> If I spent 3 hours getting the tickets and I value my time at $150 an hour then the value of the tickets is now $505 and I'm only getting offered $500 Except

> If I spent 3 hours getting the tickets and I value my time at $150 an hour then the value of the tickets is now $505 and I'm only getting offered $500 Except that's not how spending time (or money) on something works. If you spend 3 hours trying to fix something and fail, you shouldn't value the item any more. The value of the tickets doesn't go up because the time you spent on it. Selling the ticket (or keeping the ticket) doesn't get you the time back. The question to evaluate the potential sale is only which do you value more, the $500 being offered or the ticket. What you spent on the ticket is irrelevant - it's a sunk cost. We see this with stock trades all the time. Say you bought a share of company XYZ at $100, and then a scandal broke and the value plummeted to $20. You don't think the company is worth buying for $20, either, because the scandal was that bad. Therefore you should sell it, as you think the true value is below $20. Yet, many people would hold the stock as they don't want to take the $80 loss. This is what happens when you fail to ignore sunk costs - what you paid for the item (be it in cash, or the ticket example, your time) doesn't increase its present value to you.