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At what point does monetary value outweigh sentimental value?


Sandman

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I found a youtube channel over the weekend, a guy that repairs old watches, like Rolex or Omega. He repaired a Rolex for this woman, her dad wore it daily for 50 years and she fucked it up after she had inherited it. The value of the watch was about $30k. I got to thinking, would I sell the watch for that much? I think I would. Then I wondered exactly how much "sentimental" stuff do I have? Am I a sentimental person in any way? My grandfather died before I was born. All I have of his is a single shot 12 gauge and his pocket watch (some off brand). How much would it take to get those from me? If a guy offered me $1000 for the watch, I'd sell it in a heartbeat. Might take more for the shotgun, I dunno. I'm not broke, so maybe that makes a difference.

My wife is different. She has this teddy bear, the last thing her dad ever bought her before he died (fuck cancer), she was 9. She has always said it was priceless to her but I asked, how much would it take? What if she was offered a million bucks? She said no but it would be tempting. Me? I'd like to think my dad would want me to sell the bear and enjoy the money. A million dollars is serious money.

I racked my brain to think of anything that I just couldn't part with, if the money was right, and I got nothing. Am I just an emotionless robot?

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You never knew your grandpa and it doesn’t sound like there’s much story behind the picket watch. It’s an interesting old thing with some family connection but not much sentiment. $30k for my dad’s watch (that he’s worn every day for as long as I remember) wouldn’t be close to tempting. Unless I needed money to secure my family and I didn’t have other things.

I feel like… stuff that has sentimental value but also stores a fair amount of monetary value, I might hold that value in my mind in case I ever need to tap in but not part with the object. Until it is worth so much that the money itself would change my family’s position or generate a meaningful amount of money (maybe on an ongoing basis) when converted to something else. Depending a bit on the object, that’s probably in the 6 figures, maybe even mid six figures.
 

I could see also see selling something sentimental for a specific purpose. Your dead grandpas pocket watch was worth some money and they turned it into a college fund when you were born, and told you that story.

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I have a bunch of older sentimental stuff, but it's all stuff from my W.Texas rancher g-father.  Old knives.  Few pre-64 winnies.  Lots of pictures.  I even have two old leather and metal dog collars my great g-father had when he was hunting wolves with hounds.  The only thing of value I'd be tempted with that have any sort of monetary value are the rifles - and I would never part with them.  

If we are talking land - I'd listen, but the number would have to be insane to part with the ranch and get something of equal size/value with the water and buildings on it as well as the managed game we've been engendering over the years.  

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You are selling the teddy bear, not the memories. If my grand dad left me a Babe Ruth rookie card on his death bed and said please always keep this in the family, I'd smile and nod and then turn around and put it up at the next auction. 

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15 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

You never knew your grandpa and it doesn’t sound like there’s much story behind the picket watch. It’s an interesting old thing with some family connection but not much sentiment

That's right but I know my dad, he's still alive and we have a great relationship. I just can't think of anything of his that I absolutely wouldn't sell, again if the money was good enough. 

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Not the same, but ...

My grandfather used to give me a Silver Dollar every time we saw them; I was an Air Force Brat and we lived out of state for 8 years, so it wasn't a lot of money. When he passed in '79, my dad gave me my "Paw-paw's" 1889 Silver Dollar money clip. 

In 1980 when Bunker Hunt tried to corner the Silver Market, I sold all my silver, except the Money Clip, for ~$46x face value. 

I'd like to think that I used the money to buy my Porsche in '86, though some of it may have gone to shorter term "recreational entertainment." (BTW, 1980 Houston, TX was the most fun place in the history of the world.)

As long as I have some line-of sight to the truth, I don't feel bad about selling the Silver.

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I am not a sentimental kind of person. I have very few things from my parents who have both passed that I keep.  When they died at different stages I was always put in charge of selling everything we could.  I still have stuff in my house from my mom who died almost 3 years ago that I am trying to get rid of.  

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Over a lifetime I have built up a pretty nice collection of guitars. When discussing passing them on to my son he said, "I don't want them. I'll try to sell them or just throw them away". I was stunned.

On the other hand, I'm a sentimental old fool. It is a burden. I don't ever play it, but damned if I will sell my 1961 Duo Sonic. It's a burden. 

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4 minutes ago, Not that Bob said:

, "I don't want them. I'll try to sell them or just throw them away". I was stunned.

You need to kick that boy's ass.

 

47 minutes ago, Sandman said:

All I have of his is a single shot 12 gauge

I have a 12 gauge single shot that was made in the town I was born. Belonged to my grandfather who gave it to my dad who gave it to me. My son is already excited about the thought of having it. Something cool about holding history in your hand that transcends value.

