Oh, man, I have a trailer full of these from growing up with my mom, whose favorite line is "it's just as good." [Side note: current plan is to get her tombstone done in Corian instead of granite, because it's just as good]
My own example has to be my fruit trees. When we bought this house, it had a huge yard, and so I decided to make a mini-orchard in the back corner -- we have a pick-your-own place, and it's just so expensive, so I loved the idea of putting in some money up front, but then having delicious home-grown fruit for years and years. We forked over for 8 trees (peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples, pears), and I paid up for installation because I wanted them done right (plus they came with a one-year money-back guarantee if they did the professional install), so it was probably around $600. It has now been approximately 10 years, with of course more carrying costs -- fertilizer, deer and bug sprays, etc. -- and let's not even talk about all of the free manual labor we have provided. So 8 trees x 10 years, and my fruit yield has been (you ready? drumroll please): one 3" pear.
Oh well, at least my blackberries are growing like the weeds they are. . . .