Featured How Often Do You Regret Not Purchasing An Item?

Sadly, far, far too often! Learned that if I like it, and can afford it, there's no place for going back for second looks. It will be gone by then, 9 out of 10 times. That applies to bidding too (eBay, etc.) The most irritating and frustrating part of it? The internet hangs, page does not refresh, etc., when you want to place that "decisive bid" and someone else walks away with it.

 

Because I've been selling mainly vintage clothing for more than 10 years I don't have as many regrets as I used to, but a few weeks ago I passed up a vintage men's Polo corduroy jacket/coat with leather trim and original price tag of $199 still attached. It was in the small back room of a local church thrift store where everything is $1.00. I couldn't get a cellphone signal to look it up, and thought maybe because it was heavy and would cost a lot to ship, it might not sell for much. I don't have a lot of storage space, so I try not to buy bulky items unless I'm sure they'll be well worth the time and trouble it takes to sell them.

So I decided to put the jacket back and think about it while I looked at other racks of clothing. It was warm in the store so I didn't want to carry the jacket around with me, and I was the only one in that room, so wasn't concerned about someone else picking up the jacket. But then out of no where, a young guy with his mother walks in, the guy goes to the rack of jackets, picks out the Polo and tries it on. Out of the corner of my eye I could tell it fit him perfectly. Then he walks into another room to look in a mirror, and leaves it on when he comes back to look at other things. I waited for a while to see if he would put it back. He took it off but carried it around, so I decided to go out to my car so I could get a cellphone signal and look up the jacket on ebay where I found a used one sold for close to $200. Then I decided to wait in the car until he and his mother left the store to see if they had bought it. They finally came out and the young guy was carrying a large bag, but I thought maybe there was a chance he put it back and bought another jacket, so I went back in and looked on all the racks, but didn't see the jacket.

I left thinking his mother probably didn't have a lot of money to spend on clothes, but her son will look really classy in that Polo jacket, so I told myself he deserved it more than I did....but at the same time I decided the next time I'm debating about buying a $1 item I'll at least hang onto it while I'm deciding whether to buy it...no matter how warm it is in the store. And after 10 years of selling vintage clothing you'd think I'd know enough by now that if I'm debating about buying an item and it only costs $1, I should just buy it, and if it turns out to be not worth storing, I can just re-donate it.

I wonder if anyone else out there has watched and waited, or followed someone around hoping they'll put back something you want to buy, or at least get a closer look at. This wasn't the only time I've done that.

 

I take a chance a lot on smaller, inexpensive items. At the flea market this weekend, I did buy some vintage jewelry that was not perfect: a Thelma Deutsche pin missing the pin stem for a dollar, a Weiss brooch where a stone is somehow damaged underneath a little, $3, a West Germany triple strand glass necklace that needs a chain extender, $2.50, a huge Florenza necklace missing one stone, $3.... I wonder if I should have left them. My one jewelry guy is pretty hard-line about stuff, but he has good stuff. When I do buy a mistake, my husband consoles me and tells me that's how you learn.

I do regret not buying a retro emerald and diamond ring, a cameo of the Birth of Venus in Florence when I was there, but not much else. The regret of what I don't buy outweighs the regrets of what I did buy, so I am ahead. And passing on that retro ring allowed me to purchase a better one years later.

I pretty much jump on anything I want the first go round because it will be gone if I wait.

 

I regretted not buying a job lot of 7 stoneware ginger beer bottles on ebay it was 28 pound and postage I can't remember and at the time I was just concentrating on rounding up the coin auctions to bid on thinking I could come back to the ginger beer collection later and that there will be more offers, 5 of the stoneware ginger beer bottles were the ones I fancied the other two being duplicates of one I have already but I wouldn't have minded a duplicate or two of a stoneware ginger beer I have already as its always good to have a spare just encase.

 

agreed

 

Hardly and rarely ever. My problem is that I won’t walk away without my target, unless I just don’t have the money; which, I find doesn’t happen often because I just won’t go looking if I don’t have the money. This has worked in my favor more times than it’s blown off a foot, though. Just uhhh, knowing my weakness, don’t hike up your prices when you see me coming >_<

 

Works both ways. I had an item I sold for $1k, and had a chance to buy it back a few years later, and didn't. Long story, but over the years that same item has changed hands a couple of times. The last time was at a public auction where it brought over $600K.

