> > 50s and 60s Sears-level guitars.  A few older violins did surface 
> > once, but I saw them as someone else was buying them. They 
weren't 
> > the good stuff either.
> 
> It's highly unlikely that you would see the good stuff. A little
> more possible to make interesting finds, such as lesser Italians or 
> Germans or French or English or instruments made by otherwise 
> well-regarded amateurs. I once played on an FE & FO Stanley violin 
and 
> mentioned that to Robert Shelton, the curator at the Library of 
Congress, 
> and he was interested in acquiring it, but the instrument was gone 
when 
> I went looking for it. But that's the sort of thing one might find 
more 
> easily in your venues than through normal channels.
> 
You never know; oddball items do turn up.  I found a last rites kit 
once in a white elephant room.  Bought it and redonated it elsewhere; 
I purchased it for the 14k gold strips sitting inside it.  Every so 
often odd bits crawl out of basements or fall out of attics.  I keep 
my eyes peeled for hallmarked violin bows too. 

> Reminds me of the phenomenon I discovered during my brief
> flirtation with stamp collecting. Normally, unused mint-condition
> stamps are the most sought after, but during the '40s-50s some 
smaller
> countries such as Tonga and San Marino discovered philately as a 
> potential source of revenue, so they commissioned big presses, such 
as 
> the American Bank Note Company, to print vast numbers of stamps, 
which
> were sold directly to collectors, most never setting glue in the
> countries whose name was on the face. These were of course unused, 
and
> at some point hobbyists decided that was bogus, and so used stamps 
of
> these varieties became much more valuable than new ones, which 
affected
> the market to the degree that fake cancellations started happening.
> A most amusing sidebar.

I keep my eyes peeled for those too. One rule of collectibles is 
"Collectibles aren't".  Things made to collect will never be as 
valuable as the real thing, and the postmark proves said stamps were 
actually used in the countries printed on them. I've been known to 
use the other kind for decoupage; it's about all they're worth.
 
> > > all the other violins were Gaglianos of one generation or the
> > > other, and I was playing on a fresh minted Wallin from the
> > > 1990s, and my instrument, if not my playing, blew the others
> > > away. It was not a great classic instrument of a famous make, 
> > > nor ancient, and, horrors, it was made by a woman. In those
> > > days, women did not make violins! She made four based on the
> > Horrors!  Girl germs on the violin!  
> 
> Worse, girl germs in the design.

Ack!  Call the doctor!  Call the exterminator!  Girl germs!
 
> When my sister's father-in-law died, I could have bought his house,
> unattractive and somewhat rundown but in a goodish neighborhood 
insofar
> as such can be in Detroit, for 17K. Now, the average house in 
Detroit 
> is worth 60K, though this one probably would go for less, if it's 
still 
> standing.

That same house in Boston would be 300K, is my guess. 
 
> > Likely, but it would still have to be easier than dealing with 
> > something you can't pick up and move.
> 
> Real estate has generally good return but is involved to transfer.
> It was one of the Bond villains who kept his assets liquid and
> portable using postage stamps as above and Venezuelan bolivars;
> in the long run, stamps would have been a decent investment, with
> hardly anything more portable or cachable, but lost his shirt on
> the currency, which as of Ian Fleming's writing, was indeed one
> of the most stable in the world, backed by vast natural resources,
> but in the last decades of turmiol, a bolivar from that period
> would have devalued by now by a factor of 10^8. My Venezuelan
> uncle once gave me a silver bolivar, then valued at 33c, maybe
> close to its metal value. Now the metal value would be a buck or 
> so, but the purchasing power would be a billionth of a dollar.
> 
As long as the Venezuelan money was in specie, the villain would have 
made out OK, especially he sold out at the height of the market in 
the 80s and bought Apple stock instead.

> > > So did my 10th-grade math teacher, as it turns out. I'm given 
to
> > > understand he's now going with one of my classmates despite 
having
> > > been plumpish, nerdlyish, and a little awkward back in the day.
> > That would describe a lot of us. 
> 
> Well, yeah, but his story shows that there may be some hope.

A friend of mine, skinny as a rail, didn't get hitched for the first 
time until he was almost 60.  Total geek/nerd with a thing for 
marathon bike rides.  
 
> > > I've never had a paper towel stuffed into a pocket get shredded 
> > > in the wash, not that I'd know.
> > Can't say I've ever run one through the wash.
> 
> Since I use paper towels extensively, sometimes cramming a
> double in my back pocket while cooking the way sous-chefs do
> a dishrag, ... .

I only use them for greasy messes and cleaning up after the cat, more 
or less. 
 
> > Butter is made from a waste product, at least if you're a cow, so 
> > it's ecologically more sound than soy or corn oil. 
> 
> Except for the methane.

Yeahwell.  It's a byproduct, so producing butter requires no extra 
methane production.  It also tastes better, so there's that.