Two part post:
1. What is the best thing you've ever purchased for baking, decorating or even business related?
2. What is the worst thing you've ever purchased for baking, decorating or even business related?
I'm actually getting ready to purchase an agbay and I'm super excited!! The best so far has been anything from cake safe I absolutely love that company and everything they sell is my favorite!! And I love my funky letter cutters but those were a gift and I love my groovy cutters from Global Suagr Art also a superb company.
The worst hmmmm I'd have to say is the nonslip rubber mats I hate them soooo much they are awful and mark up my floor so bad I wish I would have never bought them but when you spend hundreds of dollars on something you use them haha!!
cant wait to hear what everyone else loves and hates 
Best: my turntable!
Worst: wilton extruder & cricut mini
i guess my worst purchase is my 20 quart mixer because we never hooked it up -- I've never used it -- had it probably ten years -- don't even know 
i don't have a 'best' but I'm currently in love with the cake lace molds and mix from hobby lobby --
K8 send it to me! I'll hook that baby up!
I've wanted to give it away over and over but my husband bought it for me -- it's a heavy duty Berkel $600
Best: Agbay
Worst: FFM Easiest Rose Cutter Ever..I got caught up in the hype of it.
Best: my second KitchenAid, a Pro600 (My first KA is an Artisan tilt head which I still love, but the 600 lets me make double batches of everything without any worries about "too much".)
Next best: Agbay. Although infrequently used because I'm a hobby baker; this sucker is priceless for the aggravation savings when doing a large cake project when my tension level skyrockets.
Next next best: multiple 8" and 10" round pans, 2" high. As a hobby baker I use these ALL the time to make celebration cakes.
Worst: Most of the Wilton stuff purchased in my early class days that is still sitting in my cake closet and will probably never be used.
Next worst: Most of the stuff purchased during my learning phase that was purchased in the vendor hall at the ICES (International Cake Exploration Societe) convention of 2010. Nearly all of it is still in my cake closet and will probably never be used.
Best; Hancock turntable bought for a tenner (uk) off gumtree. Was planning on paying half my arm for an Ateco...
2nd best- my kitchen aid pro. Use it every day. Oh-and pme baking tins.
Worst; various sets of ribbon cutters. Can NOT get on with the things; a pizza cutter and ruler do it for me.
2nd worst- 1st impression horse mould. Works brilliantly; I just hate carousel cakes.
Reading some of your worst purchases made me realize I have quite a few too. Fondant mat and Wilton leveler are useless items that never ever get used because they aren't any good lol. I don't think it was a bad product to buy but buying our airbrush machine really upsets me bc we don't really use it and when we have its more of a mess and I don't like that. So maybe that's more of a regretful purchase than a worst purchase. Who knows maybe one day we'll use it but not until we get a spray booth or do it outside. My blue carpet is a constant reminder of the mess it's makes :(
I actually bought an agbay today and it will be here Friday and while I'll never use it (it's my husbands new tool) I'm super excited and beyond thrilled with the purchase so far super customer service and fast shipping!!
are any of your worst purchases impulse buys?
The agbay is one of my best, even though I found out the hard way it also cuts your fingertips off as well as cutting cakes.
Worst is the cricut and a lot of Wilton products. When I get a Wilton product that's useful I'm surprised now, but there are a couple of them.
My best was my Kitchenaid Pro 600 I got at Mervyn's before it closed down for $135! My worst was a stupid useless cake leveler from Wilton. I'm too cheap to buy an Agbay, you get what you pay for (most of the time).
Geeze I feel peer pressure to buy an Agbay lol
I have a few purchases that I would consider to be the best ones. At the top of the list are my Fat Daddio's cake pans (several now), my Kitchenaid Pro 600 (long and painful decision, lol) and on the less expensive end of things, my water pen.
My worst purchase was my entire order from banggood.com. Thankfully I didn't order a lot as I was skeptical about what the quality would be. It was all JUNK!! As someone said earlier, (most times) you get what you pay for. After a few emails I did get a refund for the letter mold I ordered as I was so poorly made that half the letters weren't even usable. It went straight to the trash.
As a side note, Wilton products don't seem to get much love here but I've had good luck with all the ones I have bought. The turntable that many people curse lasted me for years before the bearings started to complain.
The Agbay is probably lovely but wowsers!! The cost of it!! Me, I have a very low tech and low cost leveler but it work like a charm and I love it! Unfotunately I don't think it's made any longer:
I love that australian leveler, kstevens -- I've never gotten the agbay I use a long cake knife
Worst: Cricut was a birthday present from my husband when they first came out AU$700.00, sits in the cupboard gathering dust next to The Mat and a whole lot of Wilton stuff I never use (sensing a theme here)
Best: My Factory Bay with a fully functioning commercial kitchen, I know diamonds are supposed to be a girl's best friend, but my heart skips a beat everytime I walk through the door and know after 25 years of hard work I no longer have a landlord. I don't have any diamonds and for many years drove a crappy old car, but it's mine. I don't want to sound like a pain but you all will understand how many long hard days/years it has taken to get here. Non cakers think I just put a pretty pinny on and bake one cake at a time with a smile on my face. They don't understand the blood, sweat and tears it takes to be a cake decorator. Geez aren't I making it sound like fun lol.
