Expensive choices stories

I hope this thread is as entertaining as the Shop Helpers thread

OK I am suffering 101F High humidity and hiding in the AC today

First true no BS story is about two cars

A 1965 Ford Shelby GT 350 white with white interior I bought from a fellow soldier in 1973 for $1900

and later sold to another soldier in 1975 on my way to Germany for $1600
No damage, well kept, most all options and the hop up stuff was all add on so not disturbing the factory original configuration

Who would have though this car would cross a auction house in 2014 for $120,000

On that trip to Germany (I had the ability to import only one Euro spec car back tot the USA) I immediately bought a GI Pay Day special hoopti car: a 1951 split window VW bug in near factory condition except the head liner was a bit raggedy for the easy price of $150 . Three years later sold it pay day special to a newbie soldier for the same $150...In 1978 this 27 year old car still had a working heater... VW guys will know this is not normal

A similar car went across the auction line recently for only $75,000

BUT
Not all "did not know then" choices stories are about cars

MY Uncle was a some what upper muckedity muck in Redmond Washington while I was stationed at Fort Lewis 1973 to 1975 and they lived in a Renton neighbor hood before buying a lake and farm in Redmond

I would visit when ever we had a weekend free...(rarely) riding my Honda 450 up the interstate 45 minuets to their place
Side note that same ride is 2 + hours today with traffic congestion from Olympia to Seattle

In my uncles neighbor hood there were three things going on....
A block away was a guy tinkering constantly on the Miss Budweiser monster unlimited Hydroplane boat
The other direction a High School band practicing in a garage
And nearly across the street some geek playing with electronics, soldering irons, and such in the garage

My bad choice: but first a bit of back ground...MY dad and I built a few Heath Kit electronics things many years earlier on Taiwan and back in the states I met a neighbor who coached me to my first Amateur Radio license...Thus I was fairly conversant in electronics...

I would hang out and pass tools to the Miss Bud guy, and later go smoke weed with the Band guys--- and ignored the cross the street geek

Named
Bill Gates
DOH!