Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! In today's video, I'll discuss 20 things
I wholeheartedly regret buying. Buyer's remorse is a thing that happens to all of us and
today, I just wanted to share the things that I learned over the years and what I
regretted spending money on. I shared before in my lessons from being broke, I
didn't have much money growing up but that would continue until my 20s. Because of that,
I learned to be really frugal, to look for deals, and identify quality,
especially on used goods so I could get the best value for my money. That being
said, I still have regrets about many of them and here are some that I want to share
with you. The first item I regret buying is a cartridge razor system, more
specifically, the Gillette Mach 3. It's what my dad used, what he taught me
how to shave with, and so I just continued using it. Once during an
internship in Hungary in 2006, I bought a package of it and it turned out to be fake Mach 3s
and they were quite expensive and my face looked like a mess after I
shaved with it. Over the years, I probably spent hundreds, if not thousands, of
dollars on Gillette products. I get a mediocre shave until I discovered the
double edge razor. Now, to learn more about shaving mistakes, please check out the
nine biggest shaving mistakes video, here and of course, check out our shaving
guide. The second thing I really regret buying was a bike rack for the car and
we probably used it three times and never thereafter because we just bike
locally and so I sold it at a garage sale at a big loss. The third thing I
regret buying was a Hawaiian jacket that I bought in 2006 at Macy's. While walking
through that, all these deals, and I wasn't accustomed to retailers having
stuff 80 or 90 percent off, so I was tempted and there was this polo jacket
that had a light background and flowery big paisleys. I think, at the time, it
was marked down 90 or 95 percent and I just bought it for 40 bucks or whatever
but I wore it a whopping zero times. So the cost per wear is indefinitely high.
Eventually, my wife made me throw it away and I just cut off the mother-of-pearl
buttons which I still have to this day. Number four, a Bosch microwave. In 2012, my
wife and I bought a condo and we had the kitchen remodeled and we had that nice
Bosch oven and we've got a matching Bosch microwave. Now, I know that they're likely
not the manufacturer of it, it's just private labeled, nevertheless,
we still paid $800 for that thing and it broke down and was
complete garbage two days after the warranty expired. From that day on, I
swore never to buy a Bosch microwave ever again. The fifth thing I regret
buying is a white suit with a mao collar and four or five front closing
buttons. It was in 2002, it was for my high school graduation. I wanted to be
different and I thought it was this cool suit on eBay that I bought probably for
a hundred bucks and I wore it in combination with a black belt and black
shoes and a white shirt, I think it even had a wing collar but I don't think I
had a tie on but check out the picture here, it looked horrible! The pants were
puddling but hey, that's how I got interested in menswear and it just got
better thereafter. Looking back, it was a pretty
pathetic look but hey, I stood out from the crowd! The sixth thing I regret
buying are cashmere socks. The first time I touched them I thought "Wow. This is
amazing." It was super soft and it costs over $100.
Eventually, I realized because they were so smooth, they were also more prone to
slip down my calves and so they would always hang around my ankles, especially
when I wore them with boots, they would go all the way into the boot and so it
was just a pain. Moreover, they got holes very easily and
so I just had to throw them away after like six months. Don't get me wrong! I
like cashmere for sweaters, for scarves, and other stuff but for socks, I have
never found a combination with blends that has the same characteristics of,
let's say, cotton or wool. Also, I found cashmere was just not as absorbent. When it
was worn though, it was just a weird sock. Number seven, in the same vein goes one
size fits at all socks. Before I could afford cashmere socks,
I had these one size fits it all socks from Polo Ralph Lauren because I
liked their patterns but they had nylon and polyester and
spandex and they're sometimes quite tight around my calves and so at the end of the
day, I would take them off and I would have these huge strong marks in my skin
and it sometimes hurt because it just didn't fit my foot right.
I really regret buying them but without them, I may not have come to appreciate
over the calf socks as quickly as I did and probably, in a small part because of
that too, we only sell over the calf socks in our Fort Belvedere shop
today. The eighth thing I regret buying is any kind of Steadicam equipment. Now, when you
film and you walk outside, for example, it's very easy to get shaky video
footage and no one likes that. So back in the day, you could buy what was called a
Steadicam which had weights that helped you balance so you had a more smoother
picture. Now, it takes a bit of practice to use and it's quite heavy so I think
I bought three different Steadicams and we used exactly zero of them for any video
shoot. So it was all a complete waste of money.
