I've been on an Ebay kick lately. I'm not sure why. I guess sometimes I just need stuff...quickly. And I want a good price. I've been trying to shop a lot smarter lately, and this has allowed me to feel like a true bargain shopper. Ebay is like yesterday's yard sales, except without the wasted drives to the homes that were only selling old fuddy-duddy clothes.
I can remember waking up to the smell of bacon countless times as a young kid only to be duped into going to yard sales with my dad/family. Dad did the duping, family did the grumbling. But, I did love them. Not the bacon or my family, though I am very fond of both, but the yard sales. There was something about yard sales that just excited me. Maybe it was the thrill of the hunt that did it for me. There was so much mystery in "yard-saling" because we never actually said out loud, "I could really use a used pair of soccer cleats, an old cookie jar shaped like a sick duck, and a pressure cooker knob. Let's go yard-saling this weekend and get everything on our list!" There was no list. There never was. We just went, looked at other people's leftovers, bought some junk, and went home. I loved it.
Ebay is very impersonal as opposed to the yard sales of old. You never knew what kind of strange people you were going to run into. At any sale you could run into:
-the guy that's holding the item you want and won't let it go
-the old lady who's only interested in silverware
-the unleashed little boy who's playing with/breaking all the toys without buying them first
-the rugged 75 year old with the pick-up truck filled with broken furniture, 3 rusty charcoal grills, and a matress
-the owner that is asking four times the worth