I grew up with $20 walmart blenders, and hated anything that required a blender.
Recently bought a ninja and there is no going back. I’ll never use a crappy blender again.
Anything else like that?
It’s almost always better to not buy a cheap sex toy. There’s no regulation of the industry and many materials in cheaper toys are just straight up dangerous. Here’s an article (it’s NSFW, there are pictures) that goes over what materials are and aren’t safe.
Like thinking you’re wearing a 100% silicon butt plus to an MRI….
For the unaware: A patient wore a buttplug into an MRI, because it was marketed as 100% silicone. It had a metal core. It was rocketed up into their abdomen. The patient survived with serious injuries.
Niche musical instruments. A “cheap” hurdy gurdy can cost up to 2000 dollars and still sound like a bag of cats in a washing machine.
Some new recent models that are relatively cheap and sound okay exist now, but you really need to do your research.
I’m now really interested on how does it sound to have a bag of cats in a washing machine but there’s some ethical problems…
BearMcCreary used a Hurdy Gurdy to make the music for the TV show “Black Sails”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utLXgOnIwdo
Might give you an idea how hard this instrument is to master.
Boots.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
A cute little passage from Terry Pratchett, but it holds very true if you ever need boots.
Paying for quality boot work, especially the kind that can be re-soled, is worth it for anyone who has to wear boots with any regularity.
When I first got a job that needed boots I was using an old secondhand pair. It was hell. Eventually I saved up for a quality pair and was totally worth it. I’ve not underspent on boots since.
As for suggestions as to what brand to go with these days for that… I’m less sure on that because I’m researching new brands myself since Red Wings are a joke compared to what they used to be. Danner still seems pretty all right these days.
Generally, don’t skimp on anything that goes between you and the ground. Shoes, mattresses, tyres… your future you will hate you for cheaping out on those.
I second boots. I went through 3 cheap pairs of hiking boots (between £40 - £70) all promising the world and dry feet. In the end, sacked it off and bought all leather boots with a vibram sole. Requires maintenance of waxing them but they’ve had many miles in them now and just as good as day 1.
You don’t truly appreciate a good pair a boots till you park a 2 ton pallet jack on your toes and laugh it off.
Safety boots with steelcap? That’s another category though. Don’t want to use them for a walk.
That hasn’t stopped me. Just think of it as training weights.
I always walk my dog after I finish work in my steel capped work boots. The times that I actually do walk in my sneakers is so weird, like I’m not used to not having weights on my feet while I walk.
Helmets
I bought of pair of real, honest to goodness birkenstock sandals. They were stupid expensive compared to the shoes I normally buy.
…now I almost never wear any other shoe. They fit, they’re comfortable, the straps dont cut into my feet now that they’re broken in, and I can take them to the store to get resoled for way cheaper than if I had continued my pattern of buying cheap sandals and running them into the ground every few months.
Motorcycle helmets, and lawyers.
Most other things, I cheap out on – for example for my professional tools, I buy a lot of good midrange Chinese brands. Usually quality is high and price is affordable. Same goes for phones, laptops, gadgets, and so on. I live near China though.
I disagree to an extent on motorcycle helmets. Yes, never ever buy a used helmet. (“Open box” might be okay.) Never buy a helmet off Wish, Ali Express, or similar; buy helmets from reputable motorcycle apparel dealers, like SportBikeTrackGear, ChapMoto, or RevZilla. But beyond that, you need to look at safety ratings. Don’t get anything other than full face if you actually plan on riding, and that includes modular helmets (the chin bars tend to collapse in a crash). DOT approved (in the US) is bare-bones, and a helmet that’s only DOT approved is not worth getting. Snell is… Okay. It’s a North America-only standard. ECE is the global standard for helmets. The UK’s SHARP - Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme - probably gives the overall best idea of how effective a helmet will be in real-world situations. (SHARP ratings can be frustrating at times, because they don’t let you sort readily by date; that means that you can end up seeing a lot of helmets that are no longer produced, and newer helmets may not be listed at all.)
An AGV K1 is going to be as safe as an AGV Pista GP RR, and will be about $200 v. >$1400. My $150 AGV K1 is a better helmet in every respect than my Shoei Neotec, despite the Neotec being about 4x the price.
At the upper end, you’re paying for fiberglass or carbon fiber shells (less weight), better aerodynamics, better airflow, and better sound isolation. You notably aren’t paying for better safety.
There are new helmet safety standards that started to be rolled out about 3, 4 years ago; not many helmets meet the new standard yet, and it’s not clear whether it’s a serious improvement on old standards or not. IIRC the new standard is mostly affecting helmets that are used solely or primarily on the track at the moment.
Haha, we’re talking about very different things, my friend! Let me give you a little slice of life here:
In my country, the situation is very different. 100% of cheap motorcycle helmets do not provide any real protection and are just there to help you avoid tickets from the police. Many are just baseball caps designed to look like a helmet at a distance. They are like 5 USD, and are universally bad.
A decent (good visor, OK head protection, no chin guard) helmet might start around 20 USD. Full face helmets would be a special order until fairly recently. You can forget about things like “safety standards”. I would suspect it to be a sticker applied to the helmet without the standard even being followed.
Even now, a full-face helmet with chin guard costs at least a comparable amount to a used motorbike (~135$). The number of people that would spend 150$ on a helmet rounds down to zero, despite road accidents being frequent and severe.
There are many great things about my country, but compliance with safety standards is a… work in progress. One good thing at least is that the speed limit is 50km/hr on all roads, and is mostly followed. This plus traffic leads to fewer high-velocity collisions at least.
costs at least a comparable amount to a used motorbike (~135$)
Wat.
