The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

What is at least 1 thing you really regret you bought?

Maybe you bought it,and sent it back,or returned it..

We have done this topic in the past.  I am almost positive of it. 

I remember because Brian posted about his boat, and Hoodie responded with the old saying about the two happiest days in every boat owner's life.

My boat.  yes.  But also, my condo.  What an utter waste of money. 

So your batting average on big-ticket items isn't too hot?

We're looking to sink a ridiculous (for us) amount of money into a new home within the next year, something I REALLY hope we don't regret.

I was fortunate enough to buy my house in 2010, near the rock bottom of the market.

My best recommendation for buying a home is to NOT treat it as an investment, but (oddly enough) just a place to live in.  If you buy a house (with a fixed-rate mortgage) that you can afford, and that works for your needs, then whatever ends up happening with house prices doesn't affect you.  You will always need somewhere to live, and ultimately it doesn't matter if the value of your house crashed in 2008 if you continue living in it for 20 more years.

That said, it's a bit tougher if you end up needing to move far away, or if you have dramatically changed living circumstances (like adding several kids).  I ended up looking at houses for over a year (seeing a little under 100 of them in the process) because I wanted to make sure I got something affordable that I could live with long-term.

I just bought a stupid trunk organizer that is NOTHING like the one that the Subaru dude showed me. It's tiny and only holds 2 bags of groceries. I'm super disappointed by it.

Backstory: I got a new car because I HATED my old Outback. Just not my style. The car that I test drove had this neat organizer in the trunk for your groceries. He said that it didn't come with the car, but usually he throws one in for free. After waiting 2 weeks for my car I finally got it and there was no organizer. I went on line and bought what i thought was the same thing, but it's not. My guy wants to go back to the dealership and get the exact one that I saw, but I know he'll make a scene. (He thinks I was ripped off and just hates new cars in general.) So, I guess i'm stuck with this organizer.

If the salesman already said he would give you the exact one you want for free, what's the problem?  Just go down and ask for it.

I just realized I haven't answered the original question.  When the 3DS came out, I thought that it would have sales shortages like the Wii did, so I bought two of them (one to keep, one to sell) with the hope that selling one would pay for the other.  Needless to say, this did not even come close to reality; I was fortunately able to return the second one unopened, and I sold the second one about a year ago on eBay (with all the extra games Nintendo gave the suckers who bought 3DS on release day, to make up for the huge price drop 6 months later).

The one thing I regret buying was a used Dodge Ram pickup truck several years ago (as a second vehicle).  Long story - I got stuck having to try and flip a house I repossessed (even longer backstory) so I decided to buy a truck to pick up materials, etc. (instead of trying to borrow someone else's all the time), I thought I'd use it for six months or so and then pretty much sell it for what I paid for it.  Well not long after I bought it gas prices started to soar, and everyone was trying to sell their trucks, so the resale value plummeted.  Then the transmission went on the truck, as well as brakes, exhaust, and some other problems.  The six month flip turned into a year and half project.  So, after factoring in insurance, repairs, loss on the resale, etc. it cost me about $6,000.00 for my minimal usage over a two year period.

In retrospect I should have just rented Home Depot's truck for $30 each time I needed it, which really only would have been about 10 times.

Right now the only purchase I'm regretting is that last shot last night.

Brian, did you ever manage to sell your boat?

No, you wanna buy it?

I just suck at doing stuff like that. I also was going to take $2000 trade-in for my car. Mr. Buddha got on the phone and negotiated $6000.

Nintendo Wii.

Each game I played was cool, but ultimately when the gimmick of how it was different wore off, I wanted to go back to HD graphics and a traditional controller.

- I totally agree with the Wii,I actually found playing tennis,and bowling the most fun,and even that became ...un-interesting pretty quickly.

*Comment on buying a house

I agreed with everything else,but this that I quoted  here is what stopped me the most from buying a house.I couldn't find something in my price range,in somewhat decent shape,that if I lost my job,and had to work at wal mart.I'd still be able to pay the mortgage,utilities,taxes,etc...

Last month the house I thought hard about buying seemed too good to be true,and I felt over pressured.I became more,and more was uncomfortable with "They need an answer Soon as possible,by the end of the week,Monday at the latest.." I wanted to my due diligence checking it out.My landlord is in the process of buying it, So I might try to buy it down the road.He's in a much better position to take a risk with the house than I am...

I find a lot of people here also making the mistake putting too much importance to stuff like "We're 3 blocks from this school,or it's 5 minutes from our job." The kid will grow up,and your still 3 blocks from some school,that they were only there for a couple of years.

My Former boss,bought a really nice,(but overpriced ) house out in the south suburbs.It was close to his wife's work,Her office moved,then they were both driving 30 minutes each way to work.Eventually they sold their house,and bought a nice house just North of town to be closer to their jobs.Both changed jobs,and were again commuting.Jobs tend to move,end,leave,or you want to do something better...
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Ok On to my purchasing regrets....
When I posted this, I was going to include my 2000 chevy Blazer I bought for my Mom.It's cost me $100 a month in some random problems,not to mention leaving her or I on the side of the road needing to be towed home 4 times in the past 12 months. Currently it's the only one running today. >:(

-Hamilton Beach Single Serve Coffee Brewer and Full Pot Coffee Maker - The newer version,has a ton of horrible reviews because of burning plastic smell,and horrible coffee,So I bought the older version.I really wanted to brew 1 cup,but still have the ability to brew a pot.The single brewer took as much coffee grinds as it did to make a whole pot,and didn't hold enough water to brew a whole cup,so I'd have to brew it twice to fill my cup. I went back to my brew station my B-friend bought me for Christmas in 2009.

