Last week I started writing on the Top Things You Shouldn't Buy New. You can read day one's post here. I was inspired after reading an online article on new and used items for the holidays. To be frank, for some items it is just really silly to buy used. As an entrepreneur and business owner, I am really shooting it straight here. This is just my list of things that I buy used for pure financial reasons. I'll be adding to this list over the next few weeks. These are the top two things this week (at least in my view) that you should never buy new:

#3 Furniture
In order to make my list of things to buy used I thought immediately of furniture. Did you know that furniture has the largest markup of any retail sales item? It's true. Sometimes furniture is marked up as much as 50% above the cost of production! We have always saved money on furniture by taking our time in making these purchases. For example, my living room set was purchased at a state drug seizure auction. In fact, we love to find furniture at auctions. If you don't mind waiting to find a good deal, this will work for you. You can check out this post on how to find auctions for more information. Of course, the newspaper is a great resource. You'll find lots of sellers in the classifieds in addition to yard sales (my favorite).

For clarification, second- hand doesn't have to mean mismatched or worn out. I like to think that our home furnishings are very modern and well put together. It just takes a little to scout a good deal before shelling out the cash. The only furniture item to which I recommend a new purchase is mattresses. Need I explain why?




#4 Car
We've all heard that cars loose most of their value the minute you drive it off the lot. I fight with this one because I have actually never owned a new car before and I would love to. That's not to say that I will not purchase a new car one day, but from a sheer dollars and cents perspective, it is wiser to purchase used over new when it comes to vehicles. Not to be redundant, but I also purchased my car at a government surplus auction. It was the best thing I ever did. I got a car with only 11,000 or so miles for about 1/4 the price of a lot. The downside is that auctions often have no financing available so you have to save up, but the savings are overwhelming. Since the car was a government vehicle, it was in perfect condition and serviced all the time. I'd recommend looking into the U.S. General Services Administration which sells cars at auction to the public.