eBay Fever – A Newbie Goes Shopping
Okay, you’re right! I finally succumbed to peer pressure; I’m purchasing my unmentionables on the web! Breaking promises and a core belief that shopping on the internet would never enter the realms of my simple existence, I agreed to try it once. With sweaty palms and first date jitters, I asked eBay to be my companion for the evening. Now to most of you reading this blog, eBay has been around as long as bottled water. To me, however, the act of purchasing products online violates an additional commandment: “Thou Shall Not Make Purchases on the Internet with a Credit Card.” I mean, c’mon, we’ve all heard of identity theft and once you lose your identity, some say you lose your mind!
In spite of my biased values, I proceeded into the vast unknown of eBay bidding. I remember the lonely, cold, spring night like it was yesterday – the blue, glowing hue from my PC (they were called IBMs in my time) beckoned me to its keyboard, the mouse inched towards my right hand ready for me to take command. A friend of mine told me that the deals on eBay are phenomenal. I thought; let’s try it, just this once.
With a new haircut in order, a flat iron hair straightener was in the forefront of my purchasing mind. Amazingly, a “hair straightener” search revealed 14 pages of straighteners to select from. What’s this bid button and confirm button? I decided to try it out and see; low and behold, I won my first bid! With the words CONGRATULATIONS skipping across the screen, I was thrilled. Pay Pal had instantly become my new friend, my new confidant, my new-found pal. We would be friends forever. But what’s this? United Kingdom? My hair straightener is from the United Kingdom? How did that happen? Could it be that eBay is global? It was never mentioned on the home page – didn’t they know I was a newcomer to the world of online commerce? This just can’t be; it should have been in the description. Great, I’ll just use my back button, read the description, e-mail the seller and just let them know that I can’t use this in the United States and retract my bid. Wrong again eBay bidder, you buy it or your reputation is tainted forever. You will be tossed out of eBay world, never again allowed to return to the eBay family. Well at the risk of being rejected by this new-found market, I resigned myself to the fact that a lesson learned is just that, a lesson learned.
Now an experienced online shopper, I sometimes wonder what might happen to this market if there are not enough sellers out there, but plenty of buyers? You know the simple rule of supply and demand – prices rise and the whole concept of saving money by buying online evaporates. Maybe eBay needs to develop a few incentives to entice sellers to list items on its website – just something to think about, eBay.
Well, I hear the eBay howl calling me. I’m running through the alphabet and have almost completed my letter A searches. Tonight I’m searching for adapters; my new hair straightener just arrived. After that bid, I’m moving on to the Arbonne MinC RE9 Set, can you believe it, Arbonne on eBay too. As my fingertips roll across my keyboard, I hear those four keywords from my hubby, “Honey, time for dinner.” My stomach tells me it’s time for a break. There’s no need to search for another letter A word – I think I’ve already found addiction.
