For a song

They remembered then that they could have bought for a song canvases which now were worth large sums.

[T]he contents of aircraft that once commanded prices up to $148m are now being sold off for a song after being torn apart in Gloucestershire's aviation charnel house.

In his senior year, he had run across an old '66 Chevy Super Sport headed for the junkyard, bought it for a song, and overhauled it with his dad's help, turning it into the big red muscle car it was back in its day.

He bought it for a song in 1984 compared with what his fellow financiers were spending on tonier Park and Fifth Avenues.