Article created by: Ieva Pečiulytė
The Universe can reward you in mysterious ways. Many of us have one or two items at home or at work that continue to impress us with their quality and longevity every single day. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to call them the best purchases we’ve made. And price… actually doesn’t have all that much to do with the quality of the thing in these fringe cases. Sometimes, Fortune smiles on us, and a sketchy cheap buy turns into a lifelong companion.
Whether it’s a pair of cutesy pink Hello Kitty nail clippers from Japan or a flannel jacket for $2 that’s still going strong after a quarter of a century, these are the accidental heirlooms that we pick up throughout life. If this were an RPG, these would be [Legendary] quality and crafted by elves (and/or possibly dwarves). Scroll down for the very best stories about suspicious products and services that turned out to be awesome, as shared on this viral r/AskReddit thread. Oh, and remember to upvote the posts you enjoyed the most, dear Pandas.
Now that’s not to say that price doesn’t matter at all when it comes to quality (master crafted products cost a lot to make, and the labor’s expensive, too), but it’s weird how high quality can lurk in the unlikeliest of places. Do you have any cheap things you bought that have lasted for years, Pandas? We can’t wait to see what you have to say, so drop by the comment section.
Bored Panda reached out to Sam Dogen, the author of ‘Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom’ (out July 19), for his opinion about saving on non-essential purchases and how to avoid impulse buying. He also shared some vital information about bear markets and how long they last. Read on to see what he had to tell us.
#1
I was traveling in Japan and needed nail clippers. All I could find is this cheap pink Hello Kitty grooming kit.
These clippers are the best I ever owned. They have stayed sharp and functional for 20 years. I’m very protective of them. Everyone in the house knows, you don’t touch Dad’s pink Hello Kitty nail clippers.
Image credits: miraculous_spackle
#2
Seed packets from the dollar store. While in college my boyfriend and I were broke. Really broke. But I still wanted to do something to celebrate spring. We were getting a few cheap things at the dollar store when I noticed they were selling these seeds packets from a big old bin that you had to dig thru. 4 for $1. No tax. I immediately begged to buy one despite our strict budget.
Boyfriend was incredulous I’d want to buy sketchy seeds but dutifully handed me a quarter. I ended up picking out tomatoes.
Well we got home and I carefully placed about 3 seeds in washed out cans. I watered them and watched them sprout. I loved tending to my little garden. I ended up with 3 beautiful HUGE tomato plants. It was a bumper crop. More than we could eat.
I sold the extra produce to my classmates. Made like $25. Good seeds!
Image credits: viceroywaffles
#3
I bought a $6,300 tiny house trailer from a MAGA guy out of state who said he’d take guns or cash and had a bunch of barking dogs. A little fixing up, and it has been a home for a homeless transgender youth for 4 months now!
Image credits: Emilzabub
#4
No label old vinyl acetate record with hand written “That’ll be the day” on it. Paid $1. Ended up being a live Buddy Holly recording. Sold it for $970.
Image credits: ThredHead
#5
I randomly found a wedding videographer online and booked him for a very affordable rate for my wedding assuming it wouldn’t be very good quality. Two weeks after the wedding, he emails me a high quality, well-edited video. He had a drone I hadn’t noticed because he was outside of the venue getting b-roll with it before I even started getting ready for the big day. I was floored and now I recommend him to everyone who ever plans to get married ever.
Edit: He has definitely upped his prices since then (he did the videography for my wedding last summer) and rightfully so, because he does great work.
Image credits: Ticonderoga10-11
#6
I bought a turtle for 5 dollars in china town and she’s turning three this year
Edit to add a few things: Chinatown in Chicago which is why her name is Al Capone (we call her Al) I am hoping she will outlive me because I can’t imagine losing her. Don’t worry I study biology and environmental science (going in a PhD program) she is treated like a queen.
Image credits: maddymj
#7
This bamboo back scratcher my wife got me for 3 bucks like 15 years ago. It is right here next to me. I use it to scratch my back, gesticulate while I pontificate, fend off my cats, and use as a tuning fork to make strange noises to annoy my wife. I joke that in the event of a house fire, this back scratcher is the only thing besides my wife and cats that I’d take with me. (Its not a joke though, I really would go for it first).
Image credits: EffeminateSquirrel
#8
A tour guide approached us outside the Vatican offering the best discounted Vatican tours. This guy was the definition of sketch. But we were like “oh whatever, when in Rome.”. It was indeed a discounted tour and turned out to be a highlight of our trip to Rome. Tour guide was awesome and we skipped all the lines to get right in.
Image credits: IfTheHouseBurnsDown
#9
One of those square, window size, box fans. Technically wasn’t a purchase, I found it outside the dumpster of my Junior-year college apartment back in 2008. I’m a fan of airflow and white-noise, so that fan ran 24-hours a day for nearly 11 years outside of when I was away on vacations and for brief periods in winter (most of that on the lowest setting, but I mean, there were long stretches of literally months+ where it wasn’t turned off). [Broke down] earlier this year when I can only assume some critical component burned out. I’ll miss you, completely free thing that provided me a decade of a light breeze and air circulation.
Image credits: other_virginia_guy
#10
my dog was a stray, adopted by a couple, but returned because he was too high energy
so his adoption fees were 50%
best $45 I’ve ever spent
Image credits: PrussianBleu
#11
Bought $20 army cargo pants from the military surplus store.
Pros:
– Same material and double kneed as Carharts that were twice the cost
– SUPER rugged, and don’t care about stains (work pants… plus they’re camo!)
