AmeriServ Presents: Bank Chats

What Is Value?

• AmeriServ Financial, Inc. • Episode 18

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There are different categories of value. Goods and services that you pay for have a value, but so do your family photos. Sure, Drew may not place value on Jeff's family portrait, but there is sentimental value to Jeff. On this episode of 2 Cents, Drew and Jeff chat about monetary value, and how the value of certain goods and services have changed over the decades.


AmeriServ's Website:
https://www.ameriserv.com/


Credits:
An AmeriServ Financial, Inc. Production 
Music by Rattlesnake and Millo
Hosted by Drew Thomas and Jeffrey Matevish

Thanks for listening! You can find out more about AmeriServ by visiting ameriserv.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

DISCLAIMER
This podcast focuses on having valuable conversations on various topics related to banking and financial health. The podcast is grounded in having open conversations with professionals and experts, with the goal of helping to take some of the mystery out of financial and related topics; as learning about financial products and services can help you make more informed financial decisions. Please keep in mind that the information contained within this podcast, and any resources available for download from our website or other resources relating to Bank Chats is not intended, and should not be understood or interpreted to be, financial advice. The host, guests, and production staff of Bank Chats expressly recommend that you seek advice from a trusted financial professional before making financial decisions. The host of Bank Chats is not an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, and the program is simply intended as one source of information. The podcast is not a substitute for a financial professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation. AmeriServ Presents: Bank Chats is produced and distributed by AmeriServ Financial, Incorporated.

Drew and Jeff:

Sure, oh, I aim to please, yeah. Make it a little easier.

Drew Thomas:

So, so we are going to talk about something kind of interesting on this episode of 2 Cents, which is value. And I think value, we were kind of talking just before we started this, and then we decided to sort of stop talking about it, because obviously the whole idea is to talk about this on camera or on mic there's kind of like two different versions of value,

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah. So, monetary value, something that right? has monetary value and something that has emotional value, or, you know, yeah, memories or whatever.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, I mean, so you know what's valuable to me may not necessarily be valuable to you right now, if we're talking about $100 it's worth$100 to both of us. But even, even money can have different values. If I'm, if I'm, if I'm a millionaire, $100 doesn't mean as much to me as if I only make, you know, $10,000 a year.

Jeff Matevish:

And it also means something different if you know how to utilize that money in a different way. If your money's just gonna, your $100 gonna sit somewhere and you know, you don't do anything with it, versus me, I may, buy something else that's worth more than $100 and resell and resell. And, you know, oh, yeah, yeah. $100 can mean something different than$100 even that way.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, that, that brings up a that, what you said, brings up something. It unlocked a memory for me. Did you ever see the, this was, this goes back many, many years. Did you ever see the one red paperclip website?

Jeff Matevish:

I don't think I saw the website, but I think I know, I have an idea of what you're, what you're talking

Drew Thomas:

yeah so for those of you that may not have ever about. seen it or heard about it, the one red paperclip idea was, there was a person that had one red paper clip, and they traded that one red paper clip for something else. And their goal ultimately was to trade, essentially, a red paper clip for a house. And they did it.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah, it was like a paper clip to like a pen to like, yeah, something yeah, right.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, yeah. And so that was the thing they kept, they kept making moderate increases in value, right? They would the red paper clip, like you said, I think it went for a pen, and then the pen was like, well, okay, I can trade the pen for a bottle of water. And then the bottle of water got traded for something else, sure, it was so, and they ended up trading it for, like, now, it was a fixer upper. It wasn't like, you know, a Taj Mahal house.

Jeff Matevish:

But who can say that I traded a paper clip for a house, right?

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, right. So, that's the thing. It's like, you

Jeff Matevish:

Oh, yeah, definitely. know, well, you know, just imagine that we've reached some

Drew Thomas:

We talked a little bit about you started doing some sort of midpoint, like a, like a laptop computer, right? Well, maybe a laptop computer means something to me, and maybe, you know, you have, I don't know, a broken dishwasher, right? So, but, but if I can, but if I have the skills to repair that broken dishwasher, that broken dishwasher might be more valuable to me than, say, the laptop I have. So, we trade and right? So, even though I'm getting a high, I'm getting higher value than what I had. So, it's really that concept of value. Now, you did something interesting. You went back, and we can talk about, and this sort of dovetails into inflation too. research into what things cost. How far back did you go?

