History Main / PricelessPaperWeight

[[quoteright:350:[[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TombMakesGoodCard_2087.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"This priceless Ancient Egyptian artifact will make a ''great'' [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}} Children's Card Game]]!"]]

* ''ThePrinceAndThePauper'', the court officials keep asking the false Prince, Tom Canty, about the whereabouts of the Great Seal of England, hidden by Edward Tudor the real Prince just before their escapades began. Despite repeating question the disguised Tom has no idea what they're talking about. In the end, [[spoiler: Edward returns and proves his true identity by at once pointing out what it was. Tom admits he'd been using every day as a nutcracker]].

* In ''[=~Yu-Gi-Oh!~=]'' Pegasus is shown via FlashBack discovering the Pharaoh's tomb during a journey to Egypt. His next move? Using it to make Egyptian God Cards to be sold to the masses.

* In a DonRosa story, Scrooge seeks to restore one of the lost Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, in order to decipher the location of the treasure-trove of King Croesus (who bankrolled the construction of the temple) from writing scattered across the columns. Most of the pieces of the columns were scattered across the world when invading Goths tore down the temple and carted off the pieces as trophies. So, Scrooge travels all across the world, seeking out the lost pieces in a Montage - finding several of them being used in mundane ways.

* ''IronMan 2'': Tony Stark uses CaptainAmerica's prototype/unfinished shield to prop up what he is currently working on.

* In ''[[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Life, the Universe, and Everything]]'', the pieces of [[spoiler: The Wikkit Gate]] have all been scattered throughout the galaxy and are mostly being used for mundane things.

** In the DungeonsAndDragons setting ScarredLands, The pantheon of Gods managed to slay the titan Kadum (aka The Mountainshaker). the mighty titan's source of power was his heart, so the goddess Belsameth (aka The Slayer) ripped it out... and have since used it as a footstool.
* In the old WorldOfDarkness, there was a VillainSue who just got mightier and mightier, until he at last died in a Mage adventure. When people started speculating that he would come back as a wraith, the publishers declared that he DID become a wraith, but was captured by the evil souleating empire. They recycled his soul for raw material, and used that particular unit of soulsteel to make an ashtray for one of their bureaucrats.

* Mummies were once a lot more common in Egypt, since mummification had previously been a very popular form of burial. Before the world fully appreciated the scientific and historical significance of mummies, many of them were burned to fuel trains.

* Recently a pair of British siblings discovered that their late father's property included a small Chinese porcelain statue that had been just sitting around without any significance, that had the value of 50 million Pounds!

[[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TombMakesGoodCard_2087.jpg]]
[[caption-width:472:"This priceless Ancient Egyptian artifact will make a ''great'' [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}} Children's Card Game]]!"]]

* In an episode of ''KimPossible'' ([[spoiler: which ends up just being a dream]]) Ron finds an old book written during the founding days of Middleton being used to support a wobbly chair in his kitchen. The book ends up [[AllThereInTheManual having (most of) the answers]] to the mystery of Kim's disgraced ancestor.

* In ''[[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Life, the Universe, and Everything]]'', the pieces of [[spoiler: The Wikkit Gate]] have all been scattered throughout the galaxy and are being used for mundane things.
** ...the operational core of the motor of a cutting-edge interstellar space ship is ''mundane''?

* In the ''SouthPark'' episode "Mecha-Streisand," [[strike:Cartman]] [[strike:Kyle]] Cartman and Kyle discover an ancient artifact capable of giving its user ultimate power. To them, however, it's a cool glowing triangle and they fight over the right to either let it sit on Kyle's dresser or in Cartman's shoe.)

* At one point in ''{{Lupin III}}: Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure'', as Inspector Zenigata looks through appartment that is apparently one of Lupin's hideouts, he finds a stolen (obviously) tiny statue, which he uses as a weight to keep the lid on his noodle cups closed after adding boiling water. That statue is actually one of three statues needed to unlock the secrets to Harimao's secret treasure.

