However, I didn't mean value as in purchasing power. I meant value as in if you had unlimited buying power what's the item that you have the least respect for that you would still place in your city (regardless of cost). If the complaint is there's too much junk then we need some way of defining what is actually junk, to whom and how we intend that to be reflected in any proposed changes.
Got you. What I would place now would be attack stat buildings, preferably red or mixed, but I guess for now some that give only blue would get thrown into the mix, with decent fp and/or goods production. Decorations have no value to me, and I would be surprised if they did to even moderately developed players, unless there were fps or goods involved or those players were struggling with the coins and supplies costs to place decos from their era. What I would ultimately place would depend on what I needed at the time, but for example for GE5, I did remove some WP2 to make room for the Appletons I had in inventory, just for a stat boost. Those will go too as soon as I can. I am not placing carousels back for this, but I could see someone maybe doing that.
What I won’t buy are said decorations, oversized production buildings, or event buildings that were valuable years ago, like Indian palace set or the cherry garden set. I’m not saying remove everything but I would never encourage a new player to spend anything on event buildings over 4-5 years old, with multiple levels, when those hard earned coins they will have gathered could be spent better on a one-level only attack building or to complete a recent event building (or add to a recent set, say 2 years old max).
The common thread there is, new players aren’t going to have stocks of old buildings like Colossuses either. So invoking what they may need, if they develop at even a moderate rate, shouldn’t even start considering what they might have stocked up on in less than say 2 years.
How old should an item be before it's taken out of circulation completely from the Antiques Dealer?
For event buildings and sets, two-three years, with the exception of Magnum Opus, Sleigh Builder and Sunken Treasure since those are actually useful to any player. No time limit for consumables. Remove decorations altogether.