Gear Check: What's the One Purchase You Regret?21679
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 Owner,Managing Editor and Publisher of WGAN Forum and WGAN-TV Podcast Fairfield, California |
TomSparks private msg quote post Address this user | |
 We talk a lot about the gear that works. Let's talk about the other stuff. Every one of us has something sitting in a closet, a Pelican case, or the back of a shelf that seemed like a great idea at the time. The camera that never fit the workflow. The gimbal that was too heavy to actually carry. The software subscription that got cancelled three months in. The lens that was technically excellent and practically useless. I'll go first. I purchased a DJI FPV (and later the DJI Avata) to do drone flythrough videos. Great idea as they were picking up traction in the SF Bay Area (my market). I got the DJI FPV opened, put on the headset, and tried the simulator... triggered my motion sickness immediately. I did one job with the FPV and it sat in my closet for a year. I bought the Avata and didn't even launch it. I ended up selling both for a loss. Your turn. Tell us: 1. What did you buy? 2. What did it cost you? 3. What did you think it was going to do for your business? 4. What actually happened? 5. What would you buy instead if you had that money back today? No judgment zone, every working pro in this community has made an expensive call that didn't pan out. That's the cost of figuring out what actually works in a field that reinvents itself every eighteen months. And the honest answers in this thread are worth real money to the member who's three days away from making the same mistake. So: what's yours? Not sure you want to name the brand publicly? Describe the category and the lesson. The takeaway matters more than the logo. |
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JasonZ private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Matterport Pro 3 just before Zillow stopped supporting the platform. Should have stuck with my 2 and upgraded my camera body. | ||
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Owner, Managing Editor and Publisher of WGAN Forum and WGAN-TV Podcast Fairfield, California |
TomSparks private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @JasonZ I feel your pain. There's a good market for people buying pro3's. not sure how much you'll get for it now since matterport has dropped new pro3 prices down to $3,995. Thanks for sharing. |
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 US Building Survey, LLC Olathe, Kansas |
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| Fun topic! I purchased a heavy duty case for my iPad a number of years ago. I think I paid over $50 for the thing. It was horribly bulky and heavy. I haven’t used it since that first time. |
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Owner, Managing Editor and Publisher of WGAN Forum and WGAN-TV Podcast Fairfield, California |
TomSparks private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @rhelling I can't tell you how many things i've bought on amazon that I should of returned but forgot about and now I can't. this sounds like one I would have thought to return but forgot! | ||
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JasonZ private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @TomSparks Actually going to sell my 2. Working with a Realtor to maybe scanning local city/county buildings as a public service to give back to the community. Would be part of just the marketing budget for us annually. Local Library, Botanic Gardens, Rodeo Museum, etc. Things kids in rural areas could access before their visit and people with mobility issues. | ||
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 WGAN StandardMember Las Vegas |
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| GoFundMe for a drone that was supposed to fly through a house like the robot that's eventually going to replace all of us, using Zillow's floor plan as its guide. Kid wins some award for innovation, sets up a GoFundMe, and suddenly I've got salespeople calling me every damn day. Seemed like the future, so naturally I threw some money at it. I get a couple of updates over the next few months. Then COVID arrives. Then the kid disappears. And disappears. And, apparently, so does my money. The drone never became the real estate photography revolution I was promised. I basically bought a very expensive reminder that "award-winning startup" and "thing that actually works" are not necessarily the same sentence. Would I buy it again? Absolutely not. Would I like my money back? Absolutely. Would I answer another cold call from a 22-year-old startup founder promising to revolutionize real estate photography? Let's just say I've learned my lesson. Probably. |
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 WGAN FanClub Member Queensland, Australia |
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| BLK360 G1 for AU$15000. However I am not regretting buying it as a good tool in general, I am regretting buying a product from Leica which I now consider is an company operating through extortion from their own users. I bet they could never explain why G2 users can capture and get their data out of their proprietary format without paying anything to Leica while G1 users have to pay $1000s monthly just for it. If anybody ever goes against Leica for doing it I will join them in a heartbeat. |
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