Another best: Marzipan knife for cutting fondant, beats sharp knives and pizza cutters hand down.
Can I add another category "Most Useful" My Ateco tins of multisized round, heart, star and square cutters, can't begin to tell you how many times and in how many ways I have used them. These humble little cutters beat all the new fancy "buy me! buy me!" stuff that routinely comes out.
ElizabethsCakeCreations - right there with you on the Agbay pressure, I don't own one either just a long, sharp serrated knife!
My worst..hands down 1. Cricut..total waste. But managed to sell it..so not a total wash out.
2. The Mat..like many, when I bought it, loved it. Followed instructions for care..didn't matter, stopped working...everything stuck. Sits now unused it it's tube. I bought a large silicone mat..6 yrs...still good as new.
3. Early Wilton stuff from long ago classes..got rid of most of it.
The best. KA artisan ...Christmas gift from hubby
Bosh Mixmaster...super powerful, sounds like a jet engine. Can make 4 batches of bc at once. I make all my bread come fall. Can make enough dough for 4 loaves at one time.
3. Wilton silicone moulds. Wilton stuff isn't my fav, but gotta say, there moulds at $8..inexpensive, and they work pretty well. Some nice designs. I've used them a lot.
810whitchoc-- as I gazed over the bakery trying to decide what was my favorite I had to pause to wipe the drool off my chin for my ateco cookie cutters -- my set of rounds has 14 cutters --
they maybe still make this set but I can never find it (to give as a gift) so I'm a little smug about it -- heheheheheh it's the little things huh 
now on wilton -- their little green plastic cutters with the rounded top edges that don't cut your fingers and the rounded bottom edges that cut and scoot the excess away in one movement are seriously efficient -- they just didn't make enough of those in the classic shapes and without the burrs from the molds
i love wilton ivory color -- but I hate using freaking toothpicks!
I love the little cheap used to be ten buck scalloped edge flat turntable -- yeah couldn't get the ball bearings wet or it was curtains but most useful
Hobbyist baker here but I too used a long serrated Oneida cake knife...have for 10 years and it works great. Fat Daddio pans are wonderful and the Fat Daddio fondant is also a great purchase. Love my Disco Dust glitters from The Sugar Art. Also can not live without Tulip Red from Decco Pac for the perfect red every single time. Another secret: The Cake Doctor cookbooks. I have found some very solid recipes in there and even adapted my own strawberry cake from one of her originals. Those are my treasures. That and the WASC I found here on CC.
Worst: Definitely that cake leveler from Wilton. Ha ha! Also the fondant from Cake Boss is pretty terrible. The packaging is careless and most of it was hard when I opened it.
i love the melted ice cream cake a la cakedoctor -- true brilliance that one
Interesting re: Fd pans. I dislike them intensly. Their slick surface makes them easy to clean, but seems to result in a shorter cake. Years ago, someone on here did a side by side comparison, with the same amount of the same batter baked at the same time in the same oven. One Magic Line pan, one FD pan. the cake in tbe FD pan was darker and shorter. At the time it caused quite a kerfuffle.
Interesting re: Fd pans. I dislike them intensly. Their slick surface makes them easy to clean, but seems to result in a shorter cake. Years ago, someone on here did a side by side comparison, with the same amount of the same batter baked at the same time in the same oven. One Magic Line pan, one FD pan. the cake in tbe FD pan was darker and shorter. At the time it caused quite a kerfuffle.
Best...actually can't live without... Kitchen aid mixer I stole from my moms kitchen. Lol. The
Wilton 789 icing tip really was a game changer, and my ateco turn table, and tappits cutters.
and actually a tip learned from craftsy.. Corriescakes... A simple plastic credit card for smoothing buttercream.
worst.. Along with everyone else.. Crickut cake .. Such high hopes.. But I could never get it to work right, and bought all those cartridges.
Interesting. My cake leveler broke some weeks ago and I was desperate to get a new one. My hubby had the brillant idea to get one stainless steel sort of ruler blade sharpened. Didn't cost me anything and it's about 32 inch long. I use it cliped in between 2 of those level clips (which i got for a few bugs) at whatever hight I need it. Brilliant! And also figured that I don't have to invest in petal cutter. Got a few sets made locally (peonies and 2 different orchid types) for less than 40p a cutter! And don't wanna miss my ball tool set either :)
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