Wednesday, December 2, 2009

misadventures on ebay/craigslist


As the Christmas season approaches, I find myself looking online for my desired purchases...hoping for some spectacular discounts. But...I'm pretty lousy at online shopping. I don't know what comes over me. Perhaps it is my excitement for "winning" the auction or getting the craigslist deal before anyone else, but I always forget to do my proper research. Then I find myself the proud owner of something that I thought was similar to what I am looking at in the stores, but in reality is 6 years old and lacking in features. Or...I don't notice the "like" word in the title and purchase some knock-off instead of the brand-name item that I wanted.

You would think that just one of these experiences would leave me smarter the next time. Apparently not. When Sydney was 2, I bought one of those Little Tykes climbers for the backyard via ebay. It looked delightful in the pictures, so I won the auction and borrowed a truck. I drove down to Olympia to pick it up and discovered that I didn't need the truck. It was a "mini" version of the little tykes climber. It was only 2 feet tall, instead of the 5 feet I thought I was buying. It didn't occur to me to confirm the dimensions.

Just 4 days ago, I purchased something for a Christmas present from Ebay, but realized afterwards that I didn't get the brand name I thought I was buying. I thought about writing this post then, but didn't get around to it. Then today, when I bought a different item of craigslist...and now realized that I yet again failed to determine if it was a current year model...the blog post became a reality.

I haven't learned yet if today's craigslist purchase will be a "Yippee...it is a current model" or a "lame...I did it again". While I am waiting to hear my fate, perhaps those of you on my Christmas gift list should be hoping that I'm not purchasing your present. =)

1 comment:

  1. I have a very bad habit of ordering things from catalogs or online and not looking at the dimensions. I look at the photograph and get an idea in my head of what size the item is and often I'm wrong!!
    I'm trying not to look at Ebay anymore. I've had too many bad experiencenes with sellers. I've received things that are broken or never received the item at all etc. I have purchased several things on Etsy and have had wonderful experiences (not that ebay and etsy are anything alike).

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