The Perfect Song Blog

Okay, here’s the danger of being an ebayholic. A few weeks ago I came across a lot (collection) of vintage paperbacks. Popular Library. All published in the 1940s. I studied them. They were all in good shape. Two of them, I knew, were worth about $70 each.

I wanted them.

I put in a bid of $15. They just sat for a week with no activity. Then someone bid $17. So I immediately bid $20. No one else bid. We were down to three days, then two.

Then a dealer came in and outbid me. I let it sit until the night the bidding ended. I went in and bid $25. I was outbid. I went to $30.

Outbid again.

How much was I willing to pay? I figured I could go to $50, so I punched in the numbers. I had winning bid.

There was an hour left. I went on and did other things, forgetting the bid. At the last minute—literally– I remembered and rushed back to the site. The dealer had outbid me!

I threw in a new bid, putting me up to $60. I was outbid.

Now I was in a mode of combination panic and competiveness. With 33 seconds left I rushed to the keyboard and typed in $70. I hit the bid button, then the confirm, hoping I could get through with just the few seconds that were ticking away.

The moment I hit the confirm button I realized that after the$7 I hit the 0 button twice.

I had bid $700!

I broke into a cold sweat. $700 is like my life savings. Then I realized that eBay only takes your bid in 10% increments. But what if he had bid $200 or $300? Time moved so slow that if a hummingbird had passed in front of me I would have seen its wing movement.

Finally the sign came up that I had won the bid. Of course I had won. I’m an idiot who bid $700! I looked, cautiously (terrified, actually) to see what I’d actually paid.

I was relieved to find that I got out of it for a relatively low $97.

I walked away, lesson learned.

Actually, I’m not really sure what the lesson is except, if you’re an ebayholic, for God’s sakes, don’t panic.