* The first [[GoldFever gold rush]] in the United States was sparked when it was discovered that the Reed family was using a 17 pound gold nugget found on their property as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Gold_Rush doorstop]].

* [=~George MacDonald Fraser~=] once told how a sapper he met had used a package of plastic explosive as a footstool. That of course is something only someone who was around explosives habitually would do.

[[folder:Collectible Card Game]]
* ''MagicTheGathering'' has the Salvation Sphere. It is one of the pieces of the Legacy, a group of ancient artifacts that [[GottaCatchEmAll that the Weatherlight crew must collect]] so they could save Dominaria from the BigBad, Yawgmoth. Most players probably won't recognize it by its original name though, since it's more popularly known as, uhh... [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4629 Squee's Toy]].
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* There's an old story about two boys in Africa who were found by explorers playing catch with a stone. Upon closer inspection, the stone was actually an enormous uncut diamond.
* Two Egyptologists found a 7th century Egyptian statue being used as a bike rack in a museum in Southampton.
* [=~George MacDonald Fraser~=] once told how a sapper he met had used a package of plastic explosive as a footstool. That of course is something only someone who was around explosives habitually would do.
* Mummies were once a lot more common in Egypt, since mummification had previously been a very popular form of burial. Before the world fully appreciated the scientific and historical significance of mummies, many of them were burned to fuel trains.
* The first [[GoldFever gold rush]] in the United States was sparked when it was discovered that the Reed family was using a 17 pound gold nugget found on their property as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Gold_Rush doorstop]].

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* Inverted in ''The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha'', where the main character takes genuinely mundane things for this. The trope itself is old enough to be inverted by Cervantes.

* In the episode "Becoming, Part One" of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Willow needs an Orb of Thesulah to complete the ritual to give Angel his soul back. Giles has one in his office. He's been using it as, yes, a paper weight.
** Which is a callback to a few episodes previously, where a guy that sells magic supplies mentions that there isn't much call for them, since the rituals of the undead were lost, but he did sell a couple as new age paperweights last year.

* ''[[GilligansIsland The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island]]'' has Gilligan using an energy-producing MacGuffin as a lamp.

* In the ''SouthPark'' episode "Mecha-Streisand," [[strike:Cartman]] [[strike:Kyle]] Cartman and Kyle discover an ancient artifact capable of giving its user ultimate power. To them, however, it's a cool glowing triangle and they fight over the right to either let it sit on Kyle's dresser or in Cartman's shoe.)

[[YuGiOh http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TombMakesGoodCard_2087.jpg]]
[[caption-width:472:"This priceless Ancient Egyptian artifact will make a ''great'' [[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Children's Card Game]]!"]]
->''"Jeeeeesus! This is one of the most important historical finds in centuries! I'm turning this shit into trading cards!"''
-->--'''Pegasus''', ''YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' Episode 41

* In ''YuGiOh,'' Pegasus is shown via FlashBack discovering the Pharaoh's tomb during a journey to Egypt. His next move? Using it to make Egyptian God Cards to be sold to the masses.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', as shown in the page quote.

* In the episode "Becoming, Part One" of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Willow needs an Orb of Thesla to complete the ritual to give Angel his soul back. Giles has one in his office. He's been using it as, yes, a paper weight.
** Which is a callback to a few episodes previously, where a guy that sells magic supplies was also using the exact same type of orb as a paperweight.
** Also somewhat justified, as the spell that needs the Orb had been lost for a long time.

** In the DungeonsAndDragons setting Scarred Lands, The pantheon of Gods managed to slay the titan Kadum (aka The Mountainshaker). the mighty titan's source of power was his heart, so the goddess Belsameth (aka The Slayer) ripped it out... and have since used it as a footstool.

*George Macdonald Fraser once told how a sapper he met had used a package of plastic explosive as a footstool. That of course is something only someone who was around explosives habitually would do.