# What would be the WORST things to buy right now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 20, 2020, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172 "2020-05-20T09:59:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/21 "2020-05-21T15:27:23Z")
A kissing booth franchise. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/22 "2020-05-22T15:43:57Z")
Nobody knows. Precious metals? They are a nice fetish, pay no divident but cost no penalty interest either (usual over here in Europe by now over a certain threshold, coming soon to the USA too, I would guess, as the banks roll over the negative interest rates to their customers). They have been rising recently, who can tell for how long? I have forgotten what they were good for šŸ˜› What I would not buy right now are shared appartments, AirBnB or similar. But I am not a wise investor. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/23 "2020-05-22T15:59:53Z")
Concert tickets. I was going to say commercial real estate like office buildings, as others have already mentioned. I suspect construction and related businesses for office buildings will take a while to recover (furnishings, network equipment, etc.). Maybe this is finally the death knell for cubicle farms! Stocks in airlines, commercial aircraft manufacturing, and cruise lines are probably bad from a short-medium term POV, but itā€™s not like the airline industry is going away long-term, and travel will eventually rebound. It may be a long while, tho. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/24 "2020-05-22T17:48:48Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > As in, due to both the pandemic and the upcoming major financial downturn, Iā€™m curious what purchases I should be holding off on. > > Iā€™m talking stuff like real estate or cars obviously you donā€™t want to be spending a bunch of money on right now, nor any obvious frivolities. > > But are precious metals worth buying right now? Cars? I know several more than a few people who have expressed (and in a few cases, acted upon) the sentiment that this is one of the BEST times to buy a new car, if you were already looking to do so, of course. The dealers are desperate to unload inventory. At least Mazdas. Now that I think about it, two if not all three of the people Iā€™m thinking of who said they got astounding deals (like, thousands below MRSP and 0% interest for 48 months) bought Mazda cars/CUVs. But I doubt Mazda dealers are particularly desperate versus other those for other car makes. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/25 "2020-05-22T22:41:29Z")
AMC Moviepass. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/26 "2020-05-23T02:32:44Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Maybe this is finally the death knell for cubicle farms! Cubicle farms have been death-knelled already. The most recent thing is open office plans, so people can most efficiently shed virus near each other in open spaces. I predict this will be a boon for cubicle wall manufacturers suddenly retrofitting those open plan offices with cheap walls. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/27 "2020-05-23T02:39:06Z")
In fact a month ago or so would have been the time to invest in a large manufacturer of acrylic panels, since apparently every grocer, bank, bar, restaurant, DMV, etc in the US suddenly has need of separation panels. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/28 "2020-05-23T17:00:38Z")
How do real estate prices in the U.S. look now compared with last year? How will they look in a few months? My personal guess ā€” FWIW, which isnā€™t much ā€” is that now would be a good time to sell stocks and buy real estate. Gold was rising last year, summer and winter, in reaction to the perceived debt bubble; then plummeted in response to the pandemic; but five weeks later recovered and is now not too far from the high prices seen 7 years ago. I think the price fall was when the pandemic was seen as deflationary: that fear was thoroughly dispelled when governments began flooding their countries with trillions in new money! (There was a great opportunity to make a leveraged buy, e.g. of GDXJ, during the plummet.) Silver hasnā€™t kept pace with gold. I think **the gold-to-silver price ratio set an all-time high a few weeks ago** , though silver is up several percent since then. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/29 "2020-05-23T18:54:48Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > How do real estate prices in the U.S. look now compared with last year? My daughter and her fiancĆ© are moving right this second into a home they bought last month. Theyā€™d been looking for a while, but weā€™re happily renting so there was zero rush or pressure. The house they ended up buying was offered at a low price and theyā€™d decided on making a lowball offer when the seller dropped it below what theyā€™d planned on offering. The seller was motivated (a family that had already purchased a new home somewhere due to work, moved cross country, and were struggling to pay two mortgages, plus dealing with all this in corona times). The price was so low, they actually hired a second home inspector and had him go over things. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/30 "2020-05-24T05:21:27Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > In fact a month ago or so would have been the time to invest in a large manufacturer of acrylic panels, since apparently every grocer, bank, bar, restaurant, DMV, etc in the US suddenly has need of separation panels. Likewise, whoever makes those black/clear plastic containers that food is delivered in. Things not to invest in? Theme parks. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/31 "2020-05-24T16:40:21Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > How do real estate prices in the U.S. look now compared with last year? How will they look in a few months? My personal guess ā€” FWIW, which isnā€™t much ā€” is that now would be a good time to sell stocks and buy real estate. One problem the much lower transparency of RE prices, especially over a short period. The main benchmark for US residential home prices is the Case Shiller Index, but the latest reading is sill basically pre COVID (Feb 2020, released in late April). I see that Zillow prices my house higher now than Feb (in NJ right next to NY), however they arrive at that. For commercial RE REIT prices are a rough guide. The Vanguard REIT ETF is down ~21% year to date v ~8% for SPY S&P ETF but 18% for the Vanguard all-world-ex-US stock ETF\*. Anyway whatā€™s gone down a little more lately is a pretty much random indicator of what you should buy. Generally thereā€™s a fairly good reason some things go down more than others, and as far as ā€˜stocksā€™ really depends what market. If you think the US stock market has been ā€˜too optimisticā€™ about COVID you could buy ex-US stock rather than US REITā€™s. Or you could conclude that US stocks have gone down less because the US index has more tech than non-US world and market reasonably thinks COVID is even good for tech (the QQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF is _up_ 8% YTD). The bigger problem is the usual one, zero reason to think the market has less information than I do. I can always take a flyer, nothing wrong with it within reason, but I should realize the unlikelihood that I have a basic insight that the whole rest of the market has somehow missed. \*all prices excluding re-invested dividends since thatā€™s easier to punch up in a few seconds; dividend yield of REITā€™s and to a lesser degree non-US stocks both tend to be a little higher than US stock but that doesnā€™t change the big picture in such a short period. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/32 "2020-05-24T17:03:53Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > For commercial RE REIT prices are a rough guide. The Vanguard REIT ETF is down ~21% year to date v ~8% for SPY S&P ETF but 18% for the Vanguard all-world-ex-US stock ETF\*. Some companies, like Facebook, have announced that theyā€™re going to allow more people to work from home, even after the crisis has passed. If so, that may reduce demand for commercial real estate, particularly in the Bay Area. And if people are working from home, they donā€™t need to live in the high-cost Bay Area even if they work for one of the companies there. So perhaps there will be less demand for Bay Area residential real estate? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/33 "2020-05-24T17:28:08Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > A kissing booth franchise. šŸ˜› That made me LOL, hard! ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/34 "2020-05-24T22:48:22Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > As in, due to both the pandemic and the upcoming major financial downturn, Iā€™m curious what purchases I should be holding off on. > > Iā€™m talking stuff like real estate or cars obviously you donā€™t want to be spending a bunch of money on right now, nor any obvious frivolities. > > But are precious metals worth buying right now? I wouldnā€™t invest in Chinese companies on the US stock exchange. Iā€™m a bit less sure about US or foreign companies that have moved their manufacturing to China, but Chinese companies are increasingly under scrutiny in the US, especially telling is that they have only(!!) 3 years to have their books audited (like all other companies except Chinaā€™s currently), and based on Luckin Iā€™m not sanguine about how good their books actually are. Iā€™ve already heard that several Chinese companies are looking to self delist themselves. For patriotic reasons, Iā€™m sureā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/35 "2020-05-24T22:59:18Z")
Hitlerā€™s alligator. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/36 "2020-05-25T00:26:06Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Hitlerā€™s alligator. Dead or alive, that would be sorta cool. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/37 "2020-05-25T00:30:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Dead or alive, that would be sorta cool. Yeahbut, experience tells me that ā€œsorta coolā€ purchases are usually the worst things to buy. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/38 "2020-05-25T22:28:14Z")
Iā€™ll go with commercial real estate, condos in Manhattan and San Francisco, auto manufacturer stocks, companies that make infrastructure for mass transit, and airlines. Restaurant stocks would be a risky buy. Best stocks would be anyone providing cloud infrastructure, online training, graphics card manufacturers, and other companies that benefit from people living and working at home. Also, manufacturers who may benefit from a shift away from China. GE, Rockwell, Siemens, etc. GE has other problems depressing its stock. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172/39 "2020-05-25T23:12:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Or stock in Carnival Cruise Lines. Or, possibly even worse, a ā€œ[cruiseshare](http://www.banderasnews.com/vallarta-resorts/cruiseshare.htm)ā€ ā€“ a timeshare with a cruise line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-worst-things-to-buy-right-now/854172.md?page=1)