YES, just like you, I get bitten in the rear by inflation of prices for nearly everything I lay my eyes on …
So there is a - somewhate weak - attempt to create a thread to help your mental state recenter.
CONTEXT:
my 15+ year old hair/beard trimmer crapped out (tbh I clumsily dropped it and some vital plastic parts broke) … so off to the races for a new one I am …
I am somewhat obsessive once I start investigating new (ahem) high-dollar purchases
So, after 30 min of quality time on google, I soon bypass those mall-brand-home-hair-trimmer brands … and find a product that seems to be quite durable and professional → WAHL - trimmers for about $100ish
Another hour or so on googling/youtubing/redditing around I find out that those are mostly made in PRC anyway and nowadays there is a whole stampede of chinese brands that make clones/knockoffs of their design - and also improving the original design
one brand that pops up most: KEMEI … with the best regarded models seemingly to be 1986/1977/1949 … pretty much all of their trimmers are Wahl compatible (so you can swap in their parts - and as an added benefit - there are spare parts also)
i poke around the webs and find a brand new model 1987
that thing is a professional model, full metal, comes with 6 metal clip-on-guides, is cordless (18650 w/ 2200mah) and a runtime of 5 hours… and has plenty of good reviews from professional hairdressers - for $25 incl. free shipping
the price of two visits to the hairdresser!!!
obligatory (generic) link to the same model w/ battery% readout:
Again, I hold this noble piece of precision machinery put together by nimble hands of highly skilled workers in Asia in my trembling claws and wonder: how can you produce something that well put together for 25 bucks and still make money ???
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any similar experiences with good quality products at a ridiculously low price?
It’s not a knockoff of any particular razor- it’s like a Gillette Fatboy of the 1950s but with a few tweaks in the adjustment mechanism and a few other places. Still seems to be a great razor so far, especially for the price- I would expect to pay twice this amount for a razor like this.
yep, generic link … and it is a better appointed model (shows battery %) … I am living abroad and bought is at a local website - so any dedicated links there won’t help you.
FWIW, Aliexpress is full of those as well if you search for KEMEI.
the handle of your safety razor reminds me of a truly cheap flashlight I got some 5-7 years back … and by truly cheap I mean like $10.00 or so - as a matter of fact they were so cheap I bought 2 of them - both working perfectly.
Convoy S2+ (those came highly recommended on some flashlight forum - and the fact that it is still in production seems to attest to its quality.
here a link to a … very technical review (hey, I just learned I can even reprogram the click-settings (e.g. 10%, 30%, 70%, strobe, etc…) - I just need to get an electronics master
The price seems now to be around $15.00 (did not spend time to search for best prices )
I used to buy Sonicare toothbrushes. They’re pretty expensive, but what really bothered me was that when the head wore out, just replacing that part was expensive. It could cost $15-20 each to replace because at the time the head contained actual parts of the motorized mechanism, it wasn’t just a simple set of bristles on a plastic shaft.
I switched to an Oral-B sonic toothbrush solution which had a simpler head. The toothbrush itself was still somewhat pricey (not much less than Sonicare), but at least when the heads wore out, I could get a pack of 4 or more for the price of one Sonicare brush head.
Then when my Oral-B toothbrush ran out, I found a toothbrush on Amazon made by a brand called “Aquasonic” which had great reviews and cost less than half the price. I tried it out, and it cleans my teeth better than the expensive ones I’d bought. It’s also much lighter despite having a stronger motor. The last couple of toothbrushes I’ve bought have been that brand. And the heads are cheap too.
I always stop at the Kwik Trip on my way home from work in the morning because it’s right on my way and they always have free samples. Today it was brisket and pasta with two fresh bread sticks.
Anyway, they were selling jumbo loaves of bread for 37 cents a loaf, white or wheat, and real butter for $1.99 a pound.
Just got back from an RV trip to the lake. Preparing to leave, I noticed part of the RV’s slide-out mechanism had broken, and was hanging down. I managed enough of a fix to retract it and get home, but was assuming an expensive and time-consuming repair at the dealer was in order. A bit of rummaging around online, and I discover Amazon has the specific and exact part with all hardware for $29.00. And YouTube has several videos showing how to replace it.
Considering how obscure it is, I was expecting a price substantially higher. I ordered two, so I can replace its twin, which hasn’t broken yet (might as well, as long as I’m under there with all the tools).
another good one - and somewhat of a left-fieldER - as APPLE is not really the first brand that comes to mind for well priced products:
This “USB to headphone jack CABLE” ($10.00?) is actually a fully fledged DAC (Digital-Analogue-Converter) - and a darn good one at that, rivalling DACs that cost 10-20 times its price …
here is a good pic of what a 10 bucks can actually get you from apple these days (the DAC module is actually tucked into the tiny USB plug!!).
So if your computer or cellular has a USB-C output (or a lightning - there is the same model available for lightning interfaces) and you can spare 10 bucks, get that thing and your ears will forever thank you for the improved sound quality (be it plugging in headphones or an amplifier/active speakers)!!!
A set of watercolor paints.
I don’t really know what I’m doing with watercolors. I got a small thing of a few colors in a “here’s the stuff to do a specific project” subscription box and was just playing around with them and decided I’d like to practice more.
The set I found was like $4.50 for 24 colors (tubes) and I almost didn’t buy it because I thought at that price, they must be pretty worthless.
And… I mean, if you’re a real artist and you live and breathe watercolor, you can probably find fault with them. But for my purposes (i.e. hopefully maybe eventually making one painting that doesn’t actively suck and, in the process, just having fun learning) they’re excellent. Nice colors, lots of pigment, lots of paint, they mix well, etc.
FWIW, I used to buy the expensive heads to but found some dirt cheap ones, like a buck or two each and they work fine. That said my Oral B is on its last legs battery-wise after 12-15 years or something. I’ll look into the Aquasonic.
And milk at Kwik Trip too. They also have an eight piece fried chicken for about $8.00, and often includes a package of dinner rolls. Their glazer doughnuts are sometimes six for $3; I compare them to Krispy Kreme style.
There is a local brand of dairy goods here that all stores sell so the stores can claim “made locally” to people like me who like to shop local. I’ve learned that they will put products on cheap, cheap, discount about a week prior to the sell-by date. I scored cottage cheese selling for .99 when it usually goes for $5.69. So this week, I bothered to take a look at when the next sell by date is so I can try for a bargain again.
