Great comments, Picker.

There's a story that seems to apply about investing & trading in things, rather than using them: It seems a man met a travelling peddler from a faraway land, who told him about a wonderful can of sardines he could buy for a mere dollar. Charmed by the story of the peddler the man bought the sardines (although a dollar was a lot for a can of sardines) and put them on a shelf in his kitchen to eat on a special occasion.

The sardines sat in the man's kitchen until one day a friend of his saw the can and asked about them. He was told the story, and immediately offered $2 for the can.

The deal was done, and as the new owner of the sardines was walking home, he ran into two lady friends of his. He showed them the can of sardines, told them the story, and explained that he was going home to dine on the wonderful little fish. Thinking that $2 sardines must, indeed, be special, the first lady offered him $2.25 for the can; not to be outdone, the other lady offered him $2.50. This went on for a while until the sardines were finally sold for the outlandish sum of $5.00!

Now the lady who bought the sardines couldn't resist telling her friends about her luck and skill in purchasing such valuable sardines and as the story spread, people began to wish they, too, could make such a fortuitous purchase. Years went by. The can changed hands over and over, the price went up and up, as the story of the sardines became legend. People passed the sardines from father to son, parting with them grudgingly, and at great profit. Eventually news of the sardines reached the ears of the king.

The king, it seemed, was planning a banquet. Having heard about the sardines, decided that he absolutely had to serve those sardines to his notable guests. After intense negotiation, a price was reached which made the seller faboulously wealthy and pleased the king greatly; he finally had the wonderful sardines!

The night of the banquet came and the king, with great pomp and ceremony opened the can of sardines. Although the aroma was terrible, he figured that's how special sardines must smell; so he served them to his guests who all got violently ill as a result. As the king was having his royal stomach pumped, he turned to his Prime Minister demanding to know what was wrong with his expensive sardines. The Prime Minister merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sire, those sardines weren't for eating; those sardines were for trading."