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For fun: What have you gotten for an absolute steal of a price?

The only time I’ve been to a Goodwill Outlet store (price/lb) I found a brand new Fossil smallish crossbody purse (LIGHT WGT!) and there was a crisp $20 bill in a pocket - it must have been gifted then tossed. I kept the $20 then gifted the purse to the oldest GD. She loved it. The purse was worth $100+

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Got my saddle at an estate sale for $250. It retails for about $1500…or did at the time. It’s in great condition and I absolutely love it.

We dug some baker blankets out of an abandoned barn over 20 years ago. Did some minor repairs on them, and they are still in use.

Picked up a Smucker Russet Deluxe Harness for $600 - retails for nearly $2200 - I am still THRILLED about this find. It’s a beautiful harness. The lady knew what she had, but we aren’t a big carriage community and she didn’t want to ship it. No true loss to her, as it had been donated to her program but did not fit the horse it was donated for.

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A 2 year old OTTB with direct lines to Native Dancer and Bold Ruler in return for a basket of carrots. Owner had a string of TBs and she wasn’t cutting it.

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Lately not much, but I do have a pair of brand new stiff Petrie boots without zippers that I bought on clearance for $99. Even paying to get zippers in they’ll be a relative bargain.

Two times I bought used saddles from the same person, and she just out and offered them to me for half of her asking price, so I think I paid like $350 each and flipped them for about $1,000 each after discovering they didn’t fit my horse.

Bought a tack lot on eBay that had a Mattes half pad in it. Sold the Mattes pad for more than I paid for the whole tack lot.

Bought a dressage bridle that had a Sprenger butterfly Baucher included in it that was worth about what I paid for the full bridle. Didn’t even realize at the time what I was getting!

My truck - purchased about 12 years ago when the economy was crap and gas was $4 a gallon. It has been a perfect towing vehicle and barely depreciated from what I paid.

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hundreds and hundreds of pounds of vegetables and fruit which the manager at the Aldi saves for my grand kids goats rather than dump into the trash… twice a week I go pick up what has taken off the produce counters as damage items/broken packages … no cost at all but I donate to the store every now and then for the staff to buy lunch for themselves.

This started after the manger noticed I was buying a lot of apples and stuff for the horses and some for the goats… What are you doing with All that? was her question.

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Konig half chaps for $50 off Facebook. I’ve had them for going on 3 years now and just had to replace the zippers this past winter. Besides the layers of leather separating over the instep they’re in perfect condition and they fit me PERFECTLY. It’s impossible to find half chaps that are 17" wide and 20" tall unless you go custom. I will cry when these eventually die.

Also my $1 horse is schooling 4th level/PSG on a good day (meaning when I actually ride properly)…he’s 18 and on his 4th career. I guard his soundness carefully but touch wood he’s never had a joint injected or needed any maintenance besides the occasional body work and a bit longer warmup/cool down these days. He’s even barefoot. I will never get this lucky again.

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A gorgeous 100% wool Kentucky dressage coat for $25 on ebay. Still have it, can’t bring myself to sell it even though it no longer fits. Brass buttons on the front, two brass buttons on the back. I always got compliments when I wore it.

My current trail horse! Gaited extra fancy black and white half draft TWH. Way more whoa than go. Pretty much bomb proof, and I don’t say that about hardly any horses. You can ride alone, with others away from the group, in traffic and through water. I haven’t found much of anything that makes this guy upset. I am so lucky!

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An 08 or 09 devacoux (can’t remember the year) for 800 bucks. The listing was spelled wrong and I think that’s the only reason I got it so cheap. It’s in good condition (I see the same model, in worse condition sell for 1500+ all the time) size 18 with more forward flaps. The seat is almost too deep for my liking but I ride western more than English anymore.

I usually have good luck on ebay for horse stuff. I try to buy most stuff used. Bridles, breeches, stuff like that.

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I was browsing through booths at Equine Affaire a few years ago when I came to one for a horse rescue that was selling consignment items to raise money. I leafed through the items–mostly old blankets and such. And then I saw them–a pair of Tucci tall boots. They were my size foot (very small) and the calf was a little too tight, but they were $80. I snatched them up immediately and brought them to my local cobbler, who added a gusset in the back so that they fit me perfectly. Definitely my best find to date!

