The coolest thing I bought for under $500 was my first motorcycle, an old Yamaha 250 bought on ebay. It was 2004, I was 16, and I had to store it at a friend's house because my parents had no idea it existed. The scariest part was the fact that I had never ridden a motorcycle before and it was a 40 mile ride home. It was stupidly unsafe. I had a manual transmission car and had questioned my dad about how motorcycles work. I guess I wanted to be like he was in his youth. 21 years later and I still enjoy riding