Most IT folks would say their electronic gizmos and accessories are invaluable, but they probably don't know how true that is. A survey conducted by Live 2001, a Britain-based home-electronics show, points out that as technology shrinks and becomes more portable, many gadgets are now literally worth their weight in gold.

Take, for instance, a Siemens SL45 GSM cell phone. It can function as an organizer and an MP3 player, yet weighs only 88 grams. Retailing for about $740, it's worth about $8.40 a gram. That compares favorably to gold, which is currently valued at $8.84 a gram.

The trend is even more pronounced when you consider components. Take a 64-MB Viking MultiMedia flash card, which is used in digital cameras. It weighs in under 2 grams and retails for about $75, making it worth about $37 a gram. That's more than four times the value of gold. A 128-MB Sony MagicGate Memory Stick for MP3 players costs $169 and weighs 4 grams. It would only cost about $36 to buy 4 grams of the shiny stuff. Guess it's true what they say about memories being golden.