I never seen myself investing or loosing money, unless I do something stupid, which I have a few times. Point and take... I have a clamshell g3 laptop. Purchased one those cheap ac adapters, since an original was going for 60+ dollars, for I dunno 20 or so. Anyways it was way cheaper, the price isn't the point.
Point is I purchased the adapter, got the machine running, and put it away. Fast forward 2 years till last month. Plugged it in, forgot you have to INSTALL THE POWER ADAPTER FIRST OR IT SELF DESTRUCTS. Think I used it maybe 4 times tops. Its now dead, awaiting me to either A, dremel/hot knife it open and repair it, or B, get the real deal which I should have to begin with. So there went 20-30 bucks. I guess that was a bad investment? Is it an amount of money that I couldn't afford to loose, no. But it was a bad investment. Wish I have put a label on the power brick. Now I have to spend more money to buy yet another power adapter, because I will not tolerate machines I cannot test or power up. I refuse to let them be shelf queens...
Not sure if that was your original intentions on the post, but was my interpretation.
As hobbyists I think ALL US have purchased a thing or two that sucked monkey nuts, was dubious quality, or flat out did not meet expectations and felt ripped off. I'm hoping that's the intention of this thread.