Value of items isn’t always monetary

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

— We watch the Antique Roadshow pretty regularly at our house, and I enjoy seeing many of the items made years ago, noting that they are still valued by a great many people, both those who identify themselves as collectors, and those who use the items in every day life. I’m impressed especially by the people on the show who discover that their item is worth quite a bit of money on today’s market, but who still say things like, “Oh, I wouldn’t think of parting with it!”

They come onto the show wanting to learn more about the item, not so much to put a money value on it. But, the bottom line for many people, both those who bring items to be appraised and those who watch the show, is What is it Worth? Still, interestingly, even in efforts to attach a money value to a relic of the past, the appraisers often have to deal withpeople’s changing interests, and how the market value of items has shifted up or down over time. Despite the efforts to place an objective value on something, it often comes down to the idea that a thing is “worth” what you can persuade someone to give you for it.

In my opinion, sometimes we think too much in terms of what something is worth in dollars and cents, and what it is worth on “today’s market.” I grew up in a time when there was more awareness of the value of things for their importance to life and living, and less focus on their money value. Some of us grew up “money-poor,” but we didn’t really think we were poor, we felt like we were thriving fairly well,putting food on the table, gradually paying off our farm loan, having cows on the pasture, chickens in the hen house, firewood on the hillsides, and potatoes and beans thriving in the garden. Of course, we needed money to buy things we couldn’t produce, but we didn’t measure our prosperity only in terms of money in the bank. We had some wealth, even though it wasn’t money wealth.

I have always been fascinated by auctions, especially farm auctions. I am not a good bidder at auctions. My brain is too slow.

And I am not experienced enough to fully understand some of the terminology.

When I go to the sale barn in Springdale, I can watch the cattle being sold, and enjoy the spectacle, but I can’t understand a word of what the auctioneer is saying. But my fascination with auctions is in how people’s interests and feelings about certain items influence their willingness to invest their dollars to buy those items. It goes both ways: I have seen perfectly good sofas go for $1.50, whereas an old shop anvil may go for hundreds of dollars. Also, one day things may go high, depending on the crowd that happens to gather, and another day things will go low.

I’m having trouble fathoming that my house is worth $30,000 less than it was worth three years ago.

And I’m still having trouble fathoming that a person’s stock in a business may be worth half of what it was a few years ago. I’m a little like the person who asked about stock market losses, “Where did that money go?” “Who got it?” Well, it seems that no one got it; it just evaporated into thin air. But the houses are still perfectly good houses, still good to live in, and the businesses are still perfectly good businesses, able to produce goods and deliverthem to people. And I have trouble valuing them less, even if the market value is down.

But, I also come from a time when there was more direct trading of goods. Buying and selling was not the whole story.

People might trade eggs for other groceries, or garden produce for flour and sugar, and even livestock for automobiles. We have a contract from about 1950 when my father-in-law, Ray Patterson, bought a car by trading in some cattle, and paying about $100 “to boot,” as we used to say. I well remember when my folks bought a new 1956 Chevrolet from Burger Motor Co. in Bentonville by trading in several head of milking cows. Mr.

Burger had his own farm out toward Vaughn, and he sometimes took in cows or other livestock on the purchase of cars. In those days, buying a car was a matter of dickering andnegotiating until one arrived at an agreeable trade. I notice that the dealers today try to “free” us from the “hassle” of negotiating by just putting up a sticker price that they say is already “low.”

I know I’m thinking in terms of contradictions, recognizing the shifting and negotiable value of things, all the while wanting to see some things as valuable even when the market is “down.” I have a $500 lawnmower, even if “the market” probably wouldn’t give me $50 for it! Some of my valuables may be worth nothing on the market, but they are still valuable to me.

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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history.

He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Community, Pages 5 on 10/12/2011