That's the worry, Bob. You should have had a job, or paying pastime at least, for life there, but it seems not.
In a world of rising values I am just assembling my longcase clock (Grandfather). It is a classic reactive piece of furnishing, as soon as seen the expectation is of its value and significance as evidence of other valuables is mentioned or quietly calculated. Trouble is these so called valuables have not altered price for a long time and my clock, realistically, as a regional made item, is probably worth £1,250 to £1,500. The fact is I have some nice old tackle but the boxes of car parts are worth more. Nonetheless exhibiting the antiques is a risk of inviting burglary, where is some boxed car bits looks pretty uninteresting.
When I inherited the longcase from my godmother, boy did it upset my sister who wanted to know what she was getting - err, like nothing, as she was not you godmother? I never told her I got £5,000 as well! I was a dutiful godson. Anyway I could have sold it and bought a reasonable Treinkel, now worth perhaps £10,000 unless tidied up a little. So fashions change too. Add a market packed with poor quality restorations and fakes and the money stops turning up. As it is this a family item, passed down the male line, why it came to me, and I enjoy owning something I would never buy.
This pass over of value back to those who fancy ownership is happening to the less eclectic pre war saloon cars. At sometime in the future it will happen to Microcars. Its the way of things. Stuff goes up in value and then falls away. I am looking at books now. Most books have, effectively, no cash value to speak of. So it is a thing you can collect yet it has the value of its contents if you chose to read them. A great collectable then, but unlikely to ever be worth any great amount of money.
