People Predict Which Items May Be Cheap Now But Will Skyrocket In The Future

The depletion of these three things sparked its own thread.

Decreasing Commodity

"Cork, vanilla and many fish. The sources for them are not being properly maintained and are shrinking."

– showmeyourbirds

Vanilla Value

"Vanilla has already more than doubled in price since 2015. There was a hurricane or something that wiped out most of the crop in Madagascar, which is where the vast majority of vanilla comes from."

"About a decade ago I bought a 16oz bottle of fancypants vanilla bean 'crush' (aka vanilla paste, basically a syrup form of vanilla extract) for a little over $20. Nowadays that same amount would run you at least $60."

"Alcohol-based extract is generally cheaper than paste, but still way more expensive than it was as little as 6 years ago."

– fancyfrenchtoilet

Cork Stigma

"Many mass producers of wine have shifted to synthetic corks or twist offs. The stigma of twist offs is already few years gone unless you're drinking something with a bit more age to it."

– SnootchieBootichies

Thoughts On Fish

"Sometimes when I eat fish I think about how it could be a scarce delicacy in the future that only rich people will get to enjoy."

– letter99

"History major here: it already is, at least partly. Best example is salmon. Back in the 18th century, there are examples of house-people 'rioting' because they were sick of eating salmon at least 4 times a week. Now you'd have to be pretty rich to eat salmon nearly everyday, here in Europe."

– QuirkySpringbock

Keeping up with the latest technology, while convenient, has a financial setback.

"Owning" Devices

"Companies are lobbying hard to fight right to repair legislation that would make it so you can't actually fix your own devices or have a repair shop do it for you. It's already pretty bad with companies like Apple, Tesla, and John Deere. They design stellar products but if anything goes wrong with them you're almost always going to be told to buy a new one (apple) or to ship your heavy piece of machinery both ways for days to weeks to have it repaired when you should otherwise be able to do it yourself."

"Farmers are moving back to ancient tractors since they can fix them themselves and get parts for a reasonable price, or they're using bootleg Polish JD software to bypass the DRM in their tractors so they can actually fix these things in a timely matter. Sometimes having a $100 sensor break in your tractor can cost you upwards of $5000 with shipping, rigging, and labour. Not to mention a potentially lost harvest if it takes too long to fix."

– pocketgravel

A "Global Scale Issue"

"It's kinda a global scale issue right now. Poor people just can't afford ecological stuff."

"My dad always mentioned that he'd buy electric heating system for the house, electric car, solar panels, etc. if they were actually affordable in a lifetime. Now he's stuck using 20+ years furnace that runs on wood and and burnable trash, 20+ year car, some old tractor, and actually he got subsidies for the solar panels, so that's nice."

– CrossError404

Some of the most basic things used in our daily lives may no longer be attainable without spending beaucoup $$.

Sucks A Bunch

"Bananas. At least, the kind of bananas we're used to now, the cavendish banana. The fusarium fungus is slowly spreading through the world's cavendish banana plantations, killing all of the plants. https://qz.com/1691363/fusarium-fungus-could-wipe-out-the-worlds-favorite-banana-again/"

– ratsbane

People Who Made A Lot Of Money From Something Totally Random | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

Big Brother Is Watching

"Relatively speaking, privacy."

– Voxico

"NordVPN: Because our servers are more trustworthy than their servers."

– ImminentThagomizer

Simple But Necessary Indulgences

"Chocolate or coffee."

– NationalPassion9144

"Either that or I'll be dead when that happens."

– -temporary_username-

Classic Gaming

"Sealed Nintendo games"

– PropagandaSmiles

Game Preservation

"Games in general really."

"Lack of game preservation by companies in recent years (Nintendo just ignoring most of its backlog with the Switch, Sony getting a massive backlash for trying to pull the plug on the PS3 PSN store, which it seems like it won't be the last time they attempt this considering they still went ahead and did that for the PSP despite the backlash), emulation still being stuck in a legal gray area that makes it easy for the sites hosting older games to be taken down, and disks/carts being destroyed due to neglect by owners, are all going to make the used game market insanely expensive."

"If you have a local retro game store in your area, make sure to support them. They're basically the only ones still making older games remotely affordable."

– TokoWH

Second-Hand Vehicles

"They've already started to go up a huge amount, but used cars."

– Butter_Cock

"90s Japanese cars are outrageous now."

– Sirturtle1

The Sweet Stuff

"Honest answer, maybe honey, because of the death rate of bees."

– stungbybears

Chump Change

"Pennies."

"They already cost more than a penny, because of the copper."

"Edit: yes, pennies are mostly zinc, not copper. Got it. Why do I get all the upvotes when I say something dumb?"

– BearIsland18

I never thought cologne increased in value, but apparently, it does.

I used to shop at an apparel store called Ruehl, which was owned by Abercrombie & Fitch and catered to the post-collegiate demographic between the ages of 22 and 35.

As with their Abercrombie locations, Ruehl stores – which were themed after New York's Greenwich Village – pumped the store's eponymous fragrance throughout their stores.

Their gimmick worked and I bought myself a bottle of the good stuff and was subsequently mocked by my colleagues about how I'm such a sucker for egregious marketing and wasting money on "crap."

Well, a friend of mine recently apprised me of a listing on eBay of the discontinued bottle of Ruehl cologne and asked me if I still had mine.

I do have my half-used bottle of RUEHL No.925 R-7 Men's Cologne Spray. And apparently, the "crap" I initially spent $40 on is now roughly worth $250 according to this listing my friend showed me.

So who's laughing now, huh?

Had I known it would appreciate that much in value a few years later, I seriously would have stocked up. Sigh.