37 Sketchy Cheap Buys That Ended Up Being People's Best Purchases

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mattstaff
Aug 21, 2019 11:00 AM EDT

Someone on AskReddit asked for people to share those sketchy and cheap buys that ended up being great purchases for them. Sometimes you have to take the leap of faith, look past the shady Craigslist seller, and you end up with something as precious as an adorable kitty for $20. 

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  • 01
    best cheap purchase - Text - viceroywaffles 15h 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 tbings 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
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 02
    best cheap purchase - Text - visijared 19h 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
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 03
    best cheap purchase - Text - Essembie 19h Dad bought me a flannel jacket for $2 (from the equivalent of a dollar store) in 1994. Wore it for everything you can think of. Wore it yesterday. Still going strong after 25 years
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 04
    best cheap purchase - Text - Flamboyant_Cookie 19h I bought a game boy color & Pokémon from a guy behind an abandoned building. Only after I told my parents did I realize I was in such a sketchy and dangerous situation. I played the crap out of that thing though!
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 05
    best cheap purchase - Text - NewVerses 20h I was traveling from a different city straight into work, where my uniform was a white shirt, with a conspicuously black bra. Wasn't stopping home, so I did stop on the first corner store I found and bought a five-dollar white bra that looked roughly my size as they had nowhere to try them on. Just to wear one night. 10/10, comfiest bra l ever owned, wore it every day of my life for about a year. It gave in at some point - it was still a 5 dollar bra. B
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 06
    best cheap purchase - Text - Rubixcube3034 18h Bought my kitty for 20 bucks on Craigslist from a legit meth addict. I had never had a cat before and this little meow factory has been my best friend ever since.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 07
    best cheap purchase - Text - aatdalt 19h $12 rain boots at ValueVillage. I've thrashed these things living in rural Alaska and they're still totally watertight 2 years later.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 08
    best cheap purchase - Text - maddymj 19h 3 1 Award Ibought a turtle for 5 dollars in china town and she's turning three this year
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 09
    best cheap purchase - Text - tarakerin 19h S 1 Award 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 damn 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.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 10
    best cheap purchase - Text - talcum-x 21h S 3 Awards Knock off north face hiking shoes in Vietnam. Cost me $20. Used and abused and still going strong.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 11
    best cheap purchase - Text - WADDUP_MY_GLIB_GLOB 20h Went to a garage sale, little girl was in charge, shes like 12. I dont know shit about turn tables but she has a set on a table, i ask how much, she tells me 20 bucks. I ask her if they work, she tells me she has no idea, her dad got new ones and wants to get rid of these. I wait for dad, she tells me hes sleeping, she says "dude just take them", im like , no 20 cant be right maybe 200? She looks at me like im stupid, fine, ill take them. I dr
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 12
    best cheap purchase - Text - PrussianBleu 19h 1 Award 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
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 13
    best cheap purchase - Text - sprcpr 19h I bought a blanket in Mexico in 1986 for $5. I still have it and it is super soft and comfy. It has been abused, washed, etc and it is still in great shape.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 14
    best cheap purchase - Text - Ticonderoga10-11 18h Irandomly 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 l even started getting ready for the big day. I was floored and now I recommend him to everyone who ever plans to get married eve
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 15
    best cheap purchase - Text - October Thirteenth 16h 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 to0 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
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 16
    best cheap purchase - Text - rpmurray95 18h I was in a market in Shanghai, one of those ones that attract foreigners with knock-offs of nice brands where you're supposed to haggle a bit with the store owner. Walking into an electronics store looking for a portable speaker. Negotiated the store owner down over the "JBL speaker" thats basically the size of a thermos. I think she originally wanted 200 RMB, and think I got it for 125. Exchange rate was about 6.50 RMB $1, so like $21. The owner went
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 17
    best cheap purchase - Text - EffeminateSquirrel 18h 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 pontificate, fend off my cats, harass 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)
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 18
    best cheap purchase - Text - ThredHead 17h No label old beat to shit 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.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 19
    best cheap purchase - Text - other_virginia_guy 19h S 5 Awards 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
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 20
    best cheap purchase - Text - miraculous_spackle 16h 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 l 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.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 21
