Ebay! What fun!

I've really only had one experience with Ebay in my life, and it wasn't a good one. I bought some tickets as a surprise to Jim for our anniversary one year. I was tickled to be the "winner" of the auction. I won in the final seconds with quick bidding fingers, and it felt great. But then, the high was completely ruined when the seller ended up giving me the runaround, and in order to actually receive the tickets that I had purchased, I had threaten the guy just short of his life. He finally responded after receiving my sternly written letter (which "appeared" to have been copied to one local lawyer... thaaaat I'd plunked out of the phone book) via certified mail. I slung him some bad feedback and began the process of reporting him to whatever Ebay authorities existed at the time.

But finally just a couple of days before the event, tickets arrived in my mailbox. I don't say "my tickets" arrived... just tickets. These were evidently replacements for the ones he said I was buying. (Different seats. Different section. But at least the same venue.) I called off the dogs, and Jim and I attended the event. A fun time was had although I'd pretty much sworn off any further use of Ebay. Well, that is... until now.

This time, I was the seller. And I must say that being a seller is MUCH more fun than being a buyer. We, ironically, have some extra tickets to see a concert. Jim purchased these in an auction format, and in doing his best to get me as close to the stage as possible, he purchased extra. Good guy, and very sweet, but an expensive venture, of course. So now, we had extra tickets. None of our acquaintances wanted them, so with a sinking feeling, we knew we'd have to return to Ebay. Argh.

I posted two sets of tickets to our event on Ebay just days ago. Since then, I have been logging on and evaluating my competition, checking to see how many hits my posts are receiving, and getting excited to see the number of "watchers" of my items grow. This is a fun game. Although no bidding is going on, you can "see" people taking interest in your item. They want it, but they pretend not to. It's somewhat like playing with a cat. Your cat sits on the floor at the edge of the couch with only her big eyes peeking over. You wiggle your fingertip at the edge of the couch, but not too much... just enough to make her pupils get bigger, her head lower, and her ears flatten. Then, you don't move.... If you wait, the pounce will come. If you get anxious, the cat will lose interest and perhaps give you a yawn, at best.

Anyway, I celebrated my official "pounce" today. One set of tickets sold. Hooray! What fun!
Now.... to see who's looking at the other pair. I've wiggled my finger. We'll see.