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Purchases Made as Young Adult That You Regretted Later?

My Nikon D300. Not only was it a frackin' expensive toy, but with my thesis, I don't have time to use it! I must say though, that in the past 5 months, I have gotten great photos with it. I'm very happy with it's performance. Too bad I've only used it 3 times.....
 
I bought a Nikon N50 when I was in grad school. I was taking photos of my research project when I ended up with a complete roll of wasted shots (a combination of no auto focus and I needed glasses). So I bought a new camera more or less out of frustration. A couple of weeks later I was introduced to the department's brand new digital camera... I may have run a dozen or so rolls through that camera since I bought it in '99.
 
I don't have any one single purchase, but just the thousands of credit card debt I racked up once I got new credit cards after establishing some credit, as well as using up the thousands of overdraft protection on my checking account because a family member cosigned to establish the necessary credit... I regret getting that into debt, and living outside of my means for such stupid things... paying so much in finance charges, late fees, negative impact on my credit score...

I regret signing a lease at a luxury apartment in the midwest that was $300-400 more per month than a just plain boring apartment that would have been fine. Like I need it at my age.

I regret my partner buying a $35,000 car at 21, because we still have one year left of the ridiculous monthly payment. Like he needed it at his age, either...
 
Paying my first PowerBook in installments and then getting fired from my previous job. But it was well worth the struggle. ;)

I still somewhat regret all the money I threw at Wizards Of The Coast when I purchased uncountable amounts of Magic: The Gathering cards and booster packs when I was 17 (and the years to follow).
 
c-Row said:
I still somewhat regret all the money I threw at Wizards Of The Coast when I purchased uncountable amounts of Magic: The Gathering cards and booster packs when I was 17 (and the years to follow).
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Oh god... I remember that crap...

Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards... so much money wasted...
 
Buying Shania Twain's Come On Over... talk about bad choices. I can't give the CD away now!
 
I have about $1,000 worth of high quality 1:18 scale model cars... They looked nice, and were okay fun when I was 11... But now I have about 35 and I wish I could get that money back. Oh well.
 
I tend to go through computers on a faster than average basis. I built a computer to use as a server and ended up not finishing it completely so I pieced about half of it out and sold it, the other half is still in my room. I bought a dell that was on sale that I am prolly going to sell also.

Other than computers, I am fine. I prolly don't need as large of a computer setup as I have currently but if it makes me content and happy, then thats the most important thing.
 
I bought a large home theater sound system, and I have no idea what to do with it after I move out of my apartment. All the stuff I have decreases my mobility; I can't just pick up and move anywhere I want.
 
Oh crap, where to start...


About 600 dollars worth of Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy little models. I DID enjoy the hell out of painting them, and got really good at it (won a contest once), but I never played the actual game one single time. I couldn't stand the comic shop guys.

I've purchased about 2000 dollars worth of Magic: The Gathering cards in my lifetime, ending about nine years ago. They are all mostly worthless now, but I keep them in the vain hope someone will make an offer someday.

Spent tons of money on action figures when I was a kid.

Spent thousands of dollars going out to eat with my friends, should have learned to save and cook for myself.

Bought a 1984 Epiphone Les Paul guitar that I never play because I don't have the time, and worse, have discovered that I prefer the Fender I already have over it.

Bought several busted iPods hoping to do some flash conversion and it turned out not to work at all.

Spent thousands on Playstation 2 games.

Bought a 27 inch television when I was 15 and it died in six months. Couldn't get any warranty on it, so I shot it with an AK-47. Turns out a very simple 2 dollar part would have fixed it. Sucks.

I bought 2 G4 cubes for their appeal, but I don't have any real true use for them, just felt the price was right.

I bought a Canon 40D and 24-70 f2.8 for our upcoming cruise and trip to Hawaii, but I doubt I'll get much use out of it in the next years due to medical school coming up.


My new strategy: make myself so busy with school and work that I don't have any time to feel the compulsion to buy things I don't need. My wife lives on about 1200 dollars of personal money a year, I could take a lesson from her.
 
Oh God here we go...

