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Notes -
With older people in particular, the hoarders I think often reflect broad scale deflation in manufactured goods over time. Older people grew up with more expensive manufactured goods. Little nonsense like commemorative plates and snow babies and precious moments probably all fall into the category of things that would have been more expensive when they were young. My dad is a frequent overbuyer, of many things, and when he does it always takes the justification of "that would have been [3x price] back in the day." Especially with tools and things like that, he'll buy entirely too many power drills or tool boxes because they used to be more expensive. Nobody could really sell the little cheap commemorative crap for as cheap as it is today back in the day, so they buy it feeling like it must have real value, even though it doesn't at this point.
Also, the useless stuff is the most likely to survive. The Precious Moments don't wear out, don't get moved around and break often, etc. I've purchased a decent number of laptops and cellphones, and more measuring tapes than I can count. When I die, there won't be many of them left in the house, they'll be destroyed or lost, worn out or stolen.
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