A great condition 1956 Chevy. My neighbor (at the time) was selling it. It had been his father’s car and he just wanted to get rid of it.
for 1500.00 dollars
Sigh.
An additional 20 cases of IW Harper Bourbon Whiskey.
Upon hearing the Japanese bought the old distillery and were planning on making it available as an exclusive Asian import.
“Yeah, Right I said. You’re telling me those world-renowned, shrewd businessmen from the East are gonna take a product made here in Kentucky, and tell this huge domestic market, 'Sorry Yanks, you can’t have anymore” ??
Well screw me…You can’t find the stuff anywhere. Not even in Manhattan, or on the 'net for that matter.
A vintage black wool knee-length greatcoat. It was for sale for $90, “as is” but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I had the money, but christmas was right around the corner and my wife always said “I can never figure out what to get you because anything you want you just buy.”
Of course, now that I live in the tropics it’d just be languishing in deep storage, so I suppose it doesn’t matter.
Oh, and I wish I’d bought shipping insurance before my playstation 2 and all my DVDs were stolen out of my shipping crate. But I don’t think “insurance” is really in the spirit of this thread, so never mind.
Way back about I don’t know how many years ago, I was in the Brown University Book Store where they had a short stack of a new Stephen King book which, according to the clerk, hadn’t been selling very well. So, I passed it up for the time being thinking I’d come back for it another time, Of course, by the time I came back for it, they were gone.
It was the first-edition Grant publication of “The Dark Tower.” I could have bought a whole stack for $20 a pop and last time I looked they were bringing anywhere from $500 - $1000.
This book on Baseball Uniforms.
I saw it on remainder at Barnes & Noble for about 3months… for about $10. And I didn’t buy it.
I’ve no idea why I didn’t buy it, I wanted it. I certainly should have bought it rather than the other millions of books I bought - but no, I let it go by.
And at Amazon it’s selling for $140+ - used.
Recently I found a hobby shop near my house that had tons of classic sci-fi stuff (I had my heart set on some of the Aliens model kits and tons of other random stuff) in the front window. I drooled over it for about 20 minutes and then went on my way, figuring that I could come back some other time when I had more cash and more room in my car.
It took me a couple weeks to get back there, since they had really weird hours (11-3, closed Sundays). I had even cleared out space in my trunk to put all the stuff I was planning on getting.
It was gone. The whole store, gone. Poof. Just like that.
A “for sale” sign hung on the front door on a single thumbtack. The windows were bare, the shelves gone, even the carpet had been pulled out. The place was empty.
I really regret not buying the stuff when I had the chance.
Many many years ago I saw a replica of Picasso’s She-Goat. I don’t know why I didn’t buy it, but I’ve desperately wanted it ever since and have never again seen one.
Here’s a picture of the real thing, although the pic doesn’t do it justice:
http://www.nwmahlerfestival.org/photos/images/Europe/DSCN1532w.jpg
The $400 Norton Atlas cafe racer I looked at back in '83. I was looking for my first big bike; the guy selling it told me that I probably wasn’t the type to buy it and he was right. I had no idea what I was looking at.
I saw a t-shirt for Ingmar Bergman’s Persona on e-bay. I was new to e-bay so I figured it’d come up again at some point. Nope. Can’t find it anywhere on the Internet, but everytime I’m on e-bay, I put in the keywords just in case…
My wife and I were driving through Swaziland and we stopped by a convenience store for some drinks & provisions. There was a little girl selling necklaces outside. We’d seen plenty of little street kids selling trinkets & such during our stay in Africa so this was nothing new. We politely refused on the way in, but on our way out the little girl (probably 8 or 9) asked again. Again, No, thanks. But there was something about these big saucer-eyes, contrasted against the darkest, smoothest complexion and the most hope-filled type of half-smile you can imagine that made me think, “Maybe…”
Then we closed the doors and were on our way, and it became very clear very quickly that I should have bought a necklace (even though it’d be relegated to the back of some drawer somewhere). Don’t know why, but I’ve never forgotten that.
