Bad guys ...

[mugsisme]

So, can you post stories of your bad buys? Maybe it can help us learn from others mistakes.
Most of my bad buys happen when I am rushing, and don't take the time to properly check. I've bought a "good" necklace that was marked 10k. Was too embarrassed to pull out the loop. I knew there was writing on the clasp. Took the guys word for it. $30 on a 10k plated necklace. Grr! No returns! Was too far away for me to go back and argue.
Never take the stores word. I've messed up more than once. And countless times I see stuff marked and priced as real when it's plated.

 

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[mugsisme]

Ugh! Stupid auto correct. Bad buys!!!! I can't fix it from my phone.

 

[Beans]

Lots of bad buys. I use to let my hey that looks neat mentality over run my hey that is just a run of the mill nick nack. I have really had to train my self to think and look real close and examine the item instead of the impulsive buy.

 

[batcap]

There are bad buys, and then there are just plain stupid buys. There was an estate sale that had a load(over 300 sq ft) of top quality American made industrial grade impervious glossy white Indoor/Outdoor tiles suitable for floors or walls, but not recommended for outdoor floors due to traction issues. I offered $100, thinking that $.33/sq. ft. should be a steal. Nope. It doesn't matter that this was some of the finest tile ever made, cheap imports ruined the tile business. I ended up offering it for free to whomever would haul it away. It remains stacked below my deck to this day. (Landlord's son saw the ad). Tile is heavy. Good tile is really heavy.

 

[randazzo1]

I got duped while outside the U.S. by an older couple that told me they had a collection of antique Chinese porcelain. I paid the equivalent of almost 400.00 dollars for it. I had it checked out and it was all made in last few years.

Also bought a vintage Nikon with several Nikkor lenses for I think $100.00. All lenses had bad fungus and only got about 50 for the body. Now I know about lens fungus.

 

[jerseyben]

I have had enough bad buys in my time to fill a cargo van (granted a lot of the stuff was from cleanouts I had done). Now I am very specific in what I buy. I pass on so much "good" stuff but I have finally trained my brain to ignore the "feel good signals" from a not-so-good-score in disguise when I know better than to buy it.

Some big ones that come to mind:
-Paid $500 for a "BU large cent" that had been "restored", making it worth barely $100.
-9 years ago, I paid over $1200 for a very large collection of Magic the Gathering cards on ebay. The seller was a "professional scammer" who played paypal/ebay (and me) like a fiddle and eventually sent me a box of worthless cards. Never saw a dime from ebay or paypal despite having filed a police report. That one still haunts me to this day.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

That one still haunts me to this day.

OUCH!!!

I haven't been cheated on eBay yet. But I've sure bought too much thrift store junk jewelry before I got over my shyness of using my loupe.

 

[Baltimore]

I am a vintage clothing guy, and I cant tell you how many times I've bout something, only to bring it home and find a gnarly stain I missed in the store. I also buy boxes of hats in bulk from collectors, sometimes sight unseen, and I once dropped $500 on a 200 hat collection, only to get it and realize most of them were barely $5 hats. if I'm lucky. Its gonna take a long time to make my money back on that one.

 

[Tallone]

I have made plenty of purchases that turned out to be losers. Overestimating value like this is bad enough but what really burns my biscuits is when I fail to notice a value-killing flaw even after close examination. Here is just one example - I paid $100 for a camera lens that would have easily sold for $500 except for the small chip right in the freakin' middle of it. That made the lens absolutely worthless. I look specifically for chips, cracks, and fungus on optical equipment and I somehow failed to see that chip.

 

[Beachkid23]

Diamond rings- I know a lot of jewelry, but forked out a $1000 for this platinum diamond ring. Her friend must have appraised it. Every 2nd opinion on it was not nearly as nice. I had it online for ever with one sale of $1500 but the buyer returned it almost as soon as he got it. Saying the diamond was not nearly as good. Finally took it to a estate buying store and he offered $800. I sold it! Staying clear of diamonds until I get a lesson on them or just buying for gold weight. Took 8 months for a -$200 return... With too much time vested in it. Also learned to walk away from them if they are too high of a price.

 

[HenryWaltonJonesJr]

Diamonds are tough, even when buying something at 1/10th the "retail" or "appraised" value you still can't make money on them selling to the industry. The markup is so high and the prices so fixed it's true, better off not playing their game.

