The pain of discontinued items, and the thrill of finding them online

We’ve all been there. A favorite item is suddenly unavailable for purchase. Couldn’t the manufacturer have given you advance warning?

Whether owing to low sales, changing habits, production costs, or even because something is a little wrong with your favorite product (shh), discontinued items are part of life. In a weekend piece, The New York Times delves into the not-so-dark underbelly of online places where shoppers find these items, share tips, and yes, find emotional support.

The story highlights a padded laptop bag made by Filson that a superfan now hunts “down everywhere” to snag as many as possible “before everyone figures out how great they are.” It points to Discontinued Beauty, a site whose offerings are old to visitors but new to the site. Among its latest products: an “essential protein restructurizer” by Redkin priced at an eye-popping $169.95. (The newest version of the product costs shoppers $32.)

Could it be dangerous to use these discontinued products? Who cares, suggests one creative director, who tells the Times about a lip pencil the beauty company NARS no longer sells and she has found elsewhere. “Now, do I know the proper way to store this for optimal conditions? No,” she says. “They’re under my sink.”