Fortunately, the market advanced and now you can find Gimbals that are three way
or four ways stabilized with engines and it's a lot easier to film and anyone can
do it. The ninth
thing I regret buying is this very green duffle coat I'm wearing here right now. I
thought it was kind of cool to have a different color that was bolder. I didn't have
a duffle coat with a hood so I thought "Yeah!
Why not get one?" but so far, I've worn it zero times. Maybe this winter, who knows?
Well, I doubt it! The tenth thing I regret spending money on is my college
education. I went to law school in Germany and US. Overall, it cost a lot of
money and I never worked in law for a single day in my life
because it sucks and I hate it. That being said, I met my wife during a law
school exchange program in 2006 so without having gone to a law school, I
would not have met her. So I'm glad I went there but without that, law school
was a big fail for me. Number eleven, Rimowa suitcases. As you may know, I'm originally
from Germany and Rimowa is a luxury suitcase brand. It's particularly
popular in the US and in China so I thought, well, let's give it a try and buy
some of them. I met Teresa, my wife, at a halloween party in 2006 but I didn't
move to the US until 2009. So those three years, I travelled quite a bit and I
bought a Rimowa suitcase. Sure enough, after the first trip, it was broken. It
was a polycarbonate suitcase because I wanted it to be lightweight so I could
bring a lot back and forth. So I returned them to Rimowa, they had some issues in
production, they gave me a new case, the same thing happened again, this time,
after the second trip. So I gave it one more chance and my suitcase broke
again and from that point on, I said to myself, Rimowa no more! So what did I do? I
gave Samsonite a try and sure enough, they've been good companions ever since.
No, this video is not sponsored. This was honestly just my experience. The 12th
thing I regret buying are crewneck sweaters. Especially in high school,
that's pretty much all I knew and the problem with them is they're
usually so tight that if you wear a shirt or tie under them, it just covers up
everything and it's completely pointless. For that reason, I much prefer v-neck
sweaters. The thirteenth thing I regret buying are short-sleeved dress shirts. When I
was a teenager, I thought it was cool to have them but ultimately, it's just a bad
investment because you can't wear them with a tie and they have the more formal
button front placket so instead, you're better off with a polo shirt or a
long-sleeve dress shirt where you can roll up your sleeves in case it gets hot.
The fourteenth thing I regret spending money on was an all-inclusive trip to China. In
2015, my wife, Teresa, joined Gentlemen's Gazette full time and to celebrate and
commemorate that, we're going on a long round-the-world trip in a hundred and
five days. When we were in Europe, I thought it was cool to go to China and so we booked
a two-week all-inclusive trip and we had two options; one was the regular one and
one was the deluxe one. Of course, the deluxe cost twice as much and we thought
it wasn't really necessary. Now, when we took the China trip, it was memorable in
many ways, including the fact that a granny tried to climb over me in the
airplane. Now, apart from that, the hotels that company chose were really
bad, they were outside of the city center, oftentimes, they were no smoking hotels
but you can find burn spots all over the place or just a spot of someone threw
over their coke but hey, they had jeans flavored condom in their hotel room,
isn't that great? During one of the trips, we take an overnight train and they
put us in compartments with a bunch of different people that we just didn't
know which was interesting but even better were the toilets because
oftentimes in China, they just have a traditional hole and so in the train when
things move left and right, you can guess that people's aim is not the best so
where does it end up? Well, all over the floor and it was just a terrible
experience! now looking back I wish I'd shelled out the money for the deluxe tour
and, of course, I don't know if it would have actually been better but I'm a firm
believer that the grass is always greener on the other side. Number 15 is a
group of things, specifically, bold accessories.
I remember once buying a pocket square with a vivid blue and an orange hand
rolled edge. At the time, I thought it was cool because I was in New York and I had
bought this New York Knicks jacket which was orange and blue but I ended up
wearing this pocket square never again, really, so it was just a waste of money.