– Roomy, comfortable, designed to fit you even if they’re not exactly your size
– More storage space than your mom’s Kia
– Made in USA, not by oppressive labor overseas, plus support locally owned shop
Cons:
– Wife won’t be seen in public with me wearing them
Image credits: KevinMScott
#12
Guy said there were a bunch of bricks in his back yard he wanted to get rid of. $5 for all of them if you’d come pick them up because they were “larger than regular bricks and were very heavy.”
I grabbed a friend and headed out because I needed some cheap brick for the edging of my garden.
Guys house was across the river and in some really run down looking neighborhood…really glad I grabbed my friend at this point. We pull up and the guy is waiting outside, and he looks like he’s 80 but I know he must have been a 35 year old guy who just smoked 10 packs a day… So the guy takes us to his back yard and shows up the pile of bricks, which turn out to be 50+ antique Louisville Fire Bricks.
So I look at the guy and tell him, “I’ll take half of them…and as payment I’ll give you $20 and some advice.” And of course the guy is looking at me like I’m an idiot, but he accepts my money and helps me and my friend load up about 30 bricks. After I close my truck and get in the car to drive off I tell him to google the antique fire bricks and adjust his craigslist listing…
I went back to look at the listing a few days later, and he had changed the price from $5 for the whole pile, to $5 PER BRICK, which was the going rate at the time. Nowadays they go for $20/brick…
BEST BUY EVER!
Image credits: Whylizlovesyou
#13
I broke a filling in Mumbai in 1999 and had to use a local dentist. $7 and still going strong.
Image credits: anon
#14
I was giving these college aged young women a Lyft ride. One asks how “that Craigslist thing went” so my ears perked up. The other says something like “he complained it went back too far, just don’t put it back so far, duh.”
Eventually I deduce they are talking about a recliner – which I’ve been looking for one for some time now. I interject and ask about it. Lady has a Laz-E-Boy electric recliner she just wants 20 bucks for. I’m like, “listen I know it’s sketchy but if you’ve got Craigslist rando’s in your house Lyft at least gave me a background check.”
We pull up, I end the ride, and follow these ladies into their house. I knew I wanted it as soon as I laid eyes on it.
So, this college chick is helping me stuff a recliner into my back seat and all I can think is this is how Buffalo Bill kidnapped that girl in Silence of the Lambs.
Twenty dollars for a recliner so lazy it reclines for me.
Image credits: OctoberThirteenth
#15
I built my own mattress. I was online shopping and stumbled upon several mattress-in-a-box companies such as Purple or Casper. I noticed that they consistently had diagrams on their websites that showcased the different layers of foam they use to construct their mattresses. I simply went to a foam wholeseller and in the dimensions of a queen mattress, I ordered different types of foam (standard, soft, memory, eggshell) in varying thicknesses. I stacked them all up on top of one another and have slept like a baby for the last 2 years. It cost me $300 as opposed to a similar mattress from an online site that woulda cost hundreds more.
Image credits: 21_K
#16
I bought a blanket in Mexico in 1986 for $5. I still have it and it is super soft and comfy. It has been used, washed, etc and it is still in great shape.
Image credits: sprcpr
#17
Costco fluffy flannels. It feels like a chinchilla is hugging you and I’ve had mine for three years with no signs of wearing down despite almost daily use in the northeast winters.
Image credits: PnutButterOnMyBurger
#18
Not my purchase, but still one of the best: My brother gifted me a Snuggie one year for Christmas. I had painstaking tracked down a bootleg album he wanted and he got me a buy one, get one free, snuggie. I didn’t speak to him for weeks. I have routinely used that snuggie for every camping trip I’ve been on over the last 7 years, and I will tell you it has become the most useful gift I’ve ever gotten.
Image credits: tarakerin
#19
A 2 ft. foam cube with a soft fabric cover. It’s a chair, a table, a footrest, padding when I was moving, all sorts of stuff. It was $3.
I love my foam cube
Image credits: notornnotes
#20
A two dollar game in a steam sale. It was skyrim.
Image credits: Emergency_Paperclip
#21
A cat toy that is literally a feather on the end of a stick. It was only a dollar, my cat gets hours of entertainment from it.
Image credits: alyssaaarenee
#22
I bought a button down shirt from the thrift store in the mid-90s that I still wear today. The shirt if obviously even older. It doesn’t have much wear on it either. I think it made of rayon and something else. The brand is K-mart. They don’t make ’em like they used to.
Image credits: youknowhattodo
#23
At the end of a long road trip with some mates, I bought a $20 pair of sunglasses in a gas station just outside Chicago. They fit me better than any pair of sunglasses ever did, or ever will, and they made me look awesome. For years I constantly received compliments about them and was asked where I got them. I lost them after 5 long years and have hated myself for it every since. They were so no-name they didn’t even have a brand name on them at all, so I have no idea who made them. I have no way of finding that gas station, either. I’ve literally spent hundreds of dollars trying to find sunglasses that come close to that same perfect fit/style, but I can’t.
Image credits: visijared
#24
I bought a cheap hoodie from Costco 4 years ago and it survived a car crash, a move and 3 years in high school before I left it on the bus. I loved that thing.
Image credits: Figoverlord
#25
This summer we bought an inflatable above-ground pool off amazon, it was my MIL’s choice, an impulse buy for $300. I was super pessimistic about it, as was everyone else (family of 7). We’ve spent nearly every day in that pool having fun as a family. I’ve never really gotten such family-wide value out of something like that.
Image credits: Flareinne
#26
Spent $11 for a pair of 10ft phone charger cords on Amazon. I figured as often as I had to replace them, $11 wasn’t bad for two. Three years later and I’m still using the first one.
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Image credits: BustAMove_13
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