2000 Regular Season: September 2006 Archives

One of the fastest growing markets within the Internet is in the area of on-line auctions. The largest of service provider for these auctions is eBay. I had not really looked into this service since I really had no idea that I was in need of anything. I did not realize how wrong I had been. I began as an amused observer as I watched auctions begin and end and before long, I began to wonder what types of things were out there that I may be interested in. I began perusing the database of auctions available to eBay users. The number of categories was impressive. I found things I never even knew existed. For example, there was one guy in Indiana that was selling used toilet seats. I would have never believed that there was a market for such a product but then I noticed that he had 5 people bidding on his auction. Then there was the unknown user who was auctioning off a human lung construction kit. Wow this was quite a place. Then I reached the baseball cards listing. Baseball cards? No way! I have been trying to add to my collection for years but never could find someone who had what I was looking for. My fingers trembled as I began to type into the search engine. Yes! There they were, Topps factory sets from years that I needed. I quickly began bidding. I sat there anxiously as I waited for the auctions to end. I had bid with aggressive abandon and was leading with less than 2 minutes remaining. I was finally going to have that set of cards that I needed. 10, 9, 8 seconds remaining. Three, two, one seconds until the cards were mine. What! Hey, what is going on? I was outbid? How could this happen. I was leading just a second ago. This eBay bidding was more vicious and cutthroat than I had anticipated. Black beard himself would have marveled at the pillaging that was occurring by these price pirates. For the next several hours, I began to monitor eBay to try and develop a strategy of how I could obtain these cards. This was going to take some time. Lucky for me that the Diamondbacks are out of town for a while so that I can devote some time to this.