There is a pattern here, the green overcoat, the orange edges, everything
that's really strong and bold is something I just didn't end up wearing
very much down the line. Why? Well, it's not really versatile and it just makes
you stand out from the crowd in a weird way. Also, it's just not as complex and yes,
you can have an orange pocket square. Just look at this silk wool pocket
square here that has this medallion in the middle, it's super versatile, I wear it
all the time but it's a subdued orange it's not this bright orange that says "Hey
look at me!" Number 16, I regret spending money on online courses. I once spent money on an
online course about Adwords and to this day, neither me nor any of my employees
have actually taken it. It's just a complete waste of money. If I talk to
other people who either buy online courses or who sell them, they tell me a
surprisingly small number of people actually takes the course at full and
maybe just even a quarter of the people even start the course. So when you
by an online course, you are all excited but then real life kicks in and you just
don't finish stuff. Now, why is that? I think it has to do with the lack of
coaching and no, I'm not going to sell you any coaching here but if you look at all
the pro athletes, they all have coaches. It's not because they probably
wouldn't know what to do themselves but you need someone who holds you
accountable and you will just accomplish more that way. I am in my 30s and I'm just
now realizing the true value of mentorship and coaching. The seventeenth thing I
regret buying are ill-fitting gloves that had fingers that were too short. I
remember my very first pair of peccary gloves was from a German brand called
Roeckl. It was really soft and nice and tried them on and I thought they were
good. The problem was they were way too wide in my hand and the fingers were
way too short. So yes, I had this beautiful leather but ultimately, the
gloves didn't really fit me, they were flopping around my hand and looked
really bad. Now, fortunately, the leather held up but the best ingredients are not
worth it if the fit isn't right. Fortunately now, I have the full range of
Fort Belvedere gloves that fit me beautifully and are made of high quality
materials. If you want to learn more about quality men's dress gloves, head over to
this video here, and of course, we sell them in our shop here. The eighteenth thing I
regret buying is Room & Board furniture. Room & Board is a furniture
brand that is local and because of that, they have an outlet here
that's rather popular with Millennials. Their style is very mid-century modern
and I remember us going there once and seeing a couch and we almost had to
battle with other people and we ended up buying it. Once we're at home, we sat on
it and the cushions will always move outside and we would sink in the middle and
it was just a *** experience. So we put it back on Craigslist and luckily, we could
sell it very quickly because it's hot *** but afterwards, we would still go to the
Room & Board outlets and we buy a few things but eventually, we'd always sell them.
Today, my wife and I always joke when we are in the area, "Hey, let's go to the Room & Board
outlet!" because whatever we buy there, we would never keep and so we're
not even going anymore, it's just this running gag between the
two of us. The nineteenth thing I regret buying was a Burberry cashmere scarf. The winter
right after the year when I wore this white suit, I wanted a nice scarf and so
I thought maybe I'll get this Burberry cashmere scarf because it had this Novacek
pattern so I got it and then I realized, "oh this scarf is actually rather short
and the cashmere wasn't as soft as I had hoped for" Now, it helped me to develop
our own scarves for Fort Belvedere and without that experience, I probably would
never thought as much about scarves but ultimately, it was a huge waste of money
because I couldn't really tie it. The only way to wear it was throwing it
around my neck in one way but that wasn't quite warm and it also kind of
blew off when the wind came. Last but not least, the twentieth thing I regret spending
money on was a dinner at Cosme in New York. A few months ago, my wife and I won a
trip, just the two of us without our daughter, to New York because we wanted
to enjoy ourselves, go to shows, go to museums,
explorer the city, and of course, go to nice restaurants. So I searched this list about the 50
best restaurants in the world and on 23 was Cosme in New York. So we
went there and had dinner. Now, we had some dishes that we're okay but one
dish was listed as a main course and it was a mole sauce dish. Now, I like mole
sauce and it's great but it came as a main course, it was a small plate of
sauce with some corn tortillas and a few sprouts and that was it.
I was like "Are you kidding me? You're selling me a main course that consists
of a bit of sauce?" Overall, we spent several hundred dollars at this dinner
but left the place very disappointed. Now, I'm not a food snob. I like very simple
pea soup or a great sandwich at Katz Deli. I also spend money on food that is
more experimental and creative, at the same time, I feel like I'm often
disappointed when I go into these Michelin star restaurants because my
expectations are so high then they're just never met. Now, Cosme though, for
being rated number 23 in the world, was just a huge letdown. Now, those were the
things I regret buying. Please share in the comments the things that you regret
buying and your fails. Today's outfit was all built around the
duffle coat I regret having bought, then I decided, "Why not make an all green
outfit because I can?" So, I chose a crewneck sweater because I really don't
like crewneck sweaters but I have them, it's a chartreuse cashmere sweater, it is
a green checked shirt, I have a green stripe shantung silk tie that you can
hardly see but here you go. It's from Fort Belvedere, it's really nice
otherwise, just not in this outfit, and you can find it here.
My pants are olive green corduroy, which I don't regret buying. My shoes are very
forest greeny suede shoes Oxfords from Scarosso and I also like them because,
especially during the summer, they can add a bit of color to something, and
they're not too bold in my mind. These socks I'm wearing are a mix of turquoise
and purple they're also from for Fort Belvedere and I
just wore them because I could