eBanned

Today I did something I haven't done for a long time. There was a period in my life, where I was addicted to eBay. I mean seriously addicted. I would spend hours on eBay, not really bidding, just browsing. Then it got worse, I started bidding. I went crazy over football cards. My hope was to buy cards, or packs of cards, and resell them. After about a month, I had spent over $100, and didn't resell any. I think I knew I had lost it when I was bidding $250 for one card. Thankfully, I didn't win that card. It is not a time in my life I am proud of, or like to dwell on. I just wanted to make some money, but ended up wasting a bunch of money in the process.

So you can understand why my family was skeptical of my new get rich quick off eBay scheme. This one, was more thought out though, and I knew it would work. I love going to Mariners games. There is a section in the outfield that I think are the best seats in the house. When I found an eBay auction for 15 games in that section, I fell in love right away. And these were amazing seats. Front row of centerfield. Ichiro right in front of you.

I loved when I sat in the second row of the same section, and knew people would pay good money to sit in the first row. There were also tickets against Boston and New York that I knew would fetch top dollar. When I started doing the math of two tickets to 15 games, two of which were Yankees and Red Sox, I started seeing dollar signs.

It took quite a bit of convincing, but I got the okay from my parents, if I forked out the dough. Besides, I needed to use my mom's credit card as I don't have my own. It was at $619.00 for the longest time. I bid with around two minutes left. $629, outbid. $650, outbid. I began to wonder how high I should go. I also really wanted to win, and the adrenaline from a last minute eBay bidding war was flowing. In the end, I let the other person win. I stopped at $709, and the winning bid was $717.07. At least I raised the price. I think if I had won at over $700, I would have been happy, yet a little bit shocked at the same time. Yeah, I won, but oh no, I just spent a ton of money.

I still think I could have made my money back and more. I actually am quite sure I could have. It would have been a lot of work selling and delivering the tickets though. I think for the time being, I need to stay away from eBay and my get rich quick schemes.

Author's Side Note: I thought I should state that I do not condone, recommend, or in any way encourage spending the majority of one's personal wealth on a get quick rich scheme, or any one eBay item. Bidding $250 on a piece of cardboard was a mistake, one I will never make again, winning would have been a whole other story. Lastly, the prices are included not to impress, but only to show how costly a mistake I made in the past, and gamble I made in the present.