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8 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

I have a 12 gauge single shot that was made in the town I was born. Belonged to my grandfather who gave it to my dad who gave it to me. My son is already excited about the thought of having it. Something cool about holding history in your hand that transcends value.

I have two daughters, you do the math. But I do have a 3 month old grandson, maybe he'll want this shit.

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I don’t think I would have sentimental attachment to anything, but I also don’t have anything from my grandparents or parents. They never had much so there wasn’t much to give. I know there is still childhood stuff at my mom’s house that I could have now or will have to deal with later, but I don’t have any use for it and don’t want it.

Personally, if there was something of value I think it would come down to whether I use it or want it, if not then I’m not holding on to it.

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I have thousands of family photos, diaries, letters, etc. going back to the 1860s that I would never get rid of, but they are a pain in the ass to store - I am the family genealogists, and people just kept giving me stuff and asking for scanned copies.  I have a collection of stuff from older relatives like some 100+ year-old sewing machines, etc.

I have a 1903 Springfield from my great-grandfather, but while I originally believed it's the one he came back from Europe with, I have some doubts now (but he certainly had the ability to steal it smuggle it back, and I know it was US Army stock and when it was issued).  I know that he had it in the 1920s (or another one, as I've got family photos with it hanging on his wall) and he lived into the 1970s.  I did not know my great-grandpa - my grandpa gave it to me after I got out of basic training and AIT, and he told me that it was his dad's and I know it had been in his closet since I was a little kid.  Older family members (grandkids of my great-grandpa) that know about it have asked me about it over the years and if I've restored it (I had bought a bunch of 1903 stuff to restore it).  If there had been another 1903 floating around in the family I would have heard about it.  I would not sell that at all.

I have a collection of my old toys from the 1980s (G I Joe, Star Wars) that I let my young son have, and I made the mistake once of looking up prices, and some of the action figures run into the hundreds of dollars but he loves them and I would not sell them as I have some sentimental feelings for them, and he loves them (and they don't make a lot of the vehicles any more).

 

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44 minutes ago, Not that Bob said:

Over a lifetime I have built up a pretty nice collection of guitars. When discussing passing them on to my son he said, "I don't want them. I'll try to sell them or just throw them away". I was stunned.

On the other hand, I'm a sentimental old fool. It is a burden. I don't ever play it, but damned if I will sell my 1961 Duo Sonic. It's a burden. 

Shoot. When I die, the telecaster gets cremated along with my body. 

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20 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I have a collection of my old toys from the 1980s (G I Joe, Star Wars) that I let my young son have, and I made the mistake once of looking up prices, and some of the action figures run into the hundreds of dollars but he loves them and I would not sell them as I have some sentimental feelings for them, and he loves them (and they don't make a lot of the vehicles any more).

Between BB guns, pellet rifles, firecrackers, and then later my first .22lr - I must have destroyed thousands of dollars worth of toys.  GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man, Star Wars.  This year the tanks were way down and I found a bunch of old crap from decades back half buried in the silt/dirt that we destroyed as kids.  

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I pay for off site storage because I value sentiment. What objects qualify for sentiment is almost exclusively family connected. My father’s model A Ford, which I have no interest in driving, his desk. Turn of the 20th century tools. Carved wooden bears from Switzerland.

As we have been the sort of last resort for my BIL, my mother and MIL, we have been sorting mostly my wife’s family heirlooms, to see what we will pay to keep. I’m less sentimental about furniture, but that’s what does it for my wife. 
 

OTOH, I think I want to sell a Krieghoff model 32 over under. We never took it hunting. I don’t have a connection with it.

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There's some stuff I'll keep, but there's not a lot.  That's a function of 1) our respective families being poor for a long time, so there just wasn't much of any real value accumulated, and 2) one half of my family having to flee the mexican revolution (so, didn't take so much with them, and ended up relatively poor as a result).

But I've actually thought about that in the big picture sense.  There are a whole lot of people in this country who don't have anything particularly old in their family because their family came here either 1) dirt poor or 2) fleeing something/someone, with functionally the clothes on their back.  There are a lot of families who ended up in the US as a result of WWII, for example.  They didn't come here with much of anything because either it all got blowed up, or they had to haul ass and leave it behind as the nazis and/or Soviets were headed to town.  

