I had quite a few Grand Cru Bordeaux and Burgundy wines from the Fifties and Sixties that I'd been saving--just couldn't bring myself to drink them. The replacement value of those wines was in the thousands of dollars each, but there was no way I could sell them. I started drinking them before we moved from NJ to AZ three years ago. Nearly all were over the hill. I managed to ship a full case of Chateau Lafite Rothchild 1970, and it arrived here intact. But most of them were over the hill.

On the other hand, during the moving process I found that we did have some "collectables." I had a set of seven books, "The History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System," that had been published privately by Bell Laboratories in the Seventies. Except for rare first editions, used books are practically worthless. But I put them on Craigslist and, within ten minutes, a guy called me, practically panting for them. He was at my home a half-hour later, and gave me $110 for them.

I had an old top-of-the-line road bike--a Raleigh Professional--with a lugged Reynolds 531 double butted frame. That technology had long been superseded by aluminum and carbon fiber frame tubing. But, I found there was a market for lugged frames when I put it on Craigslist. A guy gave me $300 for it.

Then I put a slate coffee table on Craigslist. A used furniture dealer came to our home. He not only bought the table, but an old cube table and cork lamp. Then he asked to look at the rest of our stuff. This guy actually wanted to buy our "Danish modern" bedroom set, which we'd bought more than 40 years earlier, and for less than $300 (we'd promised it to a charity). Then he bought my Yamaha acoustic guitar. Reminds me of a line from "Viva Zapata": "Two women and a goose make a market."