Fully Depreciated Asset

In accounting terms, depreciation measures the decline in value an asset experiences over time. Buy a new car for $25,000. Drive it for 250,000 miles over the course of 15 years, and you might only be able to sell it for $500.

That situation exemplifies depreciation. The value of the asset dwindled over time from $250,000 to $500.

A fully-depreciated asset is one that has had its value decline all the way. It is now carried on the books as being worth zero. At this point, it only has scrap value. Your sputtering jalopy, dripping oil and spouting noxious-smelling fumes...represents a fully depreciated asset.

Not all fully depreciated assets are worth nothing; it's just how they're held on the accountnts' books. To wit, there are a bunch of ancient newspaper printing mills, now over a century old, held as being worth zip, nada, nothing on the books of the formerly great publishers. Yet they keep spewing dead-tree-and-ink at "no capital cost" to the company. Like magic. Sadly, the same magic isn't happening for the industry, as it fades into oblivion.