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This $25.00 mare, Tovah

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Over the years I’ve scored big with dressage saddles, bridles and helmets at shopping at going out of business tack store sales. Usually my wins were for less than wholesale prices. I’ve also been given horses for free that turned out to be out-of-this-world gifts/gems in terms of their ability/performance and production of offspring (a total of 4). I did buy a 3 year old warm blood filly for $1 and turned around and sold her one week later for quite a profit. I also have made more recent purchases that were small sums compared to the average price today for solid, sane horseflesh. I’ve been pretty lucky and am always on the look out for a great bargain/deal.

I got a Swaine hunting whip used for $75, an old Millers wool frock coat for $100 in perfect condition that fits beautifully and years ago my friend who had a vintage clothing store found some old Kaufman and Sons tweed hunting coats and sold me them for $40 each and apologized because she had a partner and had to make a profit! Still wear them. Gorgeous, they are reinforced with canvas inside the back so as to not catch on the saddle, storm tabs, English tweed. I found a super horrifying bit, a Hanoverian style for $50 on ebay that my very strong mare goes quite well in.

An old truck, for $1. It would start up every time. No tailgate. The driver’s door would fly open when you turned right, so you had to hold it when you went around a turn. The brakes sort of didn’t work, so you had to plan in advance. The exhaust leaked into the cab. It had a hole in the gas tank, and the gas gauge didn’t work, so you could only put a couple of gallons in at a time and keep track of when/how much you put in. And you could only haul a half load of hay at a time, because any more weight and the bed would rub the tires. So, getting hay one summer day looked like this:

Drive across town to the hay field, load half load, drive home, unload. Drive across town stopping at the gas station, put in $3 of gas, drive to field, load half load, drive home, unload. Drive across town stopping at the gas station, put in $3 of gas, drive to field, repeat.

I kept waiting for the gas station attendant to ask me why I stopped to put $3 worth of gas in my truck every hour for all day long, but she never asked. I figured it was more exciting for her if I didn’t offer a reason. I don’t know when I’ve had more fun for $1, that was a great truck.

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Well, it doesn’t matter what I paid for him, my horse is worth far more than that. He is priceless.

As a junior I won a silent auction for a gift basket from Dover. It included a gift certificate, which the auction runners had read as being $20. I could see an extra zero through the cellophane. I haunted that auction table to make sure no one outbid me and got the basket for $75- including my $200 gift certificate. Pleased as punch, I trotted over to Dover and bought said priceless horse a custom Triple Crown Irish knit cooler.

Which I haven’t used in 10 years, but it does look very handsome on him.

In my personal life I’m a dedicated thrift shopper. Goodwill wins include a couple of good Patagonia and North Face pieces, a pair of Ariat field boots for $12 (resold for the fair price of $68,) and a Baker helmet case for $8, which I gave to my mother who had just mentioned she wanted a helmet bag. I tried to get her to take the field boots too but they weren’t quite her size.

I just bought 2 pairs of Ariat Terrain shoes off of Ebay. Used. One waterproof for daily barn/ farm use and a regular pair for every day other use. Excellent shape ( look new) . I paid total $ 75 for both pairs!

I think it was a steal…

An emaciated registered QH 3 year old filly for $600. I applied for new papers and found out she was cutting horse royalty. Once she was healthy and up to weight, I broke her out and took her to a beginning cutting horse clinic. We were supposed to pull a cow out and run it down the wall and keep it from going back to the herd. In about 10 minutes, she figured it out and got down on her front legs and was turning and stopping almost on her own. Man what a nice baby. I wasn’t into cutting so ended up selling her for a lot more than I paid.

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At Goodwill, 4 years ago, a Vogt sterling silver, 14kt gold, and ruby big *ss western belt buckle/keeper tip set, on a Circle Y silver laced belt from the 80’s-for $3.00. It is worth over $2,000.00 today. It was black from tarnish, I almost fainted when I saw it.

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A Lovett §Ricketts saddle for $125 at a barn sale.

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