Nicolas Cage once blew $150 million on a dinosaur skull, pygmy heads and 2 castles

Actor Nicolas Cage was data-test="Pullquote">What is an octopus, $80? You're not going to go into dire straits buying an octopus.Nicolas Cage

Despite his financial ruin, Cage doesn't regret all of his purchases. "You have good investments and bad investments," he says. "The good investments came from personal interest and my honest enjoyment of the history."

That includes "Action Comics No. 1," the first-ever comic to feature Superman, which he picked up for $150,000.

For Cage, part of the appeal of real estate also stemmed from his childhood. Growing up outside of Beverly Hills with his professor father, he lived modestly. "I would take the bus to school, and some of the older boys were going to school in Maseratis and Ferraris," he tells the Times.

Even at a young age, he longed for more. "My uncle [Francis Ford Coppola] was very generous. I would visit him for summers, and those summers — I wanted to be him," he explains. "I wanted to have the mansions. That was driving me."