People Reveal Their Sketchy Cheap Buys That Ended Up Being Their Best Purchase

Life is expensive. Between rent, bills, student loans, and groceries, we often blow through our paycheques before we have time to spend our hard-earned money on the things we want. As a result, you end up cheaping out on the things you buy in an effort to make your money stretch. That $20 can opener you desperately need? You'll end up buying one for $3 at your neighbor's garage sale instead–and it'll break in two weeks. And that $150 jacket you really wanted but definitely can't afford? You'll end up settling for a $25 knock-off that will fall apart the first time you put it on.

But sometimes, that sketchy, cheap buy will end up being the best product you've ever bought. Every once in awhile, you just need to take a leap of faith and look past that shady Craiglist dealer. In the end, you may end up with treasure—just ask these people.

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#1 Laz-E-Boy

I was giving these college-aged young women a Lyft ride. One asked how "that Craigslist thing went," so my ears perked up. The other said something like, "He complained it went back too far, just don't put it back so far, duh." Eventually, I deduced they were talking about a recliner, which I've been looking for for some time now. I interjected and asked about it. Turned out, the lady had a Laz-E-Boy electric recliner she just wanted 20 bucks for. I said to her, "Listen, I know it's sketchy, but can I check it out?"

We pulled up, I ended the ride, and followed these ladies into their house. I knew I wanted it as soon as I laid eyes on it. So, this college girl helped me stuff a recliner into my back seat and all I could think about is that this is how Buffalo Bill kidnapped that girl in Silence of the Lambs. In the end, I got twenty dollars for a recliner so lazy that it reclines for me.

#2 A Well-Fitting Bra

I was traveling from a different city straight into work, where my uniform was a white shirt with a conspicuously black bra. I wasn't stopping home, but I did stop at the first corner store that I found and bought a five-dollar white bra that looked roughly my size as they had nowhere to try them on. I give it a 10/10. It's the comfiest bra I ever owned and I've worn it every day of my life for about a year. It gave in at some point; it was still a 5 dollar bra. But darn, I dream of the day when all my bras fit that well.

#3 Sketchy Pokémon

#4 Nothing Compares

At the end of a long road trip, I bought a $20 pair of sunglasses in a gas station just outside of Chicago. They fit me better than any pair of sunglasses ever have 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 five long years. They were so no-name they didn't even have a brand name on them at all, so I have no idea who made them. I have no way of finding that gas station, either. I've literally spent hundreds of dollars trying to find sunglasses that come close to that same perfect fit and style, but I can't.

#5 Reliable Flannel

My dad bought me a flannel jacket for $2 (from the equivalent of a dollar store) in 1994. I wore it for everything you can think of. I even wore it yesterday. It's still going strong after 25 years

#6 The Best Wedding Photographer

I randomly 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 emailed me a high quality, well-edited video. He had a drone that I hadn’t even noticed because he was outside of the venue getting b-roll with it before I started getting ready for the big day. I was floored and now I recommend him to everyone who ever plans to get married.

#7 Makes Great Toast

#8 Rain Boots for Life

I bought $12 rain boots at ValueVillage. I've thrashed these things living in rural Alaska and they're still totally watertight two years later.

#9 Getting With the Times

I drive cars so old that they all still have tape decks. I bought this fake cassette tape with a headphone style plug that comes of it. You put the tape in the player just like it was a cassette and plug the jack into your phone and it uses the car's speaker system as an external speaker for the phone. I was so skeptical of it working because it was all of $5, but I've been using it at least 10 years and it works perfectly. Plus I get a bonus side-eye every time I pull it out to use it with someone new in the car.

#10 Great Buy

I bought a knockoff backpacking backpack (for overnight hiking) in Turkey. It was like $25 and has lasted me longer than other people's $200 backpacks.

#11 Interesting

#12 Long Live the Turtle

I bought a turtle for five dollars in Chicago's China Town and she’s turning three this year. Her name's Al Capone and I'm hoping she will outlive me! She is treated like a queen.

#13 Gas Station Turtle

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.

#14 90s Shirts

I bought a button-down shirt from the thrift store in the mid-90s that I still wear today. The shirt is obviously even older. It doesn't have much wear on it either. I think it's made of rayon and something else. The brand is K-mart. They don't make them like they used to.