My motorcycle cost about 5500$ US, and that was an amazing deal; '12 Honda CBR600RR with 18,000mi/30,000km on the odometer (I’ve maintained the motor well, even if the body doesn’t look great). I’ve never seen a working motorcycle cost less than 1000$ US, and tires alone are a minimum of about 100$ US/ea. Given that I’m usually riding on mountain roads at, um, about 80mph/125kmph, I would never consider riding with less than a full-face helmet, jacket, gloves, and boots. And 95% of the time, riding pants as well.
I’m from Vietnam. We have the highest per-capita motorbike ownership in the world (last I checked), and have the 4th largest market for motorbikes! This creates some… interesting situations.
Our motorcycles are typically for commuting so have lower engine capacity than most American ones. My Honda Air Blade 2022 is 125cc and cost a bit under USD 2000 brand new. A Honda Wave 50cc (technically 49.9cc) can be had around USD 700 new. A lot of students drive those, because anything under 50cc generally does not require a license here.
Then we’ve got used bikes. An OK used Wave is probably 300$. Most people don’t update the registration on sale though and this creates a mess for the police.
Then… we have “ghost bikes” made from a mess of parts, these are the ones around 100-200$. These are technically illegal, as the motor serial generally won’t match the chassis serial – which means stolen parts. They are the least safe vehicles I’ve ever seen, and typically driven as a ‘disposable vehicle’ by people who won’t or can’t obey the law. So, you’ll see them outright driving the wrong way down highways, while text messaging, and carrying steel bars like they’re jousting. (No helmet of course). The police know that they can’t auction the bike for much, and they have no money on them to pay fines, so it’s a net loss for the department to deal with it.
A growing problem is tourists on the roads. No license, no insurance, driving like it’s a video game. If they hit you, they run home to avoid consequences. Hope you have money for medical bills!
My daily commute looks like something out of a Mad Max film. I see maybe a few people die per year. This is pretty much why our speed limits are generally 50km/hr (31 miles), even on highways. During peak hours, I’ll probably average about 10km/hr.
On the bright side, it’s very affordable and convenient! My petrol costs are like 3-4$ a week, and parking is way easier than if everyone had cars.
Anyway, that’s a slice of life here! Hope you found it interesting!
That is very interesting, and sounds… Well, like what the US could devolve into if the anti-regulation political right-wing had their way.
I’d prefer to ride a bicycle, but I’m just too far from where I work now.
I see what you mean – but in our case we generally have this whole set of completely normal (and generally reasonable!) laws – however the enforcement budget is not high (limited resources!), and compliance is this huge educational problem where a lot of people moved from rural areas to the big city this generation. It feels likely that the USA had a point in it’s history like this!
It’s getting (a lot) better with time, but this is a common story in the developing world: No enforcement, so few people obey laws. Few people obey laws, so people lose faith in public institutions because of the mess. This leads to low tax compliance, so there’s no budget to enforce laws.
I’m an immigrant though, so the compliance expected of me is quite high by comparison and I’m under more scrutiny. Which has worked out to my benefit, because now I know how to effectively use government services!
On a positive note, a lot of people still ride bicycles here! Since most traffic is two-wheeled, it’s somewhat more bike friendly than most places I’ve been in north america. Rush hour sucks though, because you’re constantly accelerating + stopping. In moderate traffic, you’re going about as fast as everyone else though. Da Nang is an absolutely lovely city to bicycle in.
Power supplies and motherboards for PCs
generally if either of them go the rest of your investment goes with it. Worst case scenario the power supply damages the motherboard meaning your cheap purchase made you lose more parts.
The current motherboard situation is a total clown fiesta though. There is no such thing as a cheap motherboard any more.
Parachutes.
I guess this gets filed under “Anything that separates you from the ground for long periods of time.”
Toilet paper.
Office chair, if you are a programmer.
Anything that separates you from the ground for long periods of time. Shoes, tires, mattresses, computer chairs, couches, etc…
3D printers. Yes, there are lot of $100-$300 models out there. Unless you want 3D printer repair and maintenance to become your new hobby, just go buy a Prusa (or other well supported, full featured printer).
Yes, this 100%!
I’m new to 3D printing myself, mainly got into it to make my ideas become reality - at the moment I don’t want to get too caught up in the weeds modding and customizing my printer, I just want it to work, not turn it into a project
Extremely happy that I went for a decent used printer though (Delta style Flsun), instead of buying a new cheap one and being disappointed. My next printer will probably be a compact CoreXY, Voron 0.2 is what I have my eyes on but those kits carry a price tag and take days to assemble 😳
If I was buying a printer for my partner or friends though, 100% Prusa. The extra is worth it IMO for the highly refined UX, preconfigured slicer+filament combos, actual support, and most importantly their ongoing contributions to open source.
Condoms.
Pretty much all kitchenware is worth getting the good stuff if you can afford it, even if cheap versions will work.
Probably safety-related items.
I feel like there are too many exceptions to this rule. Maybe dont get the cheapest but you dont need to spend a lot to have a very good:
- Cast iron pan
- Carbon steel pan
- Enameled cast iron pot (seriously, look it up, I see people saying how much they love their Le Creuset all the time but I got one from KitchenAid of all brands at 50 euros in my local supermarket)
- Baking tray
- Cooling rack
- Baking bowls
- Spatula of any kind
- Peeler
- Electric mixer
- Kitchen scale
I could go on but I believe Ive made my point.
- Chefs Knife
A mattress
