Whether or not we want to remember it, we've all made silly purchases, like random knick-knacks, questionable wardrobe choices, or attempted to buy into an investment opportunity.
From minor purchases to huge money pits, these mistakes all can make us cringe.
But hopefully, they were a learning opportunity!
Cringing in anticipation, Redditor lilsparrow18 asked:
"What is the worst purchase you've ever made?"
At Least He Didn't Have To Keep The Car
"A rental car from Advantage. I pre-paid online, and then when I got there, it was announced that there were NO cars left. Not that there weren’t any for walk-ups, but zero on the lot at all."
"I ended up having to pay double at a rental next door since it was last minute, and then when calling for my refund, they claimed that there was no record of being out of cars."
"I couldn’t get connected with anyone who could help anything so I eventually had to have a friend drive to the location and have them do the refund there. I’ll never rent from them again no matter how cheap it is and I am doing everything I can to tell other people not to, either."
- Helpful_Stick_3366
The Grand Era Of Pogs
"Come with me back to a golden age, the age of: Pogs."
"Young me saved, then paid, $199.95 at the height of pogmania for an investment grade signed limited edition cardboard sheet of un-punched-out and pristine gold leafed pogs and each hand-signed in gold ink by (hold on to yourselves) the man, the myth, the legend... Kyle 'Poggy' McMalister, the undisputed best celebrity pogger in the known Universe and a name that will be remembered down through the ages (even though he doesn't even show up in Google now; I think he's in jail)."
"Within two brief years, my investment had catapulted in value to $1.95 and a half-eaten ham sandwich."
- starstarstar42
Don't Forget About The Ty Beanie Baby "Investment"
"I'll never forget the time all the housewives were planning their retirement around beanie babies. They had to have that plastic protector for the tags too. The 90s were f**kin weird."
- jrragsda
"My daughter's favorite stuffed animal when she was about 18 months was a Garcia bear beanie baby that we bought for her when they were new and before the whole collectability thing kicked off. It was always kind of fun seeing the look of horror by the serious collectors who recognized it while she was happily sucking on its ear or nose in her stroller."
- NightGod
"I still remember one of my aunts gifting me a beanie baby for Christmas or my birthday or something, and I immediately pulled the tag off. I thought she was going to have a stroke after."
- Bow2Gaijin
Absolutely Tragic
"I got really into bowling, watched all the videos, practiced my form, etc. I went and bought bowling balls for me and the girlfriend, had them fitted and drilled, bags to carry them, and bowling shoes. All in all, it came out to $1200."
"We went to our local bowling alley on a Monday night and the place WAS PACKED!!"
"So, we start talking with people and find out the reason that it was so busy was because that day was the last day it was open before the building was scheduled to be demolished."
"The next closest bowling alley is three hours away. So we played two games with our new fancy bowling gear and it's been sitting in my garage for four years now."
- lostsparrow131986
The Best Time To Start Was Two Years Ago. The Second Best Time Is Now.
"A piano. I couldn’t play then, and I can’t play now."
- quoththeraven1990
"If you still have it, it's as good as any time to start now."
- EmergencyPandaBear
True Commitment To Diablo
"Back when 'Diablo 3' was coming out, Blizzard did a cross-promotional thing where you could basically commit to paying for 'WoW (World of Warcraft)' for a year, and you’d get D3 for free."
"They didn’t ask for the whole year upfront, you just locked your account in so that you couldn’t cancel the sub for a year."
"I stupidly thought, 'Well, I’m playing WoW obsessively, I don’t see myself not playing this for the next year, this is a great deal!'"
"By month two, I thought I was already losing steam on continuing to play 'WoW.' Month three, I logged in maybe two or three times a week, played for an hour, and logged off. I think in month four, I logged in once just to be able to say that I had technically gotten my money’s worth and paid for D3 with the subscription."
"Then I paid for 'WoW' for eight months without opening it. So if I really break down the math on it, I paid $135 for the standard edition of 'Diablo 3' and a fancy mount."
- Locclo
...Oops.
"Well, I just came back from my first backcountry ski trip with my new backcountry skis, skins, backpack, poles, and transceiver."
