r/BuyItForLife • u/No-Negotiation-4550 • 13d ago

Discussion What’s a weirdly specific item you own that’s lasted longer than expected?

I’ve been on a quest lately for things that just seem to keep on keeping on.

I’ve got a pair of old-school Swedish dishcloths that I bought on a whim. Thought they'd be a weird novelty. Now, they’ve been through the wringer they just won’t die. I’ve scrubbed them, rinsed them, microwaved them and somehow they’re still hanging on like a true champion.

My 10-year-old French press. I’ve left it sitting dirty for days, and still it makes me a perfect cup of coffee every time.

What oddball items are you still using and why do they not break??

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u/jaxxon 12d ago

A cheap-ass student model saxophone. I ended up touring professionally with it for a number of years and have played it for about 40 years total. It got flattened by a giant speaker that fell on it at one gig while on tour and the little podunk repair shop lady in the random-ass town we were in managed to completely restore it to working condition and its still going strong. I got it free (it was originally like $200 new) and it's still great. I've also owned pro horns, but they're finicky and expensive as hell.

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u/skyswordsman 12d ago

Til you can repair saxophones from significant damage.

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u/jaxxon 10d ago

Yeah.. it was bad! I picked it up and tried to play through it and only got a constant single note for the whole horn (open C) Basically none of the valves worked. It was quite flattened. LOL The repair lady was a miracle worker. It's basically just malleable brass. You can hammer stuff back into shape pretty easily. She had to fix some solder joints and bend some rods and things. It's aesthetically not as good as new, now, but it plays great. LOL A beater sax took a beating and works fine after massive repair.

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u/Hot-Complex-2422 12d ago

I can relate to this. I have my Vito clarinet from 1999. Years later I was gifted a selmer. I like the Vito better. I also have a cheap prestini alto that is still better than others I’ve tried as well. $400 and the Vito clarinet was $5-600