Jeff Matevish:

30? The 30s was as far back as I went.

Drew Thomas:

Okay, 1930s, okay, yeah, so, so give us some examples of what things cost, say, in the 1930s and then I don't know, what is the average size? What is the versus...

Jeff Matevish:

Okay, but I should say so, I also went and looked at the CPI inflation calculator, which tells you, you know, back in the day, $1 back then is worth what today for buying power. Okay, so I kind of, I gave the, the monetary value back in the day compared to what it is today. So, like in the 1930s let's see. So, coffee cost an average of 39 cents per pound in 1930 which equivalent, which is equivalent to $7.32 average unit of measure of coffee these days? Like when you today. So, not far off. I mean, I haven't bought a pound of coffee recently, but I can't imagine that's far off from what it is today. go into the store you buy like Folgers or something like that. I buy the biggest can I can get. I don't know.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, I don't know, yeah, but I mean, that has to be something like 16 ounces, maybe that's a pound to two pounds of coffee. Something like that, so.

Jeff Matevish:

Here was, okay, another one that but this one kind of threw me off. So, milk back in 1930 was 56 cents, which is equivalent to $10.51 today, okay, for per gallon. And that that was, that was one that fluctuated over the years, because then you, you started getting into delivered milk, and that cost more versus something you get in a grocery store.

Drew Thomas:

Oh, sure, yeah, the milk man, yeah. So. I'm his kid, I mean, for those of you that are under the age of 30, that by the way. was but, yeah, the milkman, you're right. I mean, I guess that's probably true of stuff today too. Like, if I want to have something sent by one of the delivery services that are out there, you know, Grubhub, DoorDash, uh, Uber Eats, whatever it is, it's going to cost me more. And then, then, if I go get it myself, you're paying that premium to to have something, it's that convenience, yeah, right. So, the milk, so I guess you do have to take that in consideration, but still, if somebody had to spend $10 a gallon on milk today, they'd be pretty upset.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah, I would think, and I don't know if there were other factors, like agricultural factors, if cows were sick during the 30s more often, or, you know, there was less milk, you know, production, or.

Drew Thomas:

I mean, I know that there are some, some price controls put on milk now, oh, yeah, you know, through the government. So, so that might have something to do with it. But we, you know, when we talk about inflation, and over the last like two, three years, we've talked about inflation a lot in the news and so forth. And this idea that, you know, prices are and they are going up, there's no denying that things are more expensive now than they were three years ago. But when you start comparing things like this, you start thinking to yourself, actually, maybe in all things being equal, it's actually cheaper than it might have been say in the

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah, we're not far off for a lot of these 1930s. things. Yeah.

Drew Thomas:

Give us another example. What do we got?

Jeff Matevish:

Let's, let's skip ahead some years. Sure. Why not? Yeah. Why not?

Drew Thomas:

I mean, go into the 40s, then let's go. Let's go. 10 more, 10 more years.

Jeff Matevish:

So, so minimum wage in the 40s was 30 to 40 cents, 30 to 40 cents an hour, yeah, and I actually don't have the equivalent.

Drew Thomas:

So, penny candy was actually like, a good amount of your salary.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah. Coffee, coffee, back then, 10 years later, was 21 cents per pound. Okay, so you know around half of the cost, because that was equivalent to $4.79 in today's value.

Drew Thomas:

So, that's a little, a little, probably a little closer to what...Yeah, maybe, I don't know. Yeah, now, now here again...

Jeff Matevish:

