I like old things.

I just always have. Maybe because I read a lot of books set in long ago places, I like things that look like they are from long ago places. I like things that have a history. I also like the look of them and the make of them. Made from wood, rather than plastic, say.

I noticed, the last time I caught the bus from the east to the inner west, a whole heap of new vintage shops. A HEAP of them. And they seem to have fairly ordinary things in them. Not fancy antique polished hall stands, more like beaten-up kitchen tables and old suitcases and wooden crates and random industrial things. I thought how interesting it is that all the old stuff from the houses of my grandparent's generation are now being expensively traded up to inner-city young people. Example: a photo I took of my grandparent's back verandah (recording it for posterity). Arrows to all the things worth money in Alexandria or Newtown.

If you chart the value ($$$ and desirability) of an object over time it's basically a U-curve.

It starts out expensive and new, and the owner is proud of it. Then it gets a bit dated but it's still good and the owner doesn't really think about it one way or another… the value declines. Then it starts to get a bit embarrassing. Maybe it goes to a room in the back of the house, or it gets given to the kids when they move out. Then it hits the bottom of the chart, it has no monetary value at all, it's ugly and worn out and it probably goes to Vinnies or the dump or just sits forgotten somewhere. Then all of a sudden, it's retro! The value swoops back up the chart and it's worth money and people who buy it are proud of it because they had something just like it when they were a kid. I'm looking at YOU, cyclops scooter for $750. I put the turnaround at the 30-year mark. Which means junk from the early 80s is now worth not throwing out. But who knows.