What is the dumbest purchase you ever made?

**rennigade** · 10-12-2016, 04:18 AM

Besides a penny stock that I lost $700 on...I would say the dumbest purchase I made was buying a new dslr for $1800. I dont really use it too much...not to mention you should buy those things used...you can save yourself a lot of money.

As any photographer knows...good glass is where its at. If you want to splurge do it there.

**silvor** · 10-12-2016, 04:51 AM

1968 Ford Mustang convertible.

Happiest day when I sold it.

**Fishindude77** · 10-12-2016, 05:57 AM

This could get lengthy

Most recent big screw up was purchasing a boat with a crappy Mercury outboard that has given me fits. Got the boat at a bargain price and now I know why. Swapping to a new Yamaha motor is about $7,000.

**GoodSteward** · 10-12-2016, 06:32 AM

A Mitsubishi Split Mini AC. I spent 875$ on it, decided no to use it and sold it on ebay for 1050$ with two accessories. UPS damaged it, then wouldn't honor the insurance I had on it of 1000$. I had already used the money to pay for something and had to give the buyer a full refund out of my savings. UPS shipped it back to me and Damaged it severely. Eventually got 750$ after two months of fighting with them about it, and I just sold it again on ebay and will clear everything I Had in it. I'll never buy something that pricey again without knowing for sure I'll use it.

I've bought several kids toys like power wheels that rarely got used and just wasted away.

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 10-12-2016, 07:38 AM

time share. $3k. Then annual fees and best day was managing to donate it.

**rennigade** · 10-12-2016, 07:52 AM

Originally posted by GoodSteward View Post

UPS damaged it, then wouldn't honor the insurance I had on it of 1000$.

Apparently this is a really common practice by fedex/ups. Its really difficult to get them to pay for something they damaged..even if insurance is on it. They almost always argue the packing was insufficient, thats how they get out of having to pay. How they can make that determination is beyond me.

**MonkeyMama** · 10-12-2016, 09:31 AM

Tech stock purchases 2000/2001. (Probably about $5k lost, or most our investments at the time)

**msomnipotent** · 10-12-2016, 10:12 AM

Not one, but TWO timeshares! To make a long story short, the legal fees were worth it, especially since the timeshare company decided to pay them in the end.

**HundredK** · 10-12-2016, 10:20 AM

Two week trip to Japan purely for fun and not work. That was dumb. Even though we paid cash for it, we could have paid down debt instead. But, you know, that was in our pre-budgeting days.

**FLA** · 10-12-2016, 12:56 PM

a Prius 7 yrs ago. I drove all day for work and got paid for mileage so that part was great. But to get your money's worth on that car you have to drive it for years. I crashed it year 2. And I had let myself get many bells and whistles figuring I 'deserved' them because I was in it all day. I took the check I got and bought a stripped down Accent hatchback without needing a loan. I loved that Prius, it was a great car. But now that I'm not working it would've gone to waste and that would've driven me crazy. The Accent gets pretty good mileage, too.

I have zero need in my life for even moderately expensive cars.

**GoodSteward** · 10-12-2016, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by rennigade View Post

Apparently this is a really common practice by fedex/ups. Its really difficult to get them to pay for something they damaged..even if insurance is on it. They almost always argue the packing was insufficient, thats how they get out of having to pay. How they can make that determination is beyond me.

Yup, a Rep for their company said the same thing. It's standard protocol to deny it first time because of insufficient packaging. Because the item was shipped to me it was considered a "used box" therefore insufficient. Amazing. However, I found out if you bug them enough and then eventually offer to accept less than the full amount they are good for that. That's how i ended up with 750$. They gave me 300$ to start with but because it wasn't repairable they agreed to 75% of the claim amount and let me keep the unit. I sold it on ebay as a damaged item and cleared another 400+$, so in the end, I broke even minus pain and suffering...two months worth lol.

**QuarterMillionMan** · 10-12-2016, 11:50 PM

1) bought 200 American Silver Eagles (1 oz each) when the spot price of silver was $45 an ounce, today the spot price is about $17.
2) bought $1000 of Washington Mutual stock just before they went bankrupt.
3) The worst though had to be buying hot rod parts such as cams, gears, carburetors, pistons, nitrous oxide, transmissions, rims/tires, etc. Combined I easily spent over $15,000 foolishly on car parts.

**clatoden99** · 10-13-2016, 12:25 AM

I happened to enter the Indian stock market couple of years ago and was in a frenzy to invest albeit in small quantities. I picked up a stock that was having 52 week high of 21 INR and was selling at 7 INR which was the 52 week low at the point. I jumped the gun and bought 200 shares thinking that if the stock rebounds I would make profit and invest again. Alas the stock tumbled to 1 INR and never rebounded.

The loss wasn't too much but nevertheless a valuable lesson was learnt not to purchase a stock on impulse and without checking the financial basics of the company. From then on my stock purchases have been made after due diligence of the company.

What is the dumbest purchase you ever made?