Who buys coffee in the pound right now, so.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, right. Everybody just goes to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks or something. I know we only have one Dunkin Donuts in our town, and it is just a line around the block every single morning. I think to myself, these people are literally getting up a half an hour earlier than they need to, just so they can sit in line at Dunkin Donuts.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah, and spend a ridiculous amount of money on coffee.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, Dunkin Donuts, obviously not our sponsor. So, so, so, yeah, so we, so we have this idea of value being what something costs and, and I think that there's that's a purely or a perfectly valid definition of value. You know, the equipment that we use here, in our in our studio and so forth, is, is a certain value. There's, there's a certain dollar amount attached to all of this. And while you can certainly do a podcast with less expensive equipment, sometimes, in order to achieve the look you want, or the sound quality you want, or whatever. Then you upgrade, and you find more value and things, but, but then, so let's talk a little bit, and we might come, we might kind of circle back to this, but let's talk a little bit about the other definition of value. Okay, so you know the things that I have in my house, my, say my family photos. I think you said family photos, right? So, family photos, to me, are incredibly valuable. And I'm sure your family photos are incredibly valuable to you. Your family photos are not particularly valuable to me, right? I mean, as much as I like you, you know, if I don't know your aunts, your uncles, your extended family. So, yeah, the photos that you have that you remember from your childhood, family vacations, things like that, they just, they hold more value to you than, they do to me right?

Jeff Matevish:

Oh yeah. So, so I'll tell my you know, famous uncle that you don't want a picture of him, you know.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah. So, I mean, so what else? So what else has, so that also got me thinking about, okay, what are some things that we as a society value today that maybe we maybe we wouldn't value as much in the past or vice versa?

Jeff Matevish:

Okay, so we did find some of those. Okay, one of those was lobster. Back in the day, lobster was plentiful and was considered trash food they would feed it to prisoners and slaves and young school children and you know. But that, you know today, lobster is a delicacy that people pay high dollar for.

Drew Thomas:

Right, yeah, yeah. I have a friend of mine who is, who obviously does not like lobster. Okay, and, and he calls it sea bug, yeah. He's like, and they kind of do look like that, I mean they're...

Jeff Matevish:

There's a comedian that's got a couple jokes about that. Yeah, it's our excuse to eat lots of butter. You know, lobster...

Drew Thomas:

Does he call it sea bug?

Jeff Matevish:

Sea scorpion, yeah, or sea cockroach, yeah. There's, I think there's a couple names, yeah.

Drew Thomas:

So, essentially, my friend is ripping off some comedian and passing it off as his own. But that's fine. We've all done it from time to time. You also had on here. What else did you, oh, you...

Jeff Matevish:

I had diamonds on here too. Yeah, yeah. So, back in the day, De Beers, actually, is the company that increased the value of diamonds. They had great marketing. They started off prior to 1800 diamonds were extremely rare. And then a mine with, I don't know, what does it say, a trove of diamonds, it doesn't even say, but was uncovered, which would have decreased the value, because now supply is higher. Oh sure, yeah, and yeah, gotcha. Just like anything else, right? So De Beers bought that mine, and they would strategically let out, or let you know, put out for sale a specific number of diamonds per year to still keep that want, you know, higher than the supply.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, today, today, kids, that's called a monopoly. Yeah, you're not allowed to do that. Or at least, you shouldn't be allowed to do that. No, it's funny because, you know, obviously diamond wedding rings, and engagement rings, oh yes, became a huge thing. I mean, there was a time when engagement rings were either family heirlooms. You know that it was your grandmother's or your mother's or what have you, and it got passed down. And so that, that was where the value came in, right? Sure, you were, you were sharing something that was important to your family with this new person and bringing them into your family. And then eventually it was like, well, it doesn't matter about grandma's old ring, because I want the diamond princess cut something rather, right? Yeah, sure. And, I mean, the same thing happened, actually, in a lot of I mean, we could use weddings for this entire episode if we really wanted to. But do you know where white wedding dresses came from?

Jeff Matevish:

I do not.

Drew Thomas:

So, up until the time of Queen Victoria, a wedding dress was just your best dress. Okay? It was just whatever your best dress was, or whatever you could whatever you could put together. Maybe you got a special one. You know, your mom made you one, or something like that. But when Queen Victoria got married, everybody was looking at the Royal Wedding, and she wore this beautiful white wedding gown. And from that point forward, wedding gowns were this white, beautiful affair. And then, and then a bunch of other meanings started getting assigned to the whole purity thing and so forth. But it was Queen Victoria before that, white wedding gowns were, it was, it wasn't a thing.

Jeff Matevish:

Huh? De Beers did something similar that to that too. When they started getting a little bit more popular, they started putting their diamonds on celebrities. So, every everyone wanted to be like their famous or their favorite celebrity and have the same diamonds that they had. Or, Yeah, same thing. Yeah. You see one famous person in something that you like, and then you want it.