 

Once recently: there is a charity shop near me that sells 99% of things for £1. I have found some killer bargains there, but one thing I walked away from was a picture frame that looked possibly arts and crafts. It had a wooden section missing, so I left it. Looking back, it was so quirky, I should have bought it for later restoration. I hope it’s admired wherever it is...

 

Now that you've rendered it out to the universe, I predict you will find one that doesn't need repair..
Best wishes for your best wishes!

 

Every once in a while you kick yourself; we all have to have one that got away. I once left behind what looked like a silver-plated teapot. Later on I realized it was Sheffield plate. A week later, the charity shop was only open once a week, it was still there for a whole $3. It came home; a friend is probably getting it for Chanukkah if I can pry it out of my hoard. Most stuff is just that. Stuff. There will always be more stuff.

 

I love the pictures people post at this site, so I figured I’d create one to go with the story I do believe - for art that really speaks to you - the only limit is your wallet. So basically I only regret losing the bargain! Thank you for the the prediction, I appreciate the wish of luck!

 

I saw a small old perfume bottle in the charity shop last week and I held it and looked at it but I never bought it because I thought it might be something modern, I wish I had bought it now because my girlfriend has been wanting one for a long time and it was only 3 quid complete with the stopper. I'll shall go back tomorrow to see if its still there.

I have dug many perfume bottles in the past from old dumps but they have always been on the plain side and not very decorative.

The one I saw in the charity shop was very decorative and might have a decent age to it. I couldn't find any on ebay that caught my eye. I hope they still have it.

 

Two weeks ago I was at a local flea and picked up a nice, small piece of glass that looked interesting, but I passed on it. I have been thinking about it ever since thinking it may be an old open salt. I am going to the same flea this Wednesday and if it's there I will grab it, but who knows!!!!!

Keep your fingers crossed for me

 

I went back to the charity shop and it was still there so I bought it, here is a photo of it.


I'll see if I can get somebody to I.D it later, it looks early 1900s, it has the right feel and look of something from early 1900 but the glass stopper maybe more modern and not original to the bottle.

 

I think I have told this story before. Many moons ago I went to a yard sale and saw a Good Humor Truck in the box MINT condition. I shoulda bought it, but I thought $10 was too much. The person had collected all sorts of boxed cars, trucks etc. I was too new to the picking game to know what was what.
I went home to check the price of that GH truck on my pc and what it was selling for and ran back to the sale and it was gone. Lesson learned for sure.

 

I bought almost everything I thought would sell well, didn't leave much behind, learned early not to leave anything pretty behind, even though there was no internet and no cell phones at the time. This was tempered only by my wallet, which was small! Yah, MRTreasureHunter looks like a nice old bottle ya got there, probably not the original stopper, the glass even looks a different color of clear to me, hard to see in that light.

 

Back in the day before cel phones....I knew an auctioneer and his wife and she was big into Candlewick. So when I'd be at the Flea markets, I would always buy inexpensive pieces of Candlewick, and offer them to her. (she was building 3 sets for her daughters). One day, at the FM i saw a regular seller I knew that had some candlewick pieces I had never seen before......he had 4 different things I had not ever seen. He wanted between $40 and$60 per piece would sell them all to me for $150.I remember 1 was a lidded punch bowl and cups...one was a lidded Box with a shelf coming off the top. I passed, because I just didn't have the money (on me), and I would come back the next week and buy them. When I got home, I called the auctioneers wife and described the pieces. Long story short...all the pieces were EXTREMELY rare, and would have sold at that time for several THOUSAND dollars.
Of course the next week they were gone.

 

Some start young! Some 75+- years ago, my Grandma, aunts & Mom would pile in the Buick, squeeze me in and go antiquing. They usually gave me a dollar for my big purchase! I loved the Japanese china known as Howo/Flying Turkey or rising Phoenix - and usually found some. Most of it was not antique at the time. It had great imperfections.
One day I ran across a lady that had a lot of it, more than I could afford :-( Anyway, I had to bargain with my Mom and aunts to get enough money to buy all of it - I think it was about $12. Anyway, I held onto to it all these years and sold most of it this year. Not a lot of money but lots of memories in letting it go.

 

I hope this doesn’t become the “I should’ve bought it.” I saw these chalkware eagles that say “God Bless America” on them. The one on the left still has its glitter. I passed.