I bought a metal robot at a garage sale for a quarter when I was about ten. It was pretty impressive, the eyes flashed, arms moved, legs moved back and forth while gears turned wheels in the feet, and it had a traversing laser cannon in its chest that flashed and made pretty good laser noises.
Impressive or not, interest soon waned so I took it apart and scored a goodly number of gears, belts and motors.
About ten years ago they had the exact robot at an antiques show selling for $450.
Back when I was twenty or so, and in the market for a car, there was an ad in a local paper for a 1960 Jaguar, XK150 Drophead Coupe. I drove an hour to take a look at it, and ended up "test driving" it around the hilly southern part of the state for longer than that. The owner wasn't too pleased, but there weren't any warrants out when I returned the car.
The asking price was $3100, I had $3000 to spend, and I know I could have talked him down to a price I could afford. The car was cherry with the exception of the solid mahogany spars that supported the convertible roof. They were rotted out, but the owner had bought new ones, without installing them yet.
Thinking I was making an adult decision, (a rare occurrance even 25 years later) I decided not to buy it, because buying an old Jag for primary transportation just doesn't pass the common sense test. Especially not a convertible, when the February temps around here have been known to drop to minus 29 F before.
The price tag on another one just like it, at an auto show several years later, was $25,000.