecatonchires 8d ago
No need to translate, we already now that everything you type will be stupid.
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u/paleblooddaviey 8d ago
He didn’t even get the price right after he’d been told it. Host said “£200-£300” and t’old fella slapped an extra £100 on to it. He’s a fair lad, I’ll give him that.
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u/account_for_norm 8d ago
that was funny.
Next sentence he is going to say, "this lad says im only gonna get 500 pounds! :("By the time he gets home it ll be 1400 haha
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u/sittinwithkitten 8d ago
I’ve seen stuff like this on Antique Roadshow. An item has been lovingly protected for years, only to find out it has no significant value. The look on their face always kills me. This guy took it well. It was a short video but he was able to express his disappointment without cursing and swearing.
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u/Ensiferal 8d ago
I remember seeing one old guy with an antique table and they told him it was worth about £30'000 (this would've been about 20 years ago now). He just stood there with a sour, stony expression on his face. After a few seconds the antiquarian said "well, aren't you happy about that?" And he replied "no, not really. I thought it'd be worth more than that". The host had no idea what to say
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u/sittinwithkitten 8d ago
You would think the owner would look into the item before to ensure it’s authentic and actually collected
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u/Agitated-Quit-6148 8d ago
The top comment on YT is priceless.
"50 years. 50 years of rubbing his hands together with glee thinking of the thousands of dollars he's going to profit from this, a smug smile of self satisfaction, walking around with his head held high and an air of superiority, hinting to his wife and friends that he knows antiques, that he knows more than others, dreaming at night of how the value of this item would sky rocket, holding back temptation to sell too early. Finally the day comes to reap the rewards of his foresight, his knowledge, his wily cunningness, his almost prophetic way of seeing the future. His whole adult life had been building to this, then........... Cut down. It was like a knife in his heart, he held back the tears of anger and disappointment only until the cameras were gone, it was then he sat and wept like a spoilt, petulant child. Oh and just to translate for all the young folk out there ‘I never heard the like’ means ‘argh, get fucked then’ (disclaimer: this is a fictitious rambling, the man is probably a lovely, humble old chap)”
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u/Joyst1q 8d ago
That old codger would be a hundred and eleventy by now
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u/casusbelli16 8d ago
Now on the other hand; I'd offer you 2 gold pieces for that one ring you have there.
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u/00WORDYMAN1983 8d ago
I'd watch an Antique's Roadshow of disappointments. Treasured heirlooms found to be worthless. They can call it Schadenfreude Roadshow.
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u/ceadagamdulamach 8d ago
'Ah well, I'd never sell it anyway' through gritted teeth is my favourite reaction, pretending its got too much sentimental value and you can see their underwear bunching up around their spine.
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u/Afferbeck_ 8d ago
They always say it the other way around too, "So it turns out your great-grandma's random old trinket that's been in the attic for 50 years is actually worth a hundred grand!" "Oh well I'll be hanging onto it for sentimental value, it's an heirloom!" Yeah fuckin right, they sold it as soon as the cameras turned off.
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u/Polycute420 8d ago
People always assume shit is worth a lot just because it’s old and they kept it for a long time.
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u/Afferbeck_ 8d ago
A lot of boomers have realised that in recent years, thinking their mass produced stuff bought in the 70s and 80s is worth a lot just because they looked after it in a cabinet all that time. But they can barely give it away because every other downsizing or dying person their age is getting rid of the same stuff.
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u/yiliu 8d ago
They came after a generation that bought things for life, or actually for generations. Shit was expensive, and treasured. My grandparents' dining room set was a good chunk of a years' income (I'm old). They had their TV for 20 years, in a prominent spot on a custom-built cabinet.
That's the world the boomers grew up in. And then they became adults in a world where they could afford to furnish their house fairly easily. They still fundamentally thought of furniture as a long-term investment and heirloom, but suddenly it was everywhere and getting cheaper by the day.
Fast forward a few decades, and storage is the fastest-growing industry in the US.
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u/light_to_shaddow 8d ago
A life time of filling their house with tat, just to see it skipped as they get thrown in a care home.
It'll be our turn one day. Except everything we have will be rented.
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u/upvote-button 1d ago
The entitlement of that entire generation is crazy. You bought something new. Used it for 50 years and you want to sell it at 1000x the original price