What is the way economics distinguishes between items that people buy to use/keep, and people just buy to sell at a higher price to other sellers? I see both referred to as “commodities”, and both have “intrinsic value” (People will pay for them), but they seem clearly different to me.

Question

What is the way economics distinguishes between items that people buy to use/keep, and people just buy to sell at a higher price to other sellers? I see both referred to as “commodities”, and both have “intrinsic value” (People will pay for them), but they seem clearly different to me.

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Answer 1

commodities are expendable, you eat the crops we don’t save them (though you can hang colorful indian corn as decor.)

You buy paint for your house. But a painting is usually valued much more than the cost of materials and labor.

Now something that can move from commodity to intrinsic are cars. Most are commodities, we buy them, we drive them, after 10 years maybe 20 years they are scape, junk. But some cars pass through commodity phase and become collectible like just about any car that is still drivable 50 years later.