"A good buy" is a better phrase.
For example, back when my kids still wore school uniforms, I once went into Kohls and found that they'd marked their uniform shorts down to .99/pair. I bought the whole rack -- every pair in my kids' sizes PLUS every pair in every larger size. As long as my kids were in school uniforms, I never had to buy shorts again. Those shorts didn't increase in value, but they did save me money in the long run because I wasn't buying full-priced shorts in future years.
They were a good buy, but not an investment.
Exactly! I live in a warm climate, and I wear flip flops around the house. But I can't stand those thong-style ones, so when I find a deal on basic slides, I pick up a few pairs. The last time I ran out, I went to the outlets, and had a hard time finding anything that wasn't thong-style. The single pair I did find, on clearance, was still $15, and it was the last pair, so I begrudgingly bought them, and made a note to keep an eye out for the next good buy.
A few months later I found a deal on Everlast slides. Retail was $25, they were on clearance for $2.50. It was online, so I decided to buy 10 pairs. At the shopping cart, the shipping charge was $15! Free shipping was $50 or more, so mathematically it made sense to me to pick up 20 pairs instead. they arrived, they are better quality than I expected, and I figure I can get through at least a decade on this $50 buy.
I mentioned it to some of my friends, and quickly learned not to say anything in the future. Hoarder, shop-o-holic, you name it. Joking or not, I pointed out that I paid for 20 pairs what they will likely spend on 1 pair that they toss at the end of the season, but it fell on deaf ears. Oh well. I bought them a year ago, and I'm currently using two pairs - one at home, one at work, and seeing no real wear to them so far. I may still have inventory in 15-20 years at this rate! guess I'll go hoard the savings and put them into an ETF - an actual INVESTMENT...