 

[Johnny Hall]

only good thing about a ischemic stroke is i forgot all the many woes , im pretty sure there were many too . someone will come along and surely remind me of some awful one , but would never remind me of any money or loaned out something they might owe me right? lol HUMANS BLEH!


fortunately all one must do is call on the 600# gorilla in the room named KARMA - ask for justice to whatever path you walk and forget the woe
completely and see it as done. you will regain the whatever item if you are supposed to OR whomever scammed you will get theirs and sometimes both

just dont carry it around forever learn yes , but dwell not or it is bad for you and there is nothing worth YOU and health /signed

 

[OldSowBreath]

Baseball cards. Was new to this business and bought a sleeved book of bb cards for $300.00, just as the bottom fell out of the market. Might have been worth $10.00.

Stamps - lost money on every single transaction. Looking at ebay, I can't tell you the times I saw multiple stamps offered where seller (who I believe was being honest) says book value is $30,000.00, and the winning bid will be $5000.00. So, I had a rule of thumb, buy at 1/8th of book value. Still lost money.

Now, my biggest mistakes are weight and size. They kill me every time on trying to sell something.

 

[jerseyben]

Diamonds are tough, even when buying something at 1/10th the "retail" or "appraised" value you still can't make money on them selling to the industry. The markup is so high and the prices so fixed it's true, better off not playing their game.

Also, I would not tie up $1000 in something unless it was one of a kind piece or something I was 100% certain (based on personal knowledge) I could make a decent profit on it.

 

[Piledriver]

Furniture.
One of my early lessons taught me that I belong in the market for small things that are very value-intense for their size and weight.
Couldn't get people to pay what I had in a dresser, even when I painted it and offered it in three sales. Finally gave it away. Guess I can't paint so good, either.

 

[dejapooh]

In general, I don't like to tie up that much money in any one thing, unless I KNOW I will make a killing. Sorry to those who have lost...

 

[Beachkid23]

Again diamond rings- history repeated itself today. I paid $250 for it. 9.5 grams. The diamonds are decent size. But it's two rings soldered together. I didn't check them both. The larger is 10k the top with the diamonds is 10k. I tested the top part and figured the whole thing was 14. And then got home and better lighting and saw the bottom half was 10K. I hope I can figure something out about the stones! Prepare yourself this is the world's ugliest ring by the way! My buddy was teasing me all day about buying it....

 

[mugsisme]

Well. It's interesting.
I keep forgetting to show my "butt ugly ring". Last summer I learned a few good lessons. Don't buy based on weight if you don't have a scale. Don't buy if you don't like it. Don't buy if it is ugly thinking SOMEONE will want it.
I got this hideous mens ring. I thought it was a lot heavier than it was. I paid well above scrap for it by mistake. I tried to sell it on Ebay. For months. Someone finally bought it, and sent it back saying it was ugly. I never wanted to scrap it, because I had too much sucked up in the ring. ($375!) I finally sold it a few weeks ago, made like $50 profit on it, and the woman was thrilled. Everyone wins, except I have to stop buying ugly stuff thinking it's such a good deal when it is not.

 

[Beachkid23]

May have another as of today. Went on a jewelry by and they were setting up for yard sale. Not too much interesting but for some reason I bought a huge tote full of pez candy. There are a ton of them and wishing I would've just left it but it's going to take some time to get my money back out of these. Unless I just do a huge lot! I paid $30. It's going to be a while.
On the bright side they're all still sealed. Probably 1/4 of them are Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. I love buying large lots of stuff. Except for this one it looks like there's one set for that might sell for about $15. The rest is going to be nickel and diming ... I didn't check all the sets there's a lot. Dang it!!!

 

[scaupus]

My worst buy for simply being inexplicable was at a family estate sale a couple years ago. I made a good purchase on a vintage ice ax. A guy known for having deep pockets, astute buying, and a large sales operation, came in and bought all kinds of stuff I had passed on, including a wooden lamp made in Germany that I might describe as moderne, that he paid $250 for, no makers mark on it. He also bought a decorated shamanistic sheeps skull from Tibet, in pretty rough shape, but clearly vintage. I had admired the skull already, but had not asked for a price on it.

I approached the guy outside and asked him if he'd sell it to me. He said he would, for $75. I bought it.

I recently sold the skull at auction on ebay for $38+shipping.