    best cheap purchase - Text - mus_maximus 18h 1 Award The Bra of Mystery. First strike: I bought it from a grocery store. Second strike: It was marked down to $2, and plastered with stickers reading, "Final sale!", "No returns!", "We're not liable if this kills you!", "I'm sure there are people who love you!" and the like. Third strike: Upon ringing it through, the cashier did a double-take at the screen, looked at me with great concern, and asked if I was surel wanted to buy it. After failing to
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 22
    best cheap purchase - Text - thedanimalw 18h Melamine sponges from China. I hated having to buy a small pack of Mr clean magic erasers often so tried to find them in bulk. I call them Mr Wei's magic eraser cause it was from a Mr Wei
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 23
    best cheap purchase - Text - alyssaaarenee 21h S 1 Award 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.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 24
    best cheap purchase - Text - randy88moss 21h I bought a jailbroken Firestick last year for $100. 12ish months later I've cutout my Directv and strictly use the firestick. That thing has saved me close $1000 so far.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 25
    best cheap purchase - Text - infanthands 16h I bought a small turtle from a gas station in Florida when I was in the first grade, Max proudly lived until the end of my senior year.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 26
    best cheap purchase - Text - ElegantOnion11 19h A 27 Dollar dash cam. Got it off Amazon. Its Shaper Image, included an SD Card. And was 27 bucks. I thought it was gonna be a waste. It wasnt. I have it on whenever I drive. Turns on automatically. Records automatically. You can turn auto rewrite on or off. Has a high quality camera. Infrared leds for night time driving, the mounting mechanism works great. Its stabke and has never fallen. Its not the best in the world. Its not 4k recording, but its
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 27
    best cheap purchase - Text - zigazigazah 21h 1 Award Khortytsa Vodka. Ukrainian vodka is smooth as silk and cheap as dirt.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 28
    best cheap purchase - Text - BustAMove_13 19h 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.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 29
    best cheap purchase - Text - MotorcycleSteve 19h $1300 for a salvage title, 22 year old Honda motorcycle. Owned it for 10 years and all I ever had to do to it was tires, brakes, oil changes/ scheduled maintenance. Never had an issue with that wonderful bike.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 30
    best cheap purchase - Text - disgruntled_derp 17h 2 years ago I bought a 1991 Ford f-450 flatbed wrecker commonly known as a rollback for $4,000 from a group of meth addicts in the deep south of Texas. The truck was easily worth $15,000. I was sincerely worried on the way there that I would just end up getting mugged Fortunately for me everything turned up spades. There's no way in hell as poor as I was back then that I could ever hope to afford a new rollback wrecker. I now own a small Auto tra
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 31
    best cheap purchase - Text - TwentyfootAngels 19h Just a couple weeks ago I saw a flat screen TV for $40 at a thrift shop. Or it might've been a computer monitor, I'm not sure. From corner to corner, it's about as long as my elbow to my fingertips. It had a PC input, all the video inputs, two HDMI inputs, some USB inputs, cable input the whole works. So immediately, I wasn't sure if it was too good to be true. It turned on and all the buttons worked, but there was no remote. Also, I was told the
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 32
    best cheap purchase - Text - the_wizarddd 17h My puppy. We bought him from some sketchy dude on the southwest side of San Antonio and he was in rough shape. But now hes almost 8 months old and a whopping 92 pounds of muscle and loose skin. The vet said we had a very nice horse.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 33
    best cheap purchase - Text - IfThe HouseBurnsDown 18h 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 what the hell, when in Rome." (Pun intended) 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.
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 34
    best cheap purchase - Text - comradejenkens 19h Kerbal Space Program. Looked like throwaway game that would get me a few hours of entertainment for like £5 back in 2012. Over 3000 hours later I can say that's the best £5 I've ever spent!
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 35
    best cheap purchase - Text - clh621 16h Searched around for a vasectomy reversal. Everything looked to be 15-20 thousand. Finally found a guy in Rhode Island for less than 3000. This guy was along in a office in a strip mall. Took cash only which was very sketchy to me. I was afraid l'd come to in a bathtub full of ice. That didn't happen but even after the procedure I was certain it didn't work and maybe the guy was a quack or scam. This was over three years ago and my wife and I could not get
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 36
    best cheap purchase - Text - Aporiaa 17h Maybe not cheap in the traditional sense, but I found my dream Crate and Barrel sectional on Craigslist that retails for $3500 selling for $800. I had literally been looking at the same exact couch in the store the day before when I decided to check Craigslist. Was a 50/50 chance on getting an incredible deal or potentially getting raped and/or murdered but I got lucky! Apparently the guy has a connect on staging furniture that is minimally damaged and ca
    via u/MrAnimeFanime
  • 37
    best cheap purchase - Text - Emil8ner 19h I bought a really cheap wallet phone case from wish because l've had my wallet stolen twice so I decided to fully embrace my grandmotherly qualities (I'm 21) and about two weeks into owning it, I noticed my phone in the actual case itself was starting to detach from the wallet part and I was like "oh great. This is what I get for cheap" and it turns out it's meant to come apart! My phone case is a magnet! Now I just stick it to anything metal and take ph
    via u/MrAnimeFanime

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