#15 Stupid Cheap Clock

I bought a fake wood mantle clock from ValueCity for like $10 because I needed something for my first apartment. I received a surprising number of compliments on it and was asked more than once if it was a family heirloom because it looked so old. It also lasted for like 10 years, until the movers broke it. I was kind of proud of displaying that stupid cheap clock.

#16 Never Getting Rid of That

#17 A Surprising Turn

We bought an Ellis Island boat tour in New York from one of the guys on the streets. We were lead into a van and treated extremely well, so we weren't immediately sketched out. We didn't know New York very well, so we ended up driving 20 minutes through Manhattan by three men to an apparently abandoned sketchy dock with no one there. That's when we were convinced we were being scammed.

He gave us a note with a number on it and said to go around the abandoned factory to the pier. They were apparently there waiting for us. So we took ourselves around the building alone, expecting nothing, and that they would just pull off and scam us. Sure enough, we turned the corner and there was a big boat with a bunch of people and it was legit. We had an amazing tour and a lot of fun with free food and drinks.

#18 Poor Old Dog

I went to buy a used lawnmower and ended up buying their very old dog for $10. He was never allowed indoors, never rode in a car, never went to a park, never had a bath... We had a good five years of firsts. Best $10 I ever spent.

#19 Almost As Good As The Real Thing

I was in a market in Shanghai, one of those ones that attract tourists with knock-offs of nice brands. I was walking into an electronics store looking for a portable speaker. I negotiated the store owner down over the "JBL speaker" that was basically the size of a thermos. I think I got it for like $21. The owner went out back got a blank white box and an envelope.

Inside the box was a blank speaker without decals. Decals were in the envelope. She then proceeded to put the decals on the speaker in front of me using tweezers for precision. This was my first time in China so it really caught me off guard. The speaker is amazing. It's very loud and has about an eight-hour battery life.

#20 Big Profit

I risked a huge box of magic cards. I spent around $200 for it but it was really worth around $3,000. This box was just a random pick up on the internet from Craigslist.

#21 Worth $27

A $27 dollar dashcam. I got it off Amazon. Its Shaper Image and includes an SD Card. I thought it was going to be a waste. It wasn't. I have it on whenever I drive. It turns on automatically and records automatically. You can turn auto rewrite on or off. It has a high-quality camera and infrared LEDs for nighttime driving. The mounting mechanism also works great.

#22 Great Dog

My dog was a stray. He was adopted by a couple but returned because he was too high energy, so his adoption fees were 50%. It was the best $45 I've ever spent!

#23 Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder

#24 Best 20 Bucks Ever Spent

I went to a garage sale and a little girl was in charge. She was like 12 years old. I don't know anything about turntables but I asked how much and she said 20 bucks. I asked her if they work and she told me she had no idea, her dad got new ones and wanted to get rid of these. I thought they must be around $200, not $20. I took them. I drove straight to a pawn shop to see what I could get for them, or if they even worked. They worked! The guy looked up prices and came back with a $1200 dollar offer. Best 20 bucks I ever spent.

#25 $5 Wardrobe Staple

#26 Most Useful Gift

My brother gifted me a Snuggie one year for Christmas. I had tracked down a bootleg album he wanted and in return, he got me a buy one, get one Snuggie. I didn't speak to him for weeks. But, I must say, I have routinely used that darn Snuggie for every camping trip I've been on over the last seven years, and I will tell you it has become the most useful gift I've ever gotten.

#27 Made in Vietnam

Knock-off North Face hiking shoes in Vietnam. They cost me $20. I've used them for ages and they're still going strong.

#28 Cheap Headphones

#29 New Favorite Toy

This bamboo back scratcher my wife got me for $3 like 15 years ago. It is right here next to me. I use it to scratch my back, 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. It's not a joke though, I really would go for it first.

#30 Mr. Clean Alternatives

Melamine sponges from China. I really didn't like 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 because I bought it from a guy named Mr. Wei.

#31 Bargain Wedding Gown

#32 Discounted Flights

I flew cargo escort for discounted tickets. I flew to Shanghai from New York for about $200 total, on JAL business class. In return, I had to sign to take responsibility for cargo on the flight. I saw the cargo on the loading dock, it was a pallet covered in a camouflage tarp. I received my tickets in person upon arrival at JFK. I'm pretty sure I helped traffic illegal substances across borders. I can't remember the name of the company and I don't think it exists anymore because it was very sketchy.

