My greatest bargain was a bargain that led to me getting one of the greatest bats ever!
I remember it was an Adidas Incurza Elite weighing 2'8/9 which someone wanted rid of on this forum a few years ago.
It was barely used and from memory the seller wanted around £80/90 which was good price for the top of the range Adidas.
I purchased it as the grains were ruler straight (around 11+ grains I seem to remember) and a fantastically light pickup. Used it in the nets and it felt a little hard!
But after several nets it suddenly went from feeling hard to the occasional ball flying! I used it for a couple more nets and it was starting to seriously ping! The bat didn't have big edges but a couple more weeks of netting and it was pinging like a canon - it had no right to do that considering how light and slim the bat was!!
Anyway, I was netting at Dummer and one of the guys who coached there sometimes and used to coach in Aus for a while was netting in the next net and coaching his son (who was around 13 at the time, maybe a little younger)
His son had a bit of a plank by the sounds of it. He wasn't getting the ball away easily and was complaining a little about it. As I knew his dad (Keith) quite well I asked if he wanted to borrow a light bat (so that he had no excuse for not getting the ball away!) and his son was eager, so I handed him the Adidas.
To be fair the ball was flying after that! And the son was blasting the balls everywhere extremely hard. I noticed him talking to his dad obviously discussing the bat. So he came to me and asked if I wanted to sell the Adidas - it was too light for me so it didn't bother me. He offered me more that I paid for it but I knew his son was desperate so I pondered.
Then he asked if I was interested in a swap and I replied that I could be for the right swap - I remembered that Keith had spent time in Aus and had brushed shoulders with the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Co.....so I was quite curious. So Keith nipped off and was back later with Adam Gilchist's match bat which was hand-signed too. He even showed me the photos of Adam handing the bat to him, so I obviously didn't doubt the authenticity of it!!! Those who have seen it will confirm that it is a stonkingly gorgeous Puma bat! So in essence that AG match bat (direct out of his kit bad) cost me £90 which I reckon is a pretty decent bargain!