So, in the end, it's just stuff.  It's nice to have a thing or two to touch and hold and remind you of where you came from.  We have my grandfather's branding iron.  The Glasgow newspaper announcing the wedding of my wife's great great grandparents (and, irony...our son now lives in Glasgow, the family has come full circle).  Some family jewelry (my wife's wedding band uses some small diamonds that came from each of my grandmothers).  A broach that is not worth anything monetarily, but we have photos of 6 generations on my wife's side wearing it at special occasions.  And of course, photos.  There's something about holding such things in your hand.  But in the end, if the shit hit the fan and we had to run....it's just stuff.  There will be new and other stuff.  Pretty sure the jews who managed to get out of Europe in the 1940s were pretty happy to get their asses out, alive.  And to build new lives.  Yes, we miss what we leave behind (both in terms of sentiment and wealth).  But in the end....it's all ashes and stardust, man.  

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I have a 1962 Rolex which belonged to my dad and has tons of sentimental value that I'm not selling for $1M dollars. That shit is going to stay in the family until aliens or we destroy this planet. That watch defines my family's story and is a reminder of where we came from.

There truly are some things that money cannot buy.

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4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

There's some stuff I'll keep, but there's not a lot.  That's a function of 1) our respective families being poor for a long time, so there just wasn't much of any real value accumulated, and 2) one half of my family having to flee the mexican revolution (so, didn't take so much with them, and ended up relatively poor as a result).

But I've actually thought about that in the big picture sense.  There are a whole lot of people in this country who don't have anything particularly old in their family because their family came here either 1) dirt poor or 2) fleeing something/someone, with functionally the clothes on their back.  There are a lot of families who ended up in the US as a result of WWII, for example.  They didn't come here with much of anything because either it all got blowed up, or they had to haul ass and leave it behind as the nazis and/or Soviets were headed to town.  

So, in the end, it's just stuff.  It's nice to have a thing or two to touch and hold and remind you of where you came from.  We have my grandfather's branding iron.  The Glasgow newspaper announcing the wedding of my wife's great great grandparents (and, irony...our son now lives in Glasgow, the family has come full circle).  Some family jewelry (my wife's wedding band uses some small diamonds that came from each of my grandmothers).  A broach that is not worth anything monetarily, but we have photos of 6 generations on my wife's side wearing it at special occasions.  And of course, photos.  There's something about holding such things in your hand.  But in the end, if the shit hit the fan and we had to run....it's just stuff.  There will be new and other stuff.  Pretty sure the jews who managed to get out of Europe in the 1940s were pretty happy to get their asses out, alive.  And to build new lives.  Yes, we miss what we leave behind (both in terms of sentiment and wealth).  But in the end....it's all ashes and stardust, man.  

I disagree. Our empathy to attach great meaning to "things", for those things to define something in our character or our family's history, is one of the intangibles that sets us apart from every life form on this planet. Those "things" help to define us and guide our lessons to teach to younger generations.

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Some assholes stole my dad's original Rolex that he bought before he had any money.  I was sentimental about that watch.  He replaced it but whatever, it's not the one he bought in the 60s before he knew any better.

We have 120 acres left that were original Spanish land grant business and I have been told I am not to sell it (assuming I inherit it I guess).  Thankfully I don't need the money.

I am not sentimental about that land but I want to be.

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

That's a function of 1) our respective families being poor for a long time, so there just wasn't much of any real value accumulated,

Agreed. Both of my folks came from poor/low class families. My mom's side came from Greece and I don't think my great-grandpa had a pot to piss in when he got off the boat, but I'll never really know.

My folks busted their asses and sacrificed to get ahead and give me and my sister a great upbringing. I'll treasure that more than any physical item. But yeah, I wish my pop had bought a Rolex, dammit.

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1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

I disagree. Our empathy to attach great meaning to "things", for those things to define something in our character or our family's history, is one of the intangibles that sets us apart from every life form on this planet. Those "things" help to define us and guide our lessons to teach to younger generations.

Also a fair take.  And as I mentioned, some of the least valuable things -- like my wife's broach -- can have real meaning when actually held in their hands.  As they were cleaning out a great aunt's belongings, they found photos showing multiple generations wearing the same broach.  My wife wore it at our wedding.  Our daughter will hopefully wear it at hers.  It's a tangible reminder of all who came before, who helped us get to this place - some of the photos were taken in Scotland, before they came over here.

I do know that my wife became a bit overwhelmed as we were on campus at the University of Glasgow registering our son this last fall, and she realized that it was likely that around 150 years ago, her GG grandfather had at least attended the same university before he crossed an ocean to settle in America.  Full circle and all that, and the echoes of personal history bouncing off stone walls.  It was powerful, and tangible, just being in the same place.  I get it.

