Craigslist is my friend - I've bought a whole slew of really good stuff from various craigslist deals.
Let's see... I got my Mesa/Boogie Mark IV combo for 1100 nine years ago or so. Maybe not a steal, but it's been really good to me in the whole time I've had it.
I once bought a DW kit for 900 bucks, then sold it for 1200, and kept the hardware and the snare that came with it. I later traded the snare for a COB Supraphonic.
I got a 1985 Marshall 4x12 cab for 400 bucks on my way home from the mountains a few months ago - two G12T-75s and two Greenbacks, and has that funky fading grillcloth. Very cool, sounds incredible.
I got a 6.5x13 DW Craviotto snare for 340 bucks when I lived in Boston. Had to drive an hour and change each way, but it's the best 13" snare I've ever played.
And back at the beginning of the year I picked up a set of Ludwig Standards for 400 bucks, which I've since cleaned up. 12/13/14/16/22. Blue strata looks great, the 14" floor tom is super rare, and those drums have "that" Ludwig sound in spades.
And most recently, I went through West Virginia on my way home from Pennsylvania, and picked up a gold mine of gear for a thousand bucks, including a 1981 stop sign badge Gretsch kit 24/14/16/18 with a Gold Series bell brass snare, a couple cheapo guitars, a stack of records, and a set of Pearl Export shells. Those Gretsch drums sound absolutely incredible.
It's coming to the point where I probably need to get rid of some gear, but for the life of me I don't know what I'd let go of. Maybe I should just... stop... buying more stuff.