What other great purchases have you made?

[neroden]

Research shows that we are very bad at predicting the emotional effects of our purchases. Most people think that a purchase will make them happier than it ends up being after they make the actual purchase.

I'm not most people. I predict the emotional effects of my purchases accurately, pretty consistently. So I don't have much in that category....

I'd like to pose the question to the group. What purchases have you made (other than your Model S) that you consider far exceeded your exceptions and were in some ways life changing?

LED lightbulbs -- they don't trigger my fiancee's photosensitivity, which I didn't realize in advance. So major benefit.

Tesla stock did exceed my expectations.

My house was a great purchase but no greater than I expected. I can think of many other really, truly satisfying purchases actually, but their satisfyingness wasn't surprising. I did months of research in every case and knew pretty clearly how I was going to feel about them. Unexpected positives have been on really little things for me; for big things, I do so much research and prep that it's not unexpected.

 

[spentan]

Haven't got a model s (yet, in Australia),

but great purchases, my 5kW Sunpower Solar PV system is running great as we come into summer, smashing a whole 32kWh per day of credit

 

[FalconNinetyD]

Mcornwell,

Nice!! Glad to see ReplayTV DVRs! I worked at ReplayTV back in 1999 and went through the various phases of lives and deaths (buyouts) of ReplayTV (left in 2004). I was the Director of Product Management at ReplayTV and added the Commerical Skipping feature to the product. I remember having to give a 8 hour deposition to the lawyers for the 20+ studios that sued us. Five years ago, I got rid of my ReplayTVs (with a heavy heart) when I got HDTVs for my home. I went to the darkside and got TiVos.:redface:

THANK YOU from my family, the Replay's have given us 1000's of hours of enjoyment over 10+ years. We did get the lifetime subscription with all of the units we purchased, and in hindsight, that saved us A LOT of money over the monthly subscription route. The 3rd party tools (especially DVArchive) made the Replay so useful, in fact I still have over 1000 kids shows that were recorded with the ReplayTV exported onto my NAS, and my 11 year old daughter still watches some of them on her Android tablet/Popcorn Hour. My wife still prefers the ReplayTV to the CableCo DVR, and records most of the shows she watches on one of them.

And to the person who mentioned Lego, I've passed down my 35 year old sets to my daughter who got a lot of use out of them (and even got her picture in the Lego magazine). Can't think of another toy that is so versatile and durable.

And I should have mentioned our PV system. It was touch to drop so much money on it 3 years ago, but we knew it would make sense in the long run. Little did we know at the time that we would soon get a Volt and a Tesla. Similarly to when people ask "How long does it take to charge the Tesla (5 seconds to plug it in)", I give a similar response to those those who ask about the payback time for solar: "One day! The house is now worth $25K more than it was worth before we put the array on the roof!"

 

[Newscutter]

Every Lego set that I've ever bought my son...

THIS. I don't know how I overlooked it. My son would be very disappointed I didn't mention Lego. We're 2 generations in now and it's become a family thing.
Lego Race Track Complex - Legotown Tour - Bricksburgh.com - YouTube


This thread is superb. It is becoming a potential shopping list (except for the Palm and the Amiga).

 

[EnergyMax]

I got a relatively high end DAC, for my 20 year old Adcom/Klipsch system. It sounds like I spent $5k on the system. I feel like I can wait longer before updating other components.

Schiit Audio, Headphone amps and DACs made in USA.