Maybe I've just become more sanguine as I age.  All of our creations eventually turn to dust.  But the long line of humanity, of which each of us is an undeniable part and always will be, continues.  My greatX100 grandfather's name, life, and history is lost to time.  He was probably some dude wandering the plains hunting stuff or whatnot, or maybe he was a farmer, or a stoneworker.  Who knows?  But I am here.  I am his legacy.  Our greatest family heirlooms are the family itself.  I find that kind of beautiful, and when I think of it in terms of a real legacy and immortality, it's both overwhelming and encouraging.

Someday, there will be no traces of me left.  Nothing I touched, nothing I held.  But there will be a generation of humanity that is a ripple from the stone that was me.  My job is to make as many of those ripples good ones as I can.

Edited by Brisketexan
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5 hours ago, crash_davis said:

I have a 1962 Rolex which belonged to my dad and has tons of sentimental value that I'm not selling for $1M dollars. That shit is going to stay in the family until aliens or we destroy this planet. That watch defines my family's story and is a reminder of where we came from.

There truly are some things that money cannot buy.

 

3 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

pulp-fiction-christopher-walken.gif

I mean that gif applies to Crash's post above as well. 

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This exact topic has been a major point of contention with my dad and his five siblings over the 15+ years as my grandparents passed.  I have one aunt who considered EVERYTHING sentimental.  "That was the wooden bowls that the kids ate ice cream out of, you can't possibly give that away!"  On the other hand, my uncle wanted to sell every bit of it.  In the end, things were relatively amicable.  There was an old 19th century Regina music box that belonged to my great-great grandmother that was pretty rare.  I think my aunt lost the battle on that one, and the siblings finally sold it for upwards of $30K.  

On the flip side, when my great grandfather passed, his three grandsons (my dad and his two brothers) inherited a lot of his military gear.  He was a lifer in the army and was a full bird colonel.  One of my uncles ended up with his two service issued Colt 1911s.  Then sold the pair for $1,000 a few years later.  My dad was sick when he found out.  

My folks don't have much that I would consider sentimental.  The only thing that I wouldn't part with would be an old Schlitz brass bottle opener that my Grandfather on my mom's side always had sitting on the kitchen table.  

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There is a threshold where I would sell something that had a lot of sentimental value to me, but I don’t think my parents have anything that would reach that threshold.  When the time comes, my sister and I will go through their stuff, pick out a few things we both want, maybe set aside a few things for her kids, and then have an estate sale.  If dad has a T206 Honus Wagner or a 52 Topps Mickey Mantle hidden in his closet, it will be up for auction pretty quickly.

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31 minutes ago, TornACL said:

Once you have a parent or parents die, and you're in charge of distributing or selling all their shit, you'll become quite the minimalist.

 

 

22 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

There is a threshold where I would sell something that had a lot of sentimental value to me, but I don’t think my parents have anything that would reach that threshold.  When the time comes, my sister and I will go through their stuff, pick out a few things we both want, maybe set aside a few things for her kids, and then have an estate sale.  If dad has a T206 Honus Wagner or a 52 Topps Mickey Mantle hidden in his closet, it will be up for auction pretty quickly.

These.

And bless my late mother, she knew it.  Years before her death, she told us "look, we know that most of our stuff won't work for y'all or in your house.  But some of it is worth some real money.  So, take what you want, and as for the rest, hire an outfit to come in and appraise and auction the rest off."

My wife and I were talking about it the other day.  When my dad passes away, packing up their stuff won't take long.  Photo albums/boxes of photos.  A few pieces of artwork and such.  Some random items here and there (a pistol, a couple of final pieces of jewelry -- they've actually already handed most everything worthwhile off to my wife, daughter, and son already).  Some simple valuables (some gold, some cash, etc., but not much).  Truly, other than the photos, can probably get everything else in a banker's box.

The rest -- sell it for what it's worth.  Some truly useful things, give away to some folks we know who are just starting out, need new/more basic stuff (TVs, simple furniture, kitchen things), because it will be helpful to them.  But that's it, that's the plan.  And they're okay with it.

And we've functionally told the same to our kids -- take whatever you want, sell the rest.  You know the things that are actually meaningful, it would be nice if you kept those (branding iron, broach, etc.).  But otherwise, who cares if this was the rocking chair we used to rock you to sleep in.  Who cares?  Will your kids really care?

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2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

These.

And bless my late mother, she knew it.  Years before her death, she told us "look, we know that most of our stuff won't work for y'all or in your house.  But some of it is worth some real money.  So, take what you want, and as for the rest, hire an outfit to come in and appraise and auction the rest off."