Drew Thomas:

And that has not changed either. That has really not changed either, there's a reason why there's a two hour television, I don't want to even call it a program, but there's two hours before any major like Grammy event, Oscar event, or whatever, of people just walking in front of a camera wearing different things, and then the next day there are all these knockoffs and things like that that happened. Yeah, I was trying to think of some of the other things that, that, that maybe had, had value when I was younger and no longer do. And, you know, sort of the opposite of what we were just kind of talking about. And, you know, you would, you and I are both tech geeks. I think that people that watch and or listen to this and know that both of us are kind of like, you know, a little bit geeky, yeah, yeah. And, but computers, computers are like, you know, in 1980 something, an apple IIe computer went for, I think you actually looked up how much some of this stuff was.

Jeff Matevish:

Equivalent to, like, seven grand today, yeah, yeah.

Drew Thomas:

So, you know, and that computer today, what would you pay for it?

Jeff Matevish:

Oh, two grand, maybe.

Drew Thomas:

Well, no, I mean, really, what would you pay for? Well, now, that's okay, so that's another thing.

Jeff Matevish:

You're paying for the brand, it depends on the brand too, yeah.

Drew Thomas:

Well, it also depends on, on the historical value now, because now you're starting to get into things where people collect these old computers.

Jeff Matevish:

Oh, okay. Oh, so you're talking, you're asking, what I would pay for a computer...

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, what would you pay for an Apple IIe now, like, if you were to use it, see, that's the thing. If you were gonna use that computer.

Jeff Matevish:

I was gonna say, because, again, it's got value to me, because I am a geek. But if someone else would, would buy it, it would be worthless, right, right?

Drew Thomas:

So, what would my mom pay for an Apple IIe?

Jeff Matevish:

I would, ah, probably nothing.

Drew Thomas:

Right, right. Exactly, even though it was$7,000 40 years ago.

Jeff Matevish:

Right, right. And I probably wouldn't pay a whole heck of a lot either, because I would get so mad at how slow it was, I wouldn't want to use it. So, you would just be paying for this, like the nostalgia. You, someone that was born in the, see I wasn't born in the 80s, so someone that was born in the 80s that grew up on that computer may pay a little bit more, but to me, it's worthless because I never had anything to do with that computer.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's, you know, I mean old, old, vintage video. I mean vintage video games are coming back to a certain degree, but only like the emulators, like you can, you can play the game, right? But those games that maybe cost, you know, $40, $50,$60 to buy in 1980s money, which is probably whatever it is, you know, now you can, you can buy the entire catalog and play them for essentially nothing, yeah, you know, yeah. So, the values and the ability to experience your past and experience your childhood, not so much in the actual playing of like or purchase the nostalgia, yeah. I just think that's I just think the concept of value, especially when you're talking about money and banking and things like that, you have to really think about those kinds of things. Like one of the one of the things that I saw recently, there's a despite being a geek, I also still watch sports from to time. And there's a pitcher that for the Pittsburgh Pirates that is nationally known right now because he's easily, uh, statistically, probably the best pitcher in sports right now. His name's Paul Skenes, his, his, his rookie card was recently found in a pack of baseball cards, right? And they, I think it went at auction for like,$1.1 million for a baseball card.

Jeff Matevish:

And it's like, Pokémon cards right now, too, same thing. So, really, Pokémon like, oh my gosh, there's, like, famous, I think Logan Paul was actually one has, like the, the most valuable Charizard worth, like, several million dollars for, for, a Pokémon card. He wears it around his around his neck on a chain. Yeah, wow, yeah.

Drew Thomas:

I wasn't sure Pokémon was still that, I know they did the whole Pokémon like, what was that? What was the one that was huge for like, 20 minutes back in like 2019 was it Pokémon, Pokémon Go, oh, like the game yeah, oh yeah, it was huge, oh yeah. I mean, like, everybody was doing it and then, but I didn't realize the cards and stuff were still, were still

Jeff Matevish:

