Cindy - thank you for my first hard laugh of the day. Frank, thank you for starting this great post. <BR> <BR>I can't think of anything I regret buying. However, my husband regrets my purchase of plastic snow globes. I am obsessed with them and purchase them every place we visit. I have almost 100 of them from our various travels. The tackier the better, the more cliched the better, and must cost less than $5 USD. I imagine that he looks at my collection much the way Cindy looks at her posters.

I've bought some ugly clothes that I never liked once I got home or they did smell funny, also (same wool problem), but the worst was some Waterford Irish crystal I bought in a nice shop in Dublin. I was young and not well-traveled at that point so it was a lot of money for me (it was just some wine glasses and goblets), but I didn't really know what that stuff sold for in the US (I had never shopped for good crystal); I just assumed it would be cheaper in Ireland or something special. Later at home, I found the exact same stuff cheaper in a US dept store and the store did not pack the items correctly so several glasses broke and they refused to answer my letters even though I'd bought insurance; also, they packed the wrong items (switched number of wine glasses and goblets). This was a so-called reputable store in Dublin mentioned in guidebooks. I complained to the Irish Tourist Board or something (some form of consumer complaint dept. for tourists) and amazingly they sent me replacements after that, but the whole thing took about a year to resolve and I didn't save any money. Far from being a good remembrance of that trip, they are a bad one and cost me a lot of money. I learned from that, though -- I never buy anything abroad that is a standard brand you can buy anywhere and I almost never buy something breakable unless I can carry it myself. After about 20 yrs, I just broke my rule last yr when I bought more crystal wineglasses in Prague and had them shipped; I did it because they were so cheap that even if some broke, I figured so what, I'd still be getting a bargain and because I'd been shopping for wine glasses recently and knew what they cost here for same type and quality--this time, not a single thing went wrong and I'm glad I did it.

While travelling through Italy and Greece a few years ago, I bought this leather suitcase in Olympia to cart home all the stuff I bought. It was about $80 and I thought it would be a good investment instead of buying some cheap nylon sack. Well, that suitcase sits in the back of a closet and is nothing but a dust collector. I would throw it out but I keep thinking it would make a lovely gift for someone. Maybe not??

AN ENGAGEMENT RING FOR MY EX-WIFE!

Four coolie hats in Hong Kong. I think my husband, children, and I actually wore them.

Hey, JohnG, I was in Bath and realized I had purchased too many things to fit into my suitcase, so I went to a discount store there and bought a black nylon duffel-bag-on-wheels for about 9 pounds. This thing is huge, tough, and we make sure we take it everywhere--in fact, we went on a short trip to Cologne once, and that was the ONLY bag we took...left our more expensive (and heavy) luggage at home. :)

A sketch of my daughter by an artist at Sacre Cour that cost a pretty penny and looks nothing like her. The artist was so cute we just couldn't hurt his feelings.

A dark green silk blouse in Santa Fe. There are stores all over the place there selling these outfits that look like something you'd go square dancing in. The blouse has deep cuffs, long full sleeves, and a huge collar. Fortunately I didn't buy the matching flouncy skirt (I almost did!). I wore the blouse a couple of Hallowe'ens ago, when I was Little Bo-Peep, but not since.