My wife and I were talking about it the other day.  When my dad passes away, packing up their stuff won't take long.  Photo albums/boxes of photos.  A few pieces of artwork and such.  Some random items here and there (a pistol, a couple of final pieces of jewelry -- they've actually already handed most everything worthwhile off to my wife, daughter, and son already).  Some simple valuables (some gold, some cash, etc., but not much).  Truly, other than the photos, can probably get everything else in a banker's box.

The rest -- sell it for what it's worth.  Some truly useful things, give away to some folks we know who are just starting out, need new/more basic stuff (TVs, simple furniture, kitchen things), because it will be helpful to them.  But that's it, that's the plan.  And they're okay with it.

And we've functionally told the same to our kids -- take whatever you want, sell the rest.  You know the things that are actually meaningful, it would be nice if you kept those (branding iron, broach, etc.).  But otherwise, who cares if this was the rocking chair we used to rock you to sleep in.  Who cares?  Will your kids really care?

Do you still have that baseball with the wonderful backstory that you told me about a long time ago?

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1 minute ago, conVINCEd said:

Do you still have that baseball with the wonderful backstory that you told me about a long time ago?

The one signed by the 1954 Cleveland Indians, that my great uncle got?  Yep.  In case in a drawer.  With my baseball signed by Augie (worth a bit less, I'm thinking).

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Just now, Brisketexan said:

The one signed by the 1954 Cleveland Indians, that my great uncle got?  Yep.  In case in a drawer.  With my baseball signed by Augie (worth a bit less, I'm thinking).

I was talking about the dinger your relative gave up to Lou Gehrig while pitching for UT.  My memory is slowly fading, but my vague recollection is that I thought you had that ball.  It’s been a while.

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1 minute ago, conVINCEd said:

I was talking about the dinger your relative gave up to Lou Gehrig while pitching for UT.  My memory is slowly fading, but my vague recollection is that I thought you had that ball.  It’s been a while.

Nope - that happened, but that ball was long ago lost to history.  Never ended up with my family.  The Cleveland Indians ball was given to my uncle, that UT pitcher.  And again...no big sentimental attachment to it.

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My Dad's Rolex is not for sale. Was offered 25K for it in cash in a bar one night. Said nope. 

Mom left me with a pin from Bosnia, circa 1800. Just gave it to my fiancé for the wedding day. 

Have a Red Sox pin from 1917. Grandmothers. Had it on in Cooperstown and quite a few of their sellers wanted it. 

Some shit has value way above $$$$.

If I was a in a bad place or my kids really needed help, it is all for sale. 

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8 hours ago, crash_davis said:

I disagree. Our empathy to attach great meaning to "things", for those things to define something in our character or our family's history, is one of the intangibles that sets us apart from every life form on this planet. Those "things" help to define us and guide our lessons to teach to younger generations.

I am the family genealogist. I am also the sentimental one who attaches huge emotional significance to stuff. My brother, on the other hand gives no shits whatsoever about tangible things.  When my mom died, he was throwing away everything in sight, and I was trying to save everything I could. Somewhere in the middle was probably appropriate.  

My kids don’t have any attachment to my parents things so I am working on giving away or selling most of it - to avoid a repeat of my brother chucking everything in the trash. 

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2 hours ago, Anwar Namtut said:

My dad always said that everything he owned was for sale. No sentiment there.

My dad and stepmom have a document they keep updated of what their important shit is worth so we can divvy it up equally.  They know we’ll sell the Native American art and jewelry and shit they hoard  

Though I told my dad don’t leave me the guns and knives, I’ll just have them melted down. Not profiting off weapons 

Edited by Js1
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10 grand would probably buy any material possession I have outside of my homes,  car, or wedding ring.

I have no valuable/meaningful family heirlooms and there’s nothing my parents have that I really want (that I can think of) other than my wedding ring, which my grandfather wore for over 60 years before he died and I inherited it.  I really like my guitar and a couple of pieces of art that my aunt made.  My brothers gave me a mandolin that I cherish even though I rarely play it.  I have a couple of guayabera shirts I inherited from the grandfather that somebody would have to drastically overpay for to get them from me.  But 10 grand would win the whole lot except the ring.  That would require life-changing money upward of 6 figures.

Maybe not a “material possession”, but I have a video of my daughter and me when she was 1 year old, just sharing a mundane but precious moment listening to some music together.  It is my favorite thing in the world.  There is probably no amount of money you could offer me to erase that video from existence or get me to commit to never watching it again.

Edited by Snake Diggity
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