Of things I'd like to own but couldn't buy, I recall a beautiful 19th century mandolin I once saw in a music shop that catered to Irish traditional music. It had just been refurbished, and had a gorgeous mother-of-pearl butterfly on its front; it was bowl-backed, and I would love to have a bowl-back mandolin - they have such a beautiful sound. Alas, it cost eight hundred euro... Of things I'd like but wouldn't buy, it'd have to be the lighthouse on Clare Island off of the coast of county Mayo, which I saw once when I visited my friend on the island. A German millionaire bought it and was having it - and the large house beside it - restored. I was in his future master bedroom (my friend was one of the construction workers, as well as a master guitarist), and looking through his window all you could see was the Atlantic, because it stands upon a cliff. What a beautiful sight to wake up to every morning...
I like your answers. A lighthouse is an interesting one. It's function is to guide ships in, but never to itself. It's a beautiful but isolated type of structure. I used to live in a place with a view of the Pacific and every day I'd wake up to the sounds of fishermen coming back into port. I really miss that life, but things change.