Various computers
Various upgrading for computers (spent around £100 upgrading a computer from 2001).
Thousands wasted on cigarettes
Hundreds wasted on freaking Pokemon, I remember paying £4.99 for a single card. (luckily I realised it was crap when they introduced all the new ones to boost sales) I finished at Pokemon Yellow.
Recently I wasted £30 on a book I have not read. £10 on 50 blank cd's even though I use maybe 4 a year.
Hundreds on iTunes just because it there, its very quick, and it makes me feel better than illegally downloading.
I bought an iPod Shuffle which I used for maybe a couple of months. An iPod Touch which I do use but not enough to justify £200 I guess.
Plan on getting an iPhone, even though I never use mobile phones, and I already have an iPod Touch with the exact same music playing features.

When I look back, I see that money doesn't really bring you happiness, I'm not to bothered about it.
 
I regret buying my xbox 360, as an adult I have no time to play with the damn thing.
 
You know it's bad when you have made the purchases, and have nothing to show. I worked my entire high school days, have nothing to show for it.
 
Ripcurlsurfin96 said:
I bought a Vapor XXX hockey stick ($250.00 when i bought it) and i snapped it on my first shift and the bad part was i put it on my credit card and didnt even have it payed off yet.....:(
Click to expand...


That's why I'm glad that I suck at hockey. I'm not good enough for good equipment to improve my game. :)

As an aside, I play goalie, so the main equipment I need is gravy. If I put on another couple hundred pounds, I won't even need a stick. The puck will never get by my "sweet hockey body" as Cartman puts it.
 
Ripcurlsurfin96 said:
I bought a Vapor XXX hockey stick ($250.00 when i bought it) and i snapped it on my first shift and the bad part was i put it on my credit card and didnt even have it payed off yet.....:(
Click to expand...

You should have called the 800 number, they usually take back defective sticks. My brother had to do that a few times when he played hockey.
 
Finalday said:
Yeah, my first computer. I wasn't ready for the debt. It was a Radio Shack 1000 HX
Click to expand...

ouch. I beat myself for even look in their windows.

I'm not a compulsive spender, and not a big spender at any rate, but once in a while I feel bad for buying a CD or something. (does that even count? They're all secondhand anyway...). Once I bought A&F underwear and felt bad - at least until I got home and tried them on - but again, only $20.

So I guess, if you don't count small stuff, then not really. Lucky eh?
 
Bought a punching bag and one of those dangling fast-moving punching bag thingies. Used it seriously for about one week.

Bought a Compaq computer instead of building my own: had integrated graphics + sound. Then tried to use that motherboard and case as a basis for building my own machine, integrated graphics/sound kept fighting my installed PCI card versions of the same.

Bought a JVC Everio MG-555 video camera: horrible focus, artifacts galore, screwy color. Sold it for half price and then bought slimline PS2 with 10+ games (that wasn't a mistake:))

Bought one of the world's only bluetooth trackball mice, "The Ball." That was dumb, the thing is completely worthless; not good as a trackball at all, very awkward handling, limited buttons, too small for my small hands, incredibly stupid and "slippery" charger dock (try to put it on the thing, you have to get it perfect; if you bump your desk slightly, it falls off the charger). It feels like you're trying to line up the air craft carrier landing on Top Gun for the NES.

Bought a 500GB USB external HDD instead of a FireWire one.

Bought a USB TV signal receiver dongle. Very rarely managed to catch an incredibly stuttery two channels. Sold it for half price (yeah!)

Bought a cheapie wooden desk with one shallow middle draw for ¥10500. Next week saw a much larger, nicer desk with more space for ¥7500.

And, more recently, since I'm still a "young adult," I bought a MacBook. No, don't get me wrong, I love it, but within a couple months I started seriously getting into video editing, and then HD video editing. MacBook just can't handle it well, and the screen is too small. My color correction/grading program refuses to even run. I should have purchased an iMac! :( But, now I have! I'm waiting for it to arrive, and it's one purchase I won't regret. I'm selling my old iBook to help defray the costs, and giving my MacBook to my wife, and then taking her iBook (yeah, it's an interesting trade/sale process). Figure the wife won't get as angry about my purchase if she gets a nicer laptop out of the deal! Plus, she can finally play Halo on Windows!
 
Slim PSP
2x Ipod video 30gb
1 ipod classic
the iphone, it is nice but not practical
2 years of service for iphone :(
Slim ps2
Kicker L7 Sub and Kicker ZX750.1 Amp
Xbox 360, but GTA IV is addicting and fun
Dell vostro 1500
4 gb ram for vostro
cheap ipod cases off of ebay which scratched them up.
 
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