The used market is more interesting so I haunt estate auctions. I would like to make a paper holder for a specific space so I’m casually looking for a handful of marbles to sandwich between some pieces of hardwood to make it so.
Wow. An item I would expect to bid out at $2.50 or $5 goes past $50. Why? They’re just marbles. I’m old. I had a collection as a kid, but I’m not feeling any nostalgia for little glass balls.
Collecting things, knick-knacks and such, are down in price all around. People don’t have space, disposable income, or time for the Boomer hoarding nonsense, they just want the houses the stuff was stored in. And yet. Marbles are somehow an acceptable hoard and take up space item now. In fact, there seems to be a moral imperative to make it so. Why?


Hmm, for some reason I read ‘paper holder’ and my brain turned it into ‘bookend’, I thought it was for a bookshelf and mentally pictured a vertical contraption, I see now that isn’t what you were going for.
The pricing situation seems similar to used furniture on craigslist. Some sellers seem to think furniture can only go up in value from the sticker price, regardless of the number of dogs owned. It’s not like they are made out of marble…