3 Percent Rule

Ok, you have a shopping list 6 years ago.... you bought a 'Burst' with what your Uncle left you when he died, and you paid $46,000. You also bought a Jackson Randy Rhoads in purple, for 'X' amount. Today, the 'Burst' is worth minimum $165,000, and the Randy Rhoads is worth...er....'X-$$$'. So you get rough on yourself, and decide you can never get rid of the Randy Rhoads. It will sit either in the case in the closet, next to the old humidifier that is broken, or on your guitar stand, as a trophy to Humanity and Our Idiocy. What part of our conditioning growing up makes us rejoice in the profit from the 'Burst' when we sell it, but then stubbornly hold on to the Rhoads until it goes back up to what we paid for it originally? If you look at life, everything has it's ups-and-downs, and hopefully it all averages out. As an example, I used to buy and sell movie memoribilia... I bought, sold, bought, shipped, auctioned, framed, sold, bought.... lots of time... lots of sadness when one thing went for much less than I paid for it, and joy when another thing went for MANY TIMES what I paid for it a few years ago. I actually added up everything, including my auction listing fees, and postage...I MADE 3 PERCENT PER YEAR on my money. Going interest rate at the bank ten years ago was also about the same. SO IT ALL AVERAGED OUT. SELL THE RHOADS if you no longer play it or want it... as long as we all put in a minimum effort in our buys-and-sells, we are all looking at 3 percent or better. The only way this rule will not work out is if you make BAD IMPULSE BUYS....or BUY deals that look too good to be true... but on to that next time....