10 Things You Should Always Buy Used

Other furniture
While cribs are always going to be in ready supply on the secondhand market, it's not the only type of furniture you can find used for a great price. We've always found a ton of used furniture on the market in big cities, where people who don't want to bring their heavy furniture to a new apartment will put it on Craigslist at a huge discount.

Scott says she generally advises staying away from upholstered furniture such as couches, as it's difficult to clean and could harbor bedbugs. Instead, go with furniture that can easily be scrubbed.

"Anything like bookshelves, tables, chairs, coffee tables ... anything you can wipe down with a cleaning agent," she says.

Instruments
Wilson suggests buying old musical instruments used -- not only because it's much cheaper than buying new, but because they can have surprising resale value down the line.

"Older instruments are often more in demand by collectors," he says. "I bought my first Yamaha Touring Drum set for $250 from some guy who listed them in the local newspaper when I was 11. I used them for years and sold them when I was 19 for $1,100 because the color was discontinued and therefore 'rare.'"

Even if you don't intend to sell the instrument at some point down the line, he says it's still a great value proposition.

"Classical instruments don't change much, if at all, technology wise, and most musicians will say 'they just don't make 'em like they used to,'" Wilson says.

Weight-lifting equipment
Reader Niki Holweger suggests buying weight-lifting equipment used.

We were able to find remarkably cheap exercise equipment on Craigslist. And for certain items the quality is unlikely to deteriorate -- it's not as if the weights are about to get lighter, and while you may think it's gross to buy something someone has been sweating on, it likely has hard, nonporous surfaces that can easily be cleaned.

Obviously you'll want to watch out for rust and test out anything with a lot of moving parts, especially electronic equipment such as treadmills and stationary bikes. But if you're just looking for a bench and some heavy weights, there's no sense buying a shiny new set when old weights will suffice.

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