I was so disturbed by recognizing vanity at work in buying the map for showing off to visitors that I forgot something. This particular map, from the 1550s, would have been a good investment.
One seller of old maps and Atlases reported the consecutive sales of an old Atlas that he’d tracked since 1948. That year, the atlas in question sold for the equivalent of two hundred American dollars. Last year, it sold for the equivalent of two hundred thousand American dollars. Few things have appreciated in value as much as old maps and atlases.
So, I should have separated vanity from investment. When I focused on investment, and one of my jobs is to provide for my family, the map should have been bought.
But, if it had been bought, it should have been put in an envelope, filed in a cabinet, and not been used as an expression of my accursed vanity.
