Thread: Buying something great on the cheap

One of the things we can all enjoy is if -through luck or hard work- we have the opportunity to buy something good for a very cheap price. This happens from time to time in a garage sale or flea market. Or in my case, a liquidation of some stock.

We have a saying in Belgium: One man's death is another man's bread. (that fact that it rhymes in English as well as in Dutch is unusual). My brother in law emailed me the stock list of a winery which was liquidated. Most of it was wine and fairly standard booze, but they also had a small stock of whisky. Most of the whisky was fairly standard as well, but I recognized a cask strength bottling of Longrow, done by Springbank no less.

That specific bottling was a limited edition, aged in non standard barrels. Supposedly a wonderful taste. Since that type of wood was used only for a small batch, current retail price (if you can find them) is 80 euros (115$). the liquidation price was only 32 euros. so I ordered a box of 6. They were delivered to my brother in law. I'll get them next week.

The feeling you get when you discover something like that is why I hunt flea markets and garage sales. Most of the time, you find nothing special, but every now and again, you can buy something great for a great price.

I think that qualifies as one of the 'finer things in life'

I remember as a kid my folks going to upstate New York and hitting the antique shops. In those days most of the sellers didn't have the research base they have now and if you were discerning you could get items for a few bucks that now could be worth thousands. That never happened to us. However, we did get some rare and authentic items I have now worth quite a bit.

I bought a 1945 Russian Mosin Nagant M44 at an estate auction for $45. After a couple hours of work getting some old cosmoline out I discovered that the bore looked almost new. I've replaced the stock, bringing my grand total up to around $95 and from sandbags I can get sub MOA groups out of the little beast.

Buying something great on the cheap is the idea i like very much. So i've gotten most of my razors from estate auctions. Not only razors but vintage cigarette lighters, table clocks, hand tools and some stuff related to classic cars and motorcycles as well.
Then again: my wife has a nasty habit of collecting vintage furnitures from estate auctions cheaply and then bringing them home for me to restore. She has sold some but our house is still full of them. I would be happy man if she got banned for life from such auctions no matter how cheap these vintage drawers, cabinets, chairs and whatever might be.

I once got a puck of Williams on sale for 78 cents.

It was like winning the lottery.

I do some bicycling when I can and buy most of my clothing and equipment on the cheap. I check ebay and craigslist. My latest purchase was bicycling shoes just like the one pictured. Sidi Giaus usually go for $180. to $200. and I bought these for $80. off of craigslist.