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.

In: 39

Answer 1

Commodities are goods which are basically uniform; crops & minerals are typical examples (corn is corn, copper is copper).

Intrinsic value is value from actually using/consuming the thing (e.g., using gold to manufacture high-quality electronics) as opposed to value from selling it.