I heard UA values the SWU's at $600, and you get 6 of them. Don't know about the CR-1's.

UA values 1K status at $20k if you buy their prepaid card.

I think the value to the person depends on how much they travel. If they travel a lot, it might be worth more to someone who only flies around 50k miles and doesn't go international.

I probably wouldn't consider "buying up" unless I was pretty close, and I'd probably do an MR in that case rather than pay for EQMs.