HN Explorer

Show HN: I built a site to track your buy it for life items (costperuse.com)

3 points by nahtnam ↗ HN
Hey HN,

I've been on a mission to buy higher quality, sustainable products, especially when replacing things I use frequently. To better understand the value of these items, I built a site to track how often I use them. Here is my list so far: https://www.costperuse.com/@nahtnam

Feel free to sign up and share the items that have served you well! https://www.costperuse.com/

You can also generate a sharable link for X (Twitter), complete with an open-graph image of your stats. Example: https://x.com/nahtnam/status/1797875287793004947

If there's interest, I have plenty of ideas to improve the site. With enough data, I aim to create lists of the best BIFL (Buy It For Life) items in various categories.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

12 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 40.4 ms ] thread
tithe
Consider defining or showing a few examples on the landing page describing exactly what a "buy-it-for-life" item is.

I'm not sure if you mean items I'll be buying until death (like soap, toothpaste, and socks), or things I buy once and expect them to last for a lifetime.

I see the "ZSA - Moonlander" example, but I'm unsure how to interpret what I'm seeing: "Hours" means how long I've had this particular item? And for what I paid for it, "Cost per hour" is just that.

Congratulations on the launch!

nahtnam
Thanks for the feedback, I'll working on improving the landing page! You're totally right though, it lacks explanations and examples

To answer your question here, BIFL (in my experience) means paying extra for a premium quality item that will last significantly longer than the cheaper alternative. However, in some cases, it's worth buying the cheaper item if you don't use it enough.

The ZSA Moonlander example is a product I spent the extra $$$ on, and in the end it was totally worth it given how many hours I've spent using the keyboard. I built the site to put into perspective what the value of the keyboard is. Would I spend ~$0.04 an hour to rent this keyboard? Definitely yes

KomoD
It doesn't necessarily mean paying more, it just means products that are durable or made to last
apsurd
there's no way to buy the product though. seems like that's the ultimate conversion metric?
nahtnam
Good callout, I actually do have a field for purchase link. I've added them to my posts
dilliwal
can't signup, redirects me to localhost. liked the concept
nahtnam
Sorry about that! I was getting some really bad cold starts on vercel (>1s) so I moved to fly.io, and my auth provider needed some additional configuration for docker based deployments that I missed
ttyprintk
I would use this for appliances. Repair info, sources for parts, maybe videos. Is the “buy it for life” community mostly for smaller purchases?
nahtnam
Not at all, BIFL applies to everything, here's a dishwasher: https://www.costperuse.com/@kepano/purchases/14779fe8-03ea-4...

Would the site be more useful if it had a "product page" where it showed how many users have bought the product, avg life expectancy, etc + the repair guides and reviews?

Obviously I can't build this without users, but I think this is a good idea if that's what you're suggesting

ttyprintk
That’s right. By posting the devices publicly, I’m seeing people with good judgment. How easy was the inevitable dishwasher repair? I’d prefer a manufacturer who’s upfront about what it takes to fully demonstrate the “lifetime” of an appliance.
ttyprintk
I should add that I admire people tracking their personal gear.

The market for personal medical gear comes to mind. Wheelchairs, walkers —- unfashionable but important things. Speciality stores for this come across as a rare essentially different retail experience.