I received a bass guitar as a Christmas present my freshman year of high school.

Without a driver’s license or a girlfriend, I locked myself in my room and taught myself to play along with Blink-182 songs. I absolutely loved the thing and eventually taught myself to play a real guitar after borrowing my uncle’s acoustic. Unfortunately, my senior year of high school he needed the guitar back, so I decided to purchase one for myself.

My friend and I were driving around one day and we stumbled upon a pawn shop a couple of towns over. Pawn shops are in every town, but it seems like no one ever visits them. They really lose out in the cheap good’s game to thrift stores and the Salvation Army.

We went into the shop, not expecting much, but as soon as we walked in I spotted a beautiful acoustic guitar sitting on the ledge behind the cashier. It was polished and sitting up on its very own stand. I expected the guitar to be way out of my price range, but I decided to ask anyway.

He quoted me a price of $100.

It was a legitimate diamond in the rough.

The guitar didn’t even have a brand and after six years of ownership has never needed maintenance.

My guitar is the best purchase of my life. It has provided me months of entertainment and is still the item I turn to when I just want to relax and zone out.

To show you why it’s the best purchase of my life, let’s take a look at the numbers. The only money I’ve ever put into the guitar was for picks and a new set of strings, so I’ll add $30 to the price of the guitar.

- 6 years of owning the guitar

- I play the guitar every day for an average of 5 minutes, which is 182 hours over 6 years

-  The price of the guitar - $130 – divided by 182 (hours) comes out to .71 cents for every hour I’ve played the guitar

That’s an extraordinary value and the guitar still has decades in it.

What makes it my best purchase ever is that the guitar is more than just a good deal.

This guitar serves multiple purposes to me: it’s challenging, fun, relaxing, and entertaining. To this day, teaching myself to play the guitar is the accomplishment I’m most proud of.

These personal reasons, along with the monetary, easily make it my best purchase ever.

You would think I would give pawn shops more of a chance.

I’m really interested to hear what you have to say. What’s the best purchase of your life? Take a look at the personal value of the item, as well as money.

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Photo by crawfish head

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