When most people look for value stocks, they're trying to find relatively unexciting, stable businesses that happen to trade at a discount relative to the rest of the market based on traditional valuation metrics. That's fair enough, as many value stocks fit in quite well with this typically conservative train of thought.But a value stock can be any business that trades at a discount to what it's really worth, and sometimes you need to think outside the box to find truly compelling buys.