Tickets to a John Lee Hooker concert 2 months before he passed away. 
I’m kicking myself over something I bought and gave up. When I was living in San Diego in the mid-70s, I got suckered into going to a sales pitch for lots in Ramona. I bought a 1/3 acre lot for the princely sum of $18,000. The payments were $149/month. About 3 years later, I decided I didn’t want it any longer and I tried to sell it. No one was buying. I wanted my $149/month in my pocket, so I gave the lot back to the developer in lieu of foreclosure.
I don’t even want to know what that lot is worth now. The kicker is I didn’t need the $149. It’s not like I was giving up groceries to make the payment. Stupid stupid stupid!!
Most recently, tickets to a concert/music festival. I didn’t realize my favorite band was going to be playing and so I passed. Now, who knows when they’ll be in the US again?
My all-time regret was not buying something by Wayne Thiebaud, one of my favorite artists. Back in college he exhibited at a local gallery. One of his smallest works was way outside my price range, so I didn’t do the sensible thing and buy it anyway. So many years I could have spent, getting a thrill every time I looked at it, sigh… Now I’d have to sell a kidney and both lungs to afford anything of his.
Sprint when it wa a penny stock.
How Timely
I just rehashed and gnashed about this on Sunday with some old friends: 1959 Cadillac Malibu camper, champagne colored. Classic Caddy big fin lines, with a camper top, bed above the driver’s seat. Deluxe kitchenette, sink, cupboards in aquamarine and fine wood veneer. This was a top of the line camper, and I could have had it in 1985 for $1000, good running condition. The appeal to me back in those days was that I could live in it, but I didn’t have $100 to spare, much less a grand.
Now, it would be worth ten times that, and ya could still live in it, need be. It makes me want to goddam cry.
sob
Stevie Ray Vaughn tickets to a show in my hometown in a theatre that is about as big as my living room. I never had the opportunity to see him again before he died.
Stevie the biography of Stevie Smith, on remainder at Borders for $5, but I was Xmas shopping for others & passed it up. Later spent $20 for it on Amazon. Worth it, tho.
Also – red, sling-back Prada high-heeled sandals ON SALE FOR $300!! Still wish I’d sold my car and bought them.
Quite a few used CD’s that are rare and out of print these days. The biggest examples:
- “Convicted” by Cryptic Slaughter. Saw it twice for $5.99 and didn’t buy it. Now it sells for over $50 on ebay.
- “Listen” by A Flock of Seagulls. Passed on an $8.99 copy, now it sells for up to $80.
The stock Detroit triple-deuces intake manifold that was designed for my Pontiac 389, which was mine for free courtesy of my next door neighbor if I wanted to take the time to swap it onto the block. I dawdled and he ended up building a homemade car around a 389 powerplant and of course the triple-deuces went onto it.
The MCE Expansion Bay CDRW/DVD-ROM combo drive for my WallStreet PowerBook. By the time I decided I really did want it, they’d quit making it, and no one ever sells the suckers on eBay. Ditto the Magma expansion-bay adapter for an external rack of 4 PCI cards, which also would have worked in my PowerBook. A laptop sporting 4 PCI cards when it’s not on the road need apologize to no desktop computer! Do I really need that? Somehow now that I can’t get it, it seems like I do, if only for the coolness factor. Full frame-rate big-screen video digitizing, baby! And two external flatscreen monitors, one on either side of the built-in TFT!
When I was about 11, a kid in my neighborhood offered to sell me a baggie half-full of “Mercury” dimes at face value of 10¢ apiece if I’d buy the whole works. Something like $60. Back then $60 looked a lot like $6000 does nowadays. ::sigh::
That classic black cocktail dress would’ve been 10 bucks with my discounts/markdowns. I had nowhere to wear it but I’ve bought 3 or 4 dresses since then that are not nearly as nice as that dress was. Lesson learned----I bought a black lace formal for 30 bucks last year and have’nt yet worn it but someday I will.
I have not yet read this thread.
Someone has already said “microsoft stock”–I hope they didn’t (unless they actually had the opportunity), but I think someone did.