purchases that you regret...

[IronWing]

The pickup bed trailer. It is a really nice one but I could have rented a trailer each time I needed one and saved money and not have a trailer parked in my yard.

 

[dawp]

Subscription to AnandTech forums.

I'm sure if you ask nicely, a mod can help you out with that.

 

[SandEagle]

ipad, dell server, house, security cameras around the house, your mom

 

[Tristicus]

Really just little things here and there, don't really regret any major purchases.

 

[JEDI]

A whistle.

lol

so if goose is known for the whistle, what is Aphex known for?

 

[nageov3t]

I bought a $500 bike online a few years back.

but I made the mistake of buying it in the fall... it was too cold to ride it, so it ended up sitting in the box unassembled until the spring. and when I finally did put it together, the bike was too short for me D:

it was too late to send it back and I couldn't find any buyers for it on craiglist, so I ended up riding it down to the train station, leaving it in the bike rack unlocked, and someone stole it the next day.

runner up would have to be my portable dishwasher. it was one of those full-sized dishwashers on wheels that you just roll up to your sink, attach a hose to the faucet, and it does its thing... what I didn't take into account, however, was that my water bill went up exponentially after just like 2 uses. I mothballed it after my landlord threw a fit about the water bill.

 

[Chaotic42]

Tyan tiger motherboard. Paid upwards of $500 for it so I could have dual cpu and scsi support and it never did work right and Tyan never fixed the design. To this day I never will buy their products.

Heh, I have one of those in my closet still.

I'd have to say:

iPod - I thought I'd listen to it while I worked out. Instead I moved the treadmill in front of the TV. Done.
Mozart Complete Works - I thought I'd have classical music constantly playing at home. Instead, after ripping the third disk to MP3, I got bored and haven't opened the box since.
Mac G4 - This was free, but I regret taking it because it's a piece of junk

That's all I can think of.

 

[nageov3t]

on a side note, I love my xbox... even if I don't use it a ton for playing video games, it gets a workout streaming netflix to my living room tv.

 

[rh71]

I would agree with a game console. I have the original xbox and everytime I played, it was for less than 20 minutes. Every time I walk into a store I wanna get xbox 2 since it's discounted from when it first launched but remind myself how I will never play games on it. Maybe in the future when I want to use it to stream media, etc. But I can do that with the original xbox right now. Can someone fill me in on what the new one can do better these days? I'm thinking wireless streaming is one of them...

Do they still update XBMC for the original or is everything done for the newer one now?

 

[sjwaste]

XBOX Kinect and Wii. We just don't play console games.

 

[Tristicus]

Ordered my 2005 Mustang GT when they first became available....I regret not waiting and buying the 2007 Cobra. Now the wife will not allow me to trade it in.

But I do love my car nonetheless.

Wait until the 50th anniversary!

 

[ultimatebob]

Here's my list:

Nintendo Wii (I only use it for Netflix streaming now, and there are better/cheaper devices for that)
Microsoft Zune 30 GB in Brown (cheap Woot purchase, but I haven't touched it since I got a Smartphone to play my media on).
Acer Aspire One netbook (Cute, but the screen and keyboard are too damn small to use frequently)
A condo at the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. Oops.
A 2003 Audi A4 3.0 Quattro. (Suze Orman is right... never ever lease a car. Ever.)

 

[rh71]

(Suze Orman is right... never ever lease a car. Ever.)

Is it strictly for financial reasons? I mean it's nice for people who can afford a monthly payment and more importantly want a new car every 3-4 years... especially the ones that are prone to repairs after warranty. I was thinking that's what I'd do next time. Kinda scary what kind of repairs I'd be looking at in years 4+. Another factor is the latest technology and engine upgrades that become standard.

 

[SagaLore]

My house and all the furniture in it.

 

[Meghan54]

KYB GR-2 struts
way too stiff with my stock springs

The GR-2's are junk anyway. Bought a set of them and within a year, one broke, one completely wore out.....all in about 25K miles. Cheap junk. Went back to Bilsteins and haven't regretted it once.

 

[ultimatebob]

Is it strictly for financial reasons? I mean it's nice for people who can afford a monthly payment and more importantly want a new car every 3-4 years... especially the ones that are prone to repairs after warranty. I was thinking that's what I'd do next time. Kinda scary what kind of repairs I'd be looking at in years 4+. Another factor is the latest technology and engine upgrades that become standard.

What happened to me is that my job got transferred just six months after I got the car. My daily commute went from 10 miles a day to 100 miles a day just like that.

It took me almost a year to find a new place to live closer to where I worked, and I had already blew through my mileage quota by then :|

 

[Jadow]

2005 Saturn Ion for 11k in 2007.

Luckily, got rid of it on CL early this year for a good price.