Oh, cards are, yeah, it's more so. But again, popular. it's that generation, like my age, that they're hitting, they're in their 30s, or, you know, early 40s, and they want what they had back whenever they were kids again. And, you know, back at that time, it was Pokémon cards.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, well, and I think you just touched on something that's important. Because I think when people think about value, and they and they start talking about things, they start thinking to themselves, like, I'm going to collect this, or I'm going to have that, like collections, things like that, stamp collections, coin collections. And there's a lot of people that mistake age for value, yeah, just because something's old doesn't make it an antique or anything like that, yeah, yeah, because somebody has to want it right, like there has to be some reason for you to collect it or to keep it right. So, just because I have an old piece of furniture doesn't necessarily make it valuable. But if I have an old piece of furniture made by a particular manufacturer or in a particular type of the particular style, or something like that. Or even if it was just owned by somebody else, you know, if it was, there's, there's a rare bookseller that I follow on, on, on online, and he just, he had a book that was, I can't remember what it was. It was, it was something about world maps or something like that. It was some it wasn't, but it was owned by Alexander Hamilton. So, the book is worth, like, a million dollars. Oh, yeah. But if you had a copy that was not owned by Alexander Hamilton, it would be worth, you know, 35 bucks or something like that. You know, it's so, I think it's important too, when you, when you're talking about money, because obviously this podcast is ultimately about, about banking, about finance, about money, right? When you're, you got to keep that kind of stuff in mind, that value changes. You know, that's just like wedding dresses or rings or, or literal costs of things. Value changes over time. And so what you think might be valuable today, may or may not necessarily be value, valuable 30 years from now. Oh, yeah. Do you collect anything?

Jeff Matevish:

No, I'm, I'm not, I used to collect, I was big into fossils. And, oh, that's cool, yeah. So, I have a nice display case of fossils and dinosaur bones, oh yeah.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah. Around here, around around here, surprisingly, there's a lot of fossils you can collect.

Jeff Matevish:

Oh yeah, a lot of like, seashells and stuff like that, brachiopods and stuff, yeah.

Drew Thomas:

That's cool. What's a brachiopod?

Jeff Matevish:

A little creature that doesn't exist anymore.

Drew Thomas:

Okay, fair enough. Yeah. No. I think that's, you know, I used to, I started down the road when I was a little kid, I started down the road of, like, coin collecting, okay, mostly because my dad collected coins, sure, but it's just really hard to truly identify, unless you're willing to send that coin away to have it appraised, yeah, or evaluated. And then they, then they seal it like, you know, plastic, and give it a grade and all that kind of stuff, although I guess you could argue they do the same...

Jeff Matevish:

With cards and stuff like that. I used to look for error coins. I was big into trying to find error coins. Oh, double dies and, you know, stuff like that.

Drew Thomas:

Do you ever find anything good?

Jeff Matevish:

No, it was more, again, it was valuable to me because I thought it was cool. But, yeah, nothing that was, you know, nothing that would, that it would be worth my while to spend my time to take somewhere or sending somewhere to, yeah. Oh yeah, I don't know I had first edition Pokémon

Drew Thomas:

I think there's, there are probably apps and stuff now that, theoretically, oh yeah, will, you know, look at cards. I can't find them for the life of me right now, and I'm things and scan them and tell you whether they're valuable or not. As far as, like, quality, yeah, yeah. You know, quality of coin, yeah, or whatever. Whenever I was in high school, there was a card game called Magic The Gathering, Oh, yeah. kicking myself in the butt. And I think they still make them, they do and, but I got I mean, and this, I guess this all goes back to that into it when they I mean, I had like, alpha and beta cards, same there's, there's that story of like, oh, I had a bunch of because that I had, like, original packs. If I still had them today, they would be worth a lot of money because they were from, because people want those original cards. original blah, blah, blah, yeah, my mom threw them out, yeah. But sometimes the value also arrives in the scarcity, right? So, something that might have been super, super popular, but for whatever reason, they didn't survive.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah, I might cut this out because it just sounds weird, but back when Aunt Jemima was taken off, and it was, it was Pearl Mill Milling, or whatever, oh, yeah, Pearl Milling Company, yeah, before they right, when they they said that they were getting rid of Aunt Jemima, I bought a whole bunch of bottles of Aunt Jemima, and I still have them, in hopes that it goes up in value. And it has, over the years.

Drew Thomas:

I would say, I bet it has. Yeah, I really bet it has. And it's not because, it's not because of any other reason, other than the fact that this is something that a lot of people would remember, right and, and have an odd emotional attachment to, I would have to say, yeah.

