The -k argument on my openssl accepts a passphrase, not a file. You likely encrypted with the filename as the secret, not it's contents. Perhaps you should use -kfile instead.
$ openssl aes-256-cbc -help
Usage: aes-256-cbc [options]
General options:
-help Display this summary
-list List ciphers
-ciphers Alias for -list
-e Encrypt
-d Decrypt
-p Print the iv/key
-P Print the iv/key and exit
-engine val Use engine, possibly a hardware device
Input options:
-in infile Input file
** -k val Passphrase**
-kfile infile Read passphrase from file
In the US they are usually governed as real estate legally. You can resell it, but most people aren't interested in paying the maintenance fees. You'll find all sorts of timeshares out there being resold for 1$ because they just don't want to pay the maintenance fee anymore.