So you bought a BLEEP

bodacious on 28/04/2014 - 15:12
Last edited 28/04/2014 - 15:27

Ok bare with me here. This is just a light hearted look at our bargain buying selves and some of the stuff we have ended up with over the years, for better or worse, what are the more embarrassing bargains or saving shortcuts gone wrong that ozBargainers have run into over the years. Or better yet, any amazing bargains that stand out in your mind.

I will start it off with a few.

  • Picked up a Tower 200 door gym off flea bay for $20 yesterday. Good price, but a laughable piece of fitness gear, with some users reporting the elastic straps breaking in a dangerous manner. My expectations are low, the price was low, and I have plenty of other exercise gear to supplement my home gym.

  • Swiss ball from fleabay for about $12. Quality was poor, thin material, and it looked cheap & shoddy. Ended up as a toy for my nephews and I nabbed an xlnt Aero branded one from kmart for $10.

  • Gararge shelving from crazysales.com.au, wanted a slighly bigger size than the xlnt Handy Shelving from Bunnings, and thought that bigger size for same price was a good buy. Quality was barely ok, and a few month later Bunnings had new sizes available.

  • Still laughing / crying over this one. Bought an Xperia Ultra Phablet 3 months ago, only to have the screen break in my pocket. Damn 1st generation products :(

  • A bargain I picked up last year was a slightly used $30 Dynafit Aero Bike, fan driven exercise bike, has the levers to work the arms aswell as legs. Resistance is provided by the fan, the harder you work the more resistance. Great device, and a steal at the price.

  • Another standout bargain for me was a Multi-Station Boxing Stand with Power Tower $195 delivered, very solid. Just replaced the dodgy punching bags with quality ones, added a climbing hangboard and I was away.

So weather you fell for excellent tv advertising only to get it home and think "should I have bought a bleep?", or found an amazing bargain that will make us bargainers cheer, share some light bargain blunders or beauties here…

General Discussion

Comments

  • retiredfeline on 28/04/2014 - 15:33
    +1

    Ok bare with me here

    If you'll show yours first… :)

    Ok, bought a Sony E-reader a couple of years back. Worked very nicely. But my big mistake was not getting a case for it, because something pointy poked the e-ink screen and caused an internal crack, rendering it useless.

    Bought a Cube Chinese tablet. A bit of hassle with the store sending me the wrong power supply which was eventually sorted out. It was one of the better ones, works with Play Store, I could replace the ROM with a recompiled version and get rid of the Chinese apps. I'm still using it but it has one annoying flaw that can't be fixed. When the power supply is connected to the powered down tablet, the surge causes it to switch on so I have to hold down the power button to turn it off. I've been wary of Chinese tablets since.

    On the other hand the $11 D-Link router is a champ once reflashed with DD-WRT.

    • scrimshaw on 28/04/2014 - 15:43

      When the power supply is connected to the powered down tablet, the surge causes it to switch on so I have to hold down the power button to turn it off.

      Got a Cube U30GT and this happens to me too.

      I think this is a feature and not actually a defect. It probably has something to do with how the kernel works, but nobody knows how to fix it. Some branded tablets do this too, but you can go to
      Settings > Developer Options > "Uncheck Stay Awake While Charging" to fix the problem.

      Stuff that I bought which didn't last very long:

      1. Kindle, keyboard version, got it to read PDF documents, but processor and screen were too low-spec. Sold it after 4 months.
        Got the Cube U30GT afterwards.

      2. An inflatable rowboat. Only suitable for use in lakes and such, and come wintertime the water is freezing and nobody really wants to try it out, and in the summer everone prefers to hit the gym or pool instead. Hasn't been used.

      3. MSI Windpad 7. It was a craptablet and despite being faster than the Optus Mytab, it was buggy and lagged heavily after apps were installed. Sold it for a song.

      4. Lenovo A789, great phone for the time, but smashed it after it fell from a cheap bike mount made to hold smartphones. Phone was only 4 days old. Not trusting bike phone mounts anymore.

      • retiredfeline on 28/04/2014 - 15:54

        I think this is a feature and not actually a defect.

        I doubt that. It's probably a design flaw in the power circuit common to both models that interprets a powerline bounce as a signal to switch on. The kernel isn't in the picture until the bootloader has loaded it.

      • mskeggs on 28/04/2014 - 17:22

        Count me among the Windpad users who ended up sad.

      • donga100 on 28/04/2014 - 19:10

        Have made that same rowboat mistake. Still in the box. :(

    • Forfiet on 30/04/2014 - 15:09

      mmm, the old cube U30GT…. grabbed a jaycar replacement power supply very quickly for that. Yes mine powers on with connecting the power too….

  • blitz on 28/04/2014 - 18:36
    +1

    Ok bare with me here

    YES IT'S AN OZBARGAIN STRIP-OFF

  • godofpizza on 29/04/2014 - 09:07

    i wonder how many of those cheap wonderbooks tablet are still in use?

    • scrimshaw on 29/04/2014 - 11:41

      Still have an Acer 150 netbook, runs XP but I replaced with Android x86 Kit Kat. Just for laughs.

      • retiredfeline on 29/04/2014 - 11:48

        Saw that a while back, still curious about it. How does using the mouse or touchpad compare with touching the screen?

        • scrimshaw on 29/04/2014 - 16:26
          +1

          Not intuitive, but there are keyboard shortcuts that make the web browsing experience somewhat manageable.

          If you have a netbook with AMD graphics, say a AMD C-50 or E series APU, you should be able to play some 3d games on the laptop (like Dead Trigger) using a variety of game controllers, including a wired Xbox or Wireless PS3.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LAdENZIFvc

          If you run an Atom, then you won't have much GPU performance — Youtube will lag in HD playback.

          If you want to give it a go without actually installing to your hard drive, you can run it on a Live USB stick, or run within Oracle Virtualbox.

  • Elppa8 on 29/04/2014 - 13:08
    +3

    Best bargain for me in recent times was a was a grubby looking watch in a second hand shop. When asked the price " half price today only $5 " I snapped it up, gave it a good clean and had it cleaned internally plus battery for $45. I am now the proud owner of a Raymond Weil 18k electro plated gold watch.

  • Geewhizz on 02/05/2014 - 06:14

    This would be among the buys I regret

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/109410

    Dual screen video player from DS: with no internal battery it resets back to the start every time the car is switched off. What this means for me is, with the roughly 12 hours a month of return trips to Brisbane with Mr3 I get to hear the same start to a video every hour or so when we restart the car after one of our numerous stops. Fortunately he's not old enough to care that he never gets to see the end of the video. Before he (thankfully) recently went to movies it was the same 3 favorite Mr Maker episodes over, and over and over.

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