It's a fact of life that stymies many private collectors, but it's nonetheless true that we never really know what will be worth a lot of money one day.
Those who insisted this was true about their Pokémon cards may be having their moment in the sun, but there are so many other commodities out there that are immensely valuable yet would never seem that way.
And while the classic example of this phenomenon is ambergris, one farmer in India now finds himself with a crop of similarly valuable, but far less gross money-makers.