Ps4 + and Madden 16 - For a few years I used a Ps2 Emulator,(and an Xbox control) and played Madden 2012 on my desktop P.C. I really wanted a better challenge,and I couldn't play while backing up,or rendering in  my 3d program. The Ps4 is ok,but the games are really over priced,and not enough game I want to play. Madden 16 is a very,Very disappointing as a game to me. The menus suck,no post route hot route,too much advertising,and it glitches & freezes occasionally.

My old JVC DLP T.V. in 2006? The more,and more I think back on this,this one bothers me.It needed a warranty repair 3 months in,then needed the bulb replaced 1 year in,it kept getting dust on the lens,and the picture wasn't that good...

Modified to add this one

Dyson Dc35 multi floor vacuum - I bought off Woot reconditioned for about $180,for my Mom as a house warming gift.She wanted one for awhile,and I thought,ehh what the hell.When she moved back in with me,I inherited that P.o.S..It's got  some nifty attachments,but the vacuum itself isn't much better than a dust devil.Unless it's a few wood shavings when I drill a hole in something,or lightly vacuum out the truck..Blah...It's about worthless.

No, I couldn't afford it, have no place to keep it, and don't live close to any water.

You know there are some people in the world who live on house boats permanently?  They are called the Bajau people.  They do not have any nationality.

It's going to be tough for anyone to find a house that they can afford if they lost their job and/or are working minimum wage; minimum wage earners can't afford to buy houses.

Rather than approach it that way, I would look at it like this: no matter your employment status, you're going to have to pay to live somewhere.  So what would your mortgage payment be compared to what you are paying for rent?  Keep in mind that if you have a couple of roommates now, you could also buy a house and get a couple of roommates there too, if needed.  In my case, through mostly blind luck my mortgage payment is less than the rent for a 1 bedroom apartment (in this area).  I was laid off in 2002 and only employed part time until 2007; if I had kept my job back in 2002, I would have bought an overpriced house and probably ended up getting foreclosed on like many others.

The final piece of advice I'll give on buying a house is: the real-estate bubble is inflating again.  Do not fall victim to the "buy now or be priced out forever" shenanigans; in 2007 before the bubble burst, I was lucky enough to have a coworker who explained to me that housing prices at the time were so overinflated that you could rent for the next 30 years and still save more money than the amount you would have paid for a house.  So don't pay some crazy amount over rental prices for the "privilege of homeownership."

I agree with what you're saying...

I feel it's different here,economically.I can only speak for my assbackwards fly over area that I live in...Here the median house price is 110kish to 120kish depending on where you what you reference.That's skewed because of the south side of town,as most of the northside of town medians around 75k-90k.

Most of the places I can afford to rent,are the same crappy houses I can buy without the shitty ass slum lord. The house I was looking to buy last month was $36k...

I need to play it more, but I'm starting to regret buying Mortal Kombat XL on a whim last night.

Learned a lesson in life, never buy anything at a comic store unless you know for sure it can't be purchased elsewhere.

Went in to a comic shop to browse and saw a collectible I had never seen in my life. Did a quick search online through my phone for details but I didn't take my time reading through it. Bought it. Come to find out the comic shop doubled the price, and it was incomplete. No returns. I could've ebayed it brand new for half the price.

Worst purchase ever.

^^ I'm curious what you got...?

It's a collectible.  Were you buying it as an investment, or because it's something that made you happy to own?

If it's the latter, you should just accept the fact that you were happy to pay that price at the time.  I think it would be far worse to turn it down, change your mind, and never find it again.  As long as it wasn't a fraudulent transaction (i.e. item broken or a fake) and buying it didn't put you into hardship, just be content that you were able to find something you enjoy for a price you thought was fair.

Nerd alert: 

I have the entire generation 1 collection of Transformers ('84-'86). When the animated movie came out in '86 they created a character (Arcee), but was never released in the toy-line. Until apparently a few years ago, when it was released under the Generations line. Since I haven't collected since G1 or paid any attention, I didn't know Hasbro finally created the character. When I saw it, I thought it was a rare release that I missed at some point. I was happy to have gotten it with the thought that finding a new one would be more expensive, but now knowing there is an abundance of that same item (complete), new, and at half the price anywhere online I'm more pissed at myself for not taking the time to do a bit more research.

How about incomplete, which it was? Or knowing that it isn't a rare item, just one you were unaware of?

If you bought it because it was "rare" or "complete" then that usually implies something like an investment, which I don't really consider buying for its own sake.

Put another way: if the manufacturer making another production run of this item a year from now would ruin my purchase, I'd think pretty hard about buying it in the first place.

No guff from me about it Thundergod...Stuff like that happens a lot on Antique Roadshow,and Pawn stars. :D People buy something thinking it's old and rare,and found out it's reproduction,or they made a bazillion of them!  :-[

I loved those 1st generation transformers,They were cool!

The whole internet/ebay has made things "worth" less than they once were, because now people have a market to sell the stuff that has accumulated in their attics & basements.  I had a collection of sports cards from the 70's that were once listed as valuable if you referenced them in sports cards catalogues.  Now after ebay, prices plummeted because now there is an open world wide market in which to easily sell them.