Jeff Matevish:

I mean, it's not like you're gonna eat the, you know, maple syrup 40 years down the road, but you remember that, that label, you know you're, yeah, I don't know.

Drew Thomas:

No, I think that that's actually, I think a lot of things that, that you look back on now, and you know, there

Jeff Matevish:

Cars were pretty in line with what they were like are entire TV shows devoted to this. I mean, Antiques Roadshow, oh yeah, on PBS or Pawn Stars on the History Channel, you know, is all devoted to this idea of trying to determine value of things that are brought to them. And it's amazing to me sometimes how many people bring things in, and they are so you can tell, like you can tell they're all puffed up and they're all like, they know what they got. I got something awesome here, you know. And meanwhile, the person that the antiques roadshow looks and says, well, I got like, 75 of these back here, and, like, everybody collected them. And so they're not really that valuable, because there's a billion of them left. So, yeah, I think it's weird things like, you know, like, like old branding, like, like old advertising signs, things like that. So, so the idea that you, that you collected that is not odd. I mean, that's that's actually probably a really smart thing to look at, because there's a lot of people that love, you know, putting stuff like that on display in their homes and stuff after time, I guess, yeah, no, especially if they're big into, like, cooking or food or something like that. Yeah. What all did you find, as far as, like, some of the, so, what about things like that are that are more, I don't want to say lasting, because anything can theoretically last. But what about something like, like, big purchases, like homes like, did you find anything on like, house house prices or car prices, like things like that as far as value? now. And even, you know, before the pandemic and stuff like that, the equivalent for cars, let me see, like that would have been so in the, in the 40s, a car would be around $16,000 a new car. Okay? Between 16, it was big. It was like between$16,000 and $30,000 what that's well, there's a huge range now, right? There is, there is.

Drew Thomas:

If I'm buying a Prius or I'm buying an Escalade, they're probably very different in terms of cost.

Jeff Matevish:

That's true. In the 70s, a car was roughly$33,000 in today's value. So, yeah, houses in the 70s,$143,000 in today's value, versus in the 30s.

Drew Thomas:

Well, I was going to say 143, what decade did you say?

Jeff Matevish:

That was in the 70s.

Drew Thomas:

So, 100 and that's$142,000 today's value? Yeah. So, look at that. I mean, we just talked about that a couple of episodes ago, about the average cost of a house in the US, like $400,000.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah, but that, that's increased significantly in the last just several years. I mean, yeah, you look at I got way too many papers in front of me. So, 2000 to 2009 average home in today's value $225,000 and then a decade later, it jumped up to $265,000 Yeah. So, I mean...

Drew Thomas:

Well, so I so, I guess that's the thing too. Is like, you know, just like any I think, I think the reason that I was asking about homes and cars is because I think that they, they sort of bridge the gap between the two concepts we've been talking about. Yeah, you know, milk costs, whatever it costs, right? But it's an expendable thing. You buy it, you either drink it or you don't, and then you buy it again. You know, on the other side, family photos are either incredibly valuable or not valuable at all. Yeah, it's based purely on emotion. Homes, cars, things like that, they kind of, they kind of fall in both camps, right? Because, like, you know, if I have, if I own, my like, my first house, like you're always going to love, like your, your first love, your first house, your first car, right? Like I, my first car, my first car when I was 16 years old, I bought a so I was 16 years old, it would have, I would have been like 19, mid, 1990s I bought a, I bought a 1977 Caprice, Classic. Oh. From an elderly lady who, you know, like, drove it to church on Sunday, right? It was, it was a faux, a faux fabric top. It was blue. The seats were beat up. I mean, it was, it was objectively not a great car. I loved that car because it was my car.

Jeff Matevish:

Right, right. And you paid for it. I mean, it meant something, because you had to work for it, you know.

Drew Thomas:

Right. So, you know, there again, it kind of, kind of, kind of bridges that you got a foot in both camps, right? It's like, you know, objectively, that car does have a monetary value, right? I mean, it's not worth zero, but it's not, it probably wasn't worth what I thought it was worth, right? You know what I mean? And I think the same could be said of, like, you know, your first house, or something like that. Like, you know, you have your a lot of your memories tied up in that, maybe your parents' house, yeah, right, things like that, you know, so.

