Even though today is Halloween, like all retailers across America my mind is on Christmas. Mostly because of the amazing start C and I had last night to our Christmas shopping. It was on eBay.
I consider myself fairly savvy when it comes to the internet. I do social media, I shop online and bank online. However, I have never been comfortable with eBay for some reason. Maybe it's because I have never been good at cards, betting or gaming strategy. Whatever the reason, I couldn't bring myself to get an eBay account and bid on the wonderful things available there. It was too scary - which is very embarrassing, because my mom buys stuff on eBay all the time! I think I actually asked her to bid on stuff for me a couple of times.
C had never done eBay either, but the other night when we were looking on Amazon and some comic websites to find superhero figures for R's Xmas list, I decided to look on eBay and, JACKPOT, people sell action figures in loose lots of 5-12 figures! And the opening bid for most of these sets were around $5.00! But, you had to bid of course and the auction was 7 days long.
So each night we would check on the lots of superheroes we liked (there were 3 we considering). C decided to sign up for an account and together we read carefully how the bidding process worked. With three days left in the auction, C bid on a lot.
"You are the current high bidder!" eBay said. C was pleased.
C made a bid on another lot we liked. As soon as he hit the submit button, a window popped up.
"You have been overbid."
WHAT? He bid again.
"You have been overbid."
We quickly realized that the previous bidder had bid a much higher amount than us, and eBay was automatically bidding for him.
"Well, how do we find out what that bidder's top limit is?" C asked. We also quickly realized that eBay does not let newbies like us (or anyone for that matter) have access to info like that. A bidding strategy was needed.
This is where I bailed out of the process. I don't do strategy, in cards, in games, in politics, in anything...it is not a strength of mine. But C (you know how I mentioned before he has a competitive streak in him?) he was like: BRING IT ON, eBAY.
He watched, he waited, and last night on the final night of the auction, he disappeared upstairs for the final hour of the auction where you can do rapid fire one-click bidding. I got R ready for bed, (bath, books, teeth, show) and put him down (songs, kisses, prayer, hugs).
I went upstairs to our room, where C was smiling triumphantly. He had done well. We had won two of the lots we were watching, and also found a last minute "Buy it now" purchase to make up for the one lot he missed out on.
All told, we got about 15 figures for about $30.00 - pretty great! R will be elated! The start of a very merry Christmas!
Oh, and Happy Halloween!
-the good stepwitch
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