My wife says I have a gift for buying the wrong thing at the wrong price. I once bragged about a $12 tarp from a gas station that held up through two nights of rain on the coast, then turned around and blew $150 on gloves that ripped the first time I grabbed a rock. That jacket soaking through in a drizzle is brutal though, because at $200 it should at least keep you dry while you stand there feeling dumb. The cheap headlamp earning its keep makes sense to me, simple job, no fancy seams to fail.

Wait so did you actually match the waveform or just go by ear on those three?

Ha, I feel this in my bones. My first circular saw was a $40 special from a big box store and it lasted almost six whole weeks before the magic smoke came out. I remember thinking I was hot stuff ripping plywood for a shed ramp, and then it just died mid-cut like it had seen enough of my work. The old guy at the pawn shop near me just shook his head and sold me a beat up worm drive for cheap. That thing is older than me and still screams through wet pressure treated lumber like nothing. So yeah, I am basically the poster child for buying cheap twice instead of good once.