IBM SCSI HD $500
Compaq 19" Monitor $700+

 

[BabaBooey]

A wedding ring ....D:

 

[slag]

KYB GR-2 struts
way too stiff with my stock springs

I put those on my gtp when I had it and again on my infiniti I30. i love them.

 

[dullard]

Is it strictly for financial reasons? I mean it's nice for people who can afford a monthly payment and more importantly want a new car every 3-4 years... especially the ones that are prone to repairs after warranty. I was thinking that's what I'd do next time. Kinda scary what kind of repairs I'd be looking at in years 4+. Another factor is the latest technology and engine upgrades that become standard.

Financially, the worst mistake that many people make is to buy a new car every few years. The second worst mistake is to lease a new car every few years. So, if your comparison is to repeatedly buy new cars or repeatedly lease, then you are correct that leasing is better. But, it is still the wrong choice to make.

Why? Many reasons. You pointed out two unknowingly.
1) People who lease are fooled into thinking that 4 year old cars have lots of repairs to make.

2) People who lease are fooled into thinking that they really need or even want the latest technology.

3) People who lease find it very difficult to get out of the leasing cycle. They never really get the chance to build up cash to buy (new or used) since they are paying high monthly lease payments for life. If you buy, after a couple years, your payments drop to $0. So you have the ability to pay nothing for a while and save cash to buy the next one (meaning no payments for that one either). You essentially can end car payments forever. But that is very difficult to start when you are locked into the lease cycle. Once your lease is up, you suddenly need to lease again since you don't have the cash to buy.

4) Leasing gets you accustomed to a high spending lifestyle - not a saving lifestyle. So the costs extend far beyond the lease price.

5) Just because you can pay a lease price, doesn't mean that you can afford it. Two different things (for example, you can stop putting money into savings in order to make the lease payment, but you can't really afford to do so in the long run). People in leases often get fooled by the dealer that those concepts are the same. And then are manipulated by the dealer to maximize what you can pay - completely ignoring the fact that you shouldn't pay what you can pay.

6) Lack of freedom. If I suddenly want to take a solo trip across country, I can. In a lease that'll tack on an additional $500 in over mileage costs. Essentially, I'm not fully free to do it. Same with any car modification, cleanliness choice, etc. Or even think about the lack of freedom in getting out of the deal. Suddenly lose your job? Sell your car and you can still pay for food and rent. That isn't easy (or cheap) with a lease.

7) Lack of clarity in the deal. It is far too easy for the unsuspecting to get a bad lease deal. When buying a car, you need to negotiate one number: price. When leasing a car, you need to negotiate price, rates, lengths of time, overages on things like miles, trade in value, monthly payments, final value at end of lease, etc. The chance of the typical person properly negotiating all of those without making any financial mistake is quite slim. Especially given the math skills of the typical buyer vs the experience of the dealer.

I could go on and on. There are some great lease deals out there. If you find one, you can make a wise decision to lease. But those deals are very few and far between. Be certain that when you take one, you pay far less than you can pay, so that you can make a separate double car payment into savings to break the lease cycle when the time is up.

 

[rh71]

^ good points on leasing. I have come across some good advice from people who continually lease and it seems they don't mind the monthly payments for what they're getting. I did save up to buy and no car payments along with all the freedoms are great. Though I did the math and with how much I paid converted to monthly, I will have had to keep this car 7+ years to break even with a monthly lease payment. All that money and I'll be keeping an older vehicle (electronically and mechanically) that will undoubtedly need more repairs. But you're right, the endless cycle is a huge factor too.

With regard to #1 though, I've got a 4-year full warranty and within these years I've had more than a handful of repairs that would've been costly. This is why I was thinking new car, covered for 4 more years. Yes, costly but also, it's a new car with the latest stuff that I envy others having right now.

Also I wonder about the success rates of swapalease.com etc. if you suddenly need to get out.

 

[brtspears2]

A condo, purchased in late 2005. Half price now. Non-recourse state, if I have to let it go, oh well, it is just business.

Baked cheetos, horrible.

 

[Engineer]

A certain stock about 3+ years ago. Tore me a new butthole....and is now reminding me of it for the next 17 years (continuing capital loss carryover).

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Digital set of all Rolling Stone magazine. I thought it would be interesting to look through, but I haven't even taken it out of the box, and I got it 2 years ago. It was an impulse buy from Woot :^/

This set?

I bought the same thing last week at a brick-and-mortar store for ~$25. I remember when it was first released it was somewhere around $80, I think (Edit: looking through Amazon's reviews, looks like it was closer to $100). I too haven't unpacked it - my excuse is I'm currently traveling and away from home.

Also, I hope that Amazon reviewer who said it's incompatible with Windows 7 is an idiot.

 

[ioni]

Beanie Babies. I bought so many of them when I was a kid thinking I'd be able to resell them as collector's items. What a waste of money.