#33 Ukrainian Bars

Ukrainian alcohol is smooth as silk and cheap as dirt.

#34 Nothing Beats Target

$17 Target-branded boat shoes. I bought them about six years ago and just wore them randomly for things like going to the grocery store or running down to my car. Then, I found that they were great practice shoes for disc golf. They lasted almost two years of planting and twisting on concrete before they finally folded.

#35 Chinchilla Flannels

Costco fluffy flannels. It feels like a chinchilla is hugging you and I’ve had mine for three years with no signs of wearing down, despite almost daily use in the northeast winters.

#36 The Mystery Bra

I bought a bra from a grocery store. It was marked down to $2 and plastered with stickers reading, "Final sale," "No returns," and "We're not liable if this kills you!" Upon ringing it through, the cashier did a double-take at the screen, looked at me with great concern, and asked if I was sure I wanted to buy it. After failing to self-combust once I put it on, it wound up being one of the nicest bras I ever had. I wore it for two years before the inevitable underwire poking. I still wonder what they thought was wrong with it.

#37 Meow Factory BFF

I bought my kitty for 20 bucks on Craigslist from an illegal substance addict. I had never had a cat before and this little meow factory has been my best friend ever since.

#38 Expensive Bricks

A guy said there were a bunch of bricks in his back yard he wanted to get rid of; $5 for all of them if I came to pick them up. I grabbed a friend and headed out because I needed some cheap brick for the edging of my garden. The guy took us to his back yard and showed us the pile of bricks, which turn out to be more than 50 antique Louisville Fire Bricks.

So I looked at the guy and told him, "I'll take half of them...and as payment, I'll give you $20 and some advice." And of course, the guy was looking at me like I was an idiot, but he accepted my money and loaded up about 30 bricks. After I closed my truck and got in the car to drive off, I told him to Google the antique fire bricks and adjust his craigslist listing. I went back to look at the listing a few days later, and he had changed the price from $5 for the whole pile to $5 PER BRICK.

#39 A Phone Mount that Doesn't Break

I got an adjustable phone mount at the dollar store when I had an iPhone 4. I still use the same one with my iPhone X

#40 Yes, Britney!

I bought some Britney Spears tickets in a back alley near the Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta from this sketchy guy. We thought we got a great deal. We got in line and went through the main first door, they didn't scan. We knew we were scammed immediately. Then, they physically examined our tickets and said, I don't know why these aren’t scanning, but your seats are that way. We walked all the way down to our numbered section and there was one guy sitting in a chair by this massive wall with a single door to walk through.

He physically examined our definitely fake tickets. He’s said, "Hmmm, never seen these before but this way, please." And he took us to a seated section where local business buy suites for their employees. Food and alcohol was free. We had phenomenal seats and got a free shirt and program. I still can’t believe it happened.

#41 Great Blanket

I bought a blanket in Mexico in 1986 for $5. I still have it and it is super soft and comfy. It has been used, washed, etc. and it is still in great shape.

#42

A no-label, old, severely used vinyl acetate record with a handwritten note saying, “That’ll be the day." I paid $1. It ended up being a live Buddy Holly recording. I sold it for $970.

#43 Magic Beans

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 things at the dollar store when I noticed that they were selling these seeds packets from a big old bin that you had to dig through. Four for $1. No tax. I immediately begged to buy one despite our strict budget.

My boyfriend was incredulous that I'd want to buy sketchy seeds, but dutifully handed me a quarter. I ended up picking out tomatoes. Well, we got home and I carefully placed about three seeds in washed-out cans. I watered them and watched them sprout. I loved tending to my little garden. I ended up with three beautiful HUGE tomato plants. It was a bumper crop. More than we could eat. I sold the extra produce to my classmates. I made like $25. Good seeds!

#44 Dad's Pink Hello Kitty Nail Clippers

I was traveling in Japan and needed nail clippers. All I could find was this cheap pink Hello Kitty grooming kit. These clippers are the best I 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.

#45 The Perfect Fan

One of those square, window-size box fans. 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. It finally died earlier this year when I can only assume some critical component burned out. I'll miss you, completely free thing that provided me a decade of a light breeze and air circulation.