Obsessive over Ebay

Forget Valentine’s Day…I have a different kind of love.

It started out as an innocent fad in my world. But slowly it has

become an obsession with no signs of stopping.

I’ve rediscovered my love of video games and in the process I’ve

found out about the coolest time-killer ever: online auctions!

Let me explain. When I was home in Connecticut over winter

break, I was complaining to my buds about how much I missed living

in a house with a video game system (yes, I am a nerd). Last year I

had plenty of consoles and games to keep me occupied. This

year…not so much. I thought about bringing my Sega Genesis and

Sega CD out to Colorado, but was afraid that they would get broken

on the trip. So it seemed as though I was doomed to suffer without

my favorite distraction.

But then, for my birthday about three weeks ago, two of my super

cool friends back home bought me a new Sega system online and had

it shipped to me. Some of my other friends chipped in for games. I

was so excited I scared myself, but I had to know where they got

this stuff – certainly no stores I know of sell video game stuff

from 1993 anymore. The answer? Online auctions.

How could no one have told me about Ebay before?? Or Yahoo

Auctions? This glorious, time and money consuming Web site devoted

entirely to the trading of crap? Take something seemingly worthless

to you, make it a treasure for someone else and voila, money for

something you no longer want. I’ve surfed a couple of times before,

but it seemed like too daunting a task. There are more than 50,000

new Web auctions listed every day, and I don’t have time to go

through all of those!

But instead of being a disorganized mess like in-person auctions

can sometimes be, the auctions are all organized and you can search

and they have pictures so you know what you’re getting and the

sellers have reliability ratings and before I knew it I got sucked

in.

It’s amazing how quickly temptation can get to you. I decided to

give one of the sites a try to see what kind of games I could find.

And there were plenty! Most of them were under $3. They were so

easy to buy. My quick little peek quickly grew into an obsession.

Sometimes I’d talk myself into buying something just because it was

so damn cheap. Other times if an item was the only of its kind

available I’d pay a ridiculous price for it. And if other people

bid for something I was bidding on, watch out!

Bidding online is kind of like a strange drama. Sometimes people

wait until the last second to bid, so you may think you’ve won an

auction with 10 seconds left but some ninja snuck in with two

seconds left and you lost out. So counting down the minutes and

seconds until the auction ends can be edge-of-your-desk-chair

excitement. Other items can be bought without having to bid on

them, so if you really want a rare item it’s like a mini

competition to find the buyable items before someone else does. And

if it comes down to bidding on an item, there’s usually a nemesis

who bids against you constantly and drives up the price of an item

you so richly deserve.

And as if that wasn’t enough, some of the stuff on these sites

is actually worth a lot of money! Remember that eight bit Nintendo

you threw out in 1988? It could be worth $200 right now. I’m

constantly amazed by how much money people are willing to pay for a

piece of plastic casing with computer chips inside. Including

me.

Now three weeks and $300 later, I’m starting to realize that I

need help. I bought some super rare games that I’ll probably never

play but they’re worth a lot in resale value. I bought a lot of

games that I’ll actually play but probably more than I needed. And

I can’t stop looking! I feel like I’m done, and yet I can’t stop.

It’s like I’ve found a treasure, and I collected it all, but I

can’t stop checking to make sure I got it all.

To solve this problem, I now have an online auction buddy. We

call each other and make sure we go out into the real world every

so often. But my obsession continues. I know it will wane soon, but

in the meantime I’m swimming in auctions. Happy Valentines you

online auctioneers, you’ve emptied my wallet again.

Thea is a senior majoring in technical journalism. She is the

station manager for KCSU.