Jeff Matevish:

I think, do, I think doing the research threw me off because we had, in a previous episode, we had talked about, you know, the Sears catalog house being, oh, yeah, you know, $18,000 and it's like, wow, you can't buy a house for, you know, for a fraction of$18,000 but, you know, $18,000 back then was, you know, substantial. It was, you know, the $150,000 $200,000 of what it is today.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah. And you were putting it together yourself, right.

Jeff Matevish:

Yeah. And you were stuck with how it came, you know, yeah, there were no customization.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, very little, that's true. So, I think the Yeah, you know, 50 years, if you can find a trend, you know, from lesson from this, as we kind of wrap this up because we're, you know, it's just supposed to be a 2 Cents, I suppose, is, it's just this idea that look, you know, when you're, when you're, when you're, when you're looking at something, when you're looking to buy something, especially if you're looking to invest in something, whatever it is, if you think you're, you know, consider the fact that, first of all, especially things like collections, things like that, that whatever it is that you're collecting, may be valuable to you. It may be valuable to a lot of people today, but it may not necessarily be valuable to a lot of people 50 years from now, when you think it's going to be valuable enough to have accrued the past to see how it's gone up in value or down in value, some sort of like, I don't know, perceived value, that you're going to sell this thing that you bought for $20 today, for$200,000. fluctuated. You know, look at that. Consider that too. Yeah, if you can, if you can, you know, things like things like furniture and homes and stuff. You might be able to do that, things like LeBron James rookie cards, maybe not so much, you know. So, so, yeah, think about that. I mean, I would argue I was surprised, honestly, because with the baseball card I mentioned, because I don't know that baseball is as popular of a sport as it was when baseball card collecting was really big.

Jeff Matevish:

And card collecting, I don't think, for baseball cards, is not as big, either, let alone the sport, like you just said.

Drew Thomas:

Yeah, so well, and because the sport isn't as big, the cards aren't as popular, right? You know, so the fact that there was a rookie card that went for $1.1 million, I mean, obviously there are still sports aficionados out there that really place value on that kind of stuff. But, you know, is anybody going to be another Mickey Mantle rookie card? I don't, I don't, honestly know the answer, yeah. You know, I think in one of our episodes last year, we briefly touched on the concept of NFTs, you know, non-fungible tokens, and this idea that you could own, quote, unquote, a meme that everybody already has and sees. And they got popular for like, a hot second, yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, if you, if you got in on that market and then you sold it a week later for three times the value, you made money. But in re, in the, in the long run, when's the last time you heard about oh NFT?

Jeff Matevish:

You don't, yeah, I have no idea, yeah. So, I

Drew Thomas:

So, I guess, anyway, like I said, I think I think that was great, awesome. Thanks, Drew. couldn't tell you. that's the thing to consider. You know, from a financial standpoint, you want to try to make sure that what you're investing your money into as much as you can, without being able to see the future, which none of us can. You know, don't, you can't make assumptions about value, yeah, and, and value, and values change, you know, so what might be valuable today may not be valuable later and, and the, the, the Aunt Jemima bottle that you have today that is worth whatever you paid for it at Giant Eagle, honest to goodness, it might be worth something down the road. Because people, people want that his that touch of historic, of history, that nostalgia, and that nostalgia, yeah, yeah, you know. So, I hope it does. I hope it does for your sake too. Yeah. So, all right, we good? This podcast focuses on having valuable conversations on various topics related to banking and financial health. The podcast is grounded in having open conversations with professionals and experts with the goal of helping to take some of the mystery out of financial and related topics, as learning about financial products and services can help you make more informed financial decisions. Please keep in mind that the information contained within this podcast and any resources available for download from our website or other resources relating to Bank Chats is not intended and should not be understood or interpreted to be financial advice. The host, guests, and production staff of Bank Chats expressly recommend that you seek advice from a trusted financial professional before making financial decisions. The host of Bank Chats is not an attorney, accountant or financial advisor, and the program is simply intended as one source of information. The podcast is not a substitute for a financial professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation. Thank you for listening. Please check out our full library of episodes, which can be found on the ameriserv.com website. You can also download or stream the podcast from your favorite podcast app.

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