<p>Northeastmom, we got rid of a timeshare that H got suckered into. We used it twice. Then, before we were married, some good old boys convinced him into going in with them on an inoperable oilwell. He got a pint of oil to show for it!</p>
<p>My H also bought some undeveloped land that was later covered by lava from an active volcano. We not only get to pay annual property taxes on it, we also had to pay attorneys fees & taxes multiple times because the developer defaulted & went bankcrupt! To this day, we have never seen the parcel & I am not sure you can without renting a very special vehicle–like a tank. <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>An old boss of mine was sweet talked into buying some land in Maine. It is in the middle of nowhere, but the area was supposed to develp. When he bought it he was in his late 20s and viewed it as a great investment. Years later, it is still in the middle of nowhere and he has to pay his annual property taxes. There is no use for this property. When I heard from him last, he was still hopeful that the area would develp. I know that he has owned the land and paid the property taxes for years.</p>
<p>I know this is very minor, but one day I went to the local farmer’s market and came home with a whole crate (flat?) of strawberries for $5. I was so proud of my great deal, but when I brought them home my wife took one look and said, that’s great, but what are you going to do with them. Note - we don’t can or make jam or whatever. I was thinking of strawberry daquiris.</p>
<p>That’s the day that I discovered that you have to cut up strawberries before you eat them. My hands were raw by the time I finished.</p>
<p>UMDAD, don’t feel badly. My inlaws have a habit of doing the something similar, but they have not changed their buying habits. They go to Costco and buy fruit (ie: peaches) in bulk. How many can 2 people eat before they become rotten? Costco is convenient for them, and they feel like they purchased a bargain, but I still do not see the point.</p>
<p>Post #67 – They don’t call it Needless Markups for nothing…</p>
<p>I was with a friend walking across the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Those who have been there know it’s lined with street vendors selling all kinds of claptrap. One had a little Mickey Mouse cutout (about 4 or 5 inches high) dancing on the sidewalk. It seemed totally unsupported, and my friend and I KNEW it was a trick, but finally decided it would be worth the $3 cost to find out what the trick was. </p>
<p>Of course the guy had it attached to a thin black thread that went into a case he had with something that shook the thread to make the paper Mickey appear to dance. And of course once we found out what the trick was, it suddenly did NOT seem like it was worth $3 to find out. When we passed him later in the day, the thread was barely visible, but of course not at all when we first looked.</p>
<p>But it was only $3.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, you’re right…Costco doesn’t really make sense for a two-person family, especially if there are no children…but Costco is definitely a great solution for families with kids (our 4 person family goes to Costco about once a month and we use everything we buy)</p>
<p>the stupidest purchase? I big, clunky steam carpet cleaner. It had about 6 parts, was huge… had to be connected by a hose to a sink. It sucked all the dirt out of our off-white carpet… but left the stains. So once the dirt disappeared… the stains were a thousand times more prominent. And we had a huge vat of filthy water to contend with. It went back into the closet… and 15 years later we finally tossed it out.</p>
<p>nymom2sons - Maybe the off-white carpet was a candidate for dumb purchase? Just kidding :)</p>
<p>This thread is still really funny! I got a good laugh out of Tooie’s story and anxiousmom’s hickey-maker (too funny) amd faline2’s buttoneer story. 
:)</p>
<p>Digmedia, My son bought that trick when he was about 15. He paid more money for it than you did, but I don’t know the exact cost. The trick was a clear thread and attached was one dollar bill. When someone bent over to pick up the money, the trick was on them b/c my S would quickly reel it in! Strangers on the street were never quick enough to get that dollar bill. He had fun with it for 2 weeks while he walked the streets of Boston on a vacation (teen trip). He’s just lucky that he did not try this trick out on the wrong person! I did not know about his antics until he came back home, and if I did, he would not have had this fun with strangers.</p>
<p>Mallomar, I agree with you about Costco.</p>
<p>Alright it would have to be my Pokemon cards, which Im hoping and still insisting is going to be quite the hot thing when Im older. I actually remember one card (yes Im a youngin’), it was the 1st edition Charizard card, it was worth something like $200 back in the day.
Anywho, it was stolen by some neighborhood kid, I cried about it, but tracked him down from some other kids who saw him take it (didn’t say anything when it happened!), and I did what I called a ‘hit job’ (lol thought I was mafioso or something), I went over to his house, lured him out then punched him in the face, which led to a bloody nose and his mom coming over my house later that day to tell my mom what happened. I was grounded…
Oh god, I loved those Pokemon cards!</p>
<p>re the ping pong table: if you were a quilter, that would be a very useful item for basting quilts…</p>
<p>More on the fruit theme:
Newly married, I went to the local farmers market to buy peaches, thinking I would play Earth Mother and put up some peach butter (having seen an attractive recipe in Bon Appetit). So I walked up to the stand and asked for a bushel of peaches. Paid for said bushel and, per the farmer’s suggestion, pulled the car around for the peaches. At which point I saw exactly how big a bushel is. I think I wanted a peck, but I’m a city girl, so what did I know? Guess what? Peaches have to be peeled. By first immersing them in boiling water on an oppressively hot, humid day in August. Oh, gosh, I slaved over those @#$% peaches for several days. But now I have a pretty good idea about the volume of a bushel!</p>
<p>Of course, I’ve made several more idiotic purchases since, but the fruit theme reminded me…</p>
<h1>98, 99 Buttoneer?</h1>
<p>Isn’t that the device that attaches buttons with a plastic tag (like they use for price tags on clothes now) that they sold back in the 70’s? My mom also got one of those for Christmas–from my brother, who was only about 11 at the time, so he can be forgiven. It was supposed to make sewing on buttons a breeze–only one “stitch.” It looked really neat when they demonstrated it on those TV ads! </p>
<p>My dad used to have a little machine in which you could roll your own cigarettes–I think it was called “El Dorado.” He had us kids making them for him–you had to place the paper, filter (at least they had filters. . .) and tobacco in the slot, slide a lever, and somehow the machine sealed it up. That was SO awesome! (Dad quit smoking after his first heart attack…)</p>
<p>Personally, my dumbest purchase was probably some “lakefront” property–but the lake never went in. Lucky I was able to trade it for another property, which I sold without losing any $. Then we foolishly bought a larger creekfront property, which “hadn’t flooded in 30 years,” but flooded 2 years in a row after we bought it, requiring expensive repairs to fencing. . .sold that too, at a small loss, but happy to get rid of it.</p>
<p>Yes, the Buttoneer had a wonderful commercial if you were born in the fifties or early sixties. I know several women whose Christmases were ruined when husbands and sons bought them. Exactly how dense does one have to be to get a device for sewing buttons on and consider it a Treat for the Wife?</p>
<p>Wife. I didn’t haggle.</p>
<p>I have a barely used 20 years old stair-stepper that I would list on ebay as “vintage in mint condition”. For the past 19 ¾ years it has served as a piece of floor art and clothes hanger in my bedroom. :o</p>