"Turns out I really really hate skinning uphill."
- MastodonPristine8996
Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.
"Double-Fisted Cheeseburger Ruffles."
"I have never returned a bag of chips before in my life ever."
"I opened the bag while walking through the parking lot and ate a chip. The pungent taste of vomit immediately filled my senses. It stopped me dead in my step. I did a complete about-face and walked right back into the store to the returns department. I explained the situation and convinced the girl to try one of the chips. She spit it out."
"Worst Ruffles flavor ever."
- ImportantComb9997
Not A Hotel Replacement
"I would have to say an RV trailer we paid about $26,000 for. It still is a great trailer but if we added up all the days we stayed in it and then multiplied it by $300 (for a fancy hotel room a night) I doubt the total would be over $26,000. Plus generators, gasoline, miles per gallon, etc."
- DebianDog
"You don't get an RV as a hotel replacement. You get it to stay in parks and locations that don't have hotels."
- slinkysuki
"This is correct. RVs usually cost more (sometimes much more) per night than staying in a hotel. But it is a different experience."
"Nothing beats watching the sun go down over the desert, the absolute silence except for the crackle of the campfire, and then seeing the stars come out overhead when you are 50 miles or more from the nearest water or electricity, but also have a comfortable bed to sleep in, and a fridge full of beer."
- captaindomon
What An Unfortunate Vacuum Cleaner
"The only time I ever went out for Black Friday was two years ago. I headed to Target around 3:00 AM. I had my eye on a vacuum they were selling for $50 (I know, pretty lame)."
"I rushed in, only to find myself the only one running towards the vacuums. When I got home and tried to plug it in, it didn't work. I unplugged it, and the plug broke off."
"I returned it and decided right then and there that I was never, ever doing Black Friday again."
- Inevitable-Credit616
What Happened To Appliances Increasing Convenience?
"A Samsung fridge. I thought it was so pretty. It didn't make enough ice and melted all over the inside of my fridge multiple times."
"Then I found out I was lucky because other people's caught fire."
"I have a Bosch now. It's much better. And I have ice more often than twice a week."
- MarlenaEvans
Refunds Needed
"Probably microtransactions in video games. I’ve wasted a lot of money on games that I don’t play anymore. I really wish I could refund them all and get my money back."
- Daito_Anonymous
"I don't know if you know the game 'Marvel Heroes' (it was like 'Diablo' mixed with 'Marvel' characters), but it was an F2P (free-to-play) game with microtransactions."
"I loved the h**l out of the game, and I gladly dropped around $2,000 over about two years on lock boxes. I didn't even care about spending the money. I was excited to spend the money."
"But then, of course... wouldn't you know it? The game shut down. I didn't regret a dime of that money until the day that I couldn't play the game anymore, and then I regretted 99.9% of the money."
- matrix_man
Travel Supplies Woes
"Bought a $200 Antler travel backpack to use for my trip to Japan. Unfortunately, the backpack didn't hold much space and when I was caught in the rain with it, the black color from the zippers leaked out onto the bag."
- Moon_Jewel90
"I literally just use a school backpack, whether I'm traveling for three days or six weeks. For years it was the cheap Eastman one from Walmart ($20, I think?). I later 'splurged' on a slightly larger one from Amazon for $28."
- Longjumping-grape-40
...D'oh!
"A Simpsons magic 8 ball. I keep it on a shelf as a reminder that I can be really stupid and not to be so wasteful."
- Potential-Tone-3628
"I have one right next to my Mary Worth phone. Her stern but sensible face will remind me never to do anything so stupid again."
- LilithElektra
Expensively Ever After
"A wedding ring, LOLSOB (laughing out loud, sobbing)."
- RedOktbr12
"I got my grandmother's ring for free and it was still too expensive."
- theservman
Some of these purchases were funny to read and can remind us of the trends that were popular in the '90s and early 2000s that have quieted down now. But some of these, like wedding rings and car purchases, are much harder to shake off.
We could all take a page from the Redditor with the 'Simpsons' magic 8 ball: a reminder to be thoughtful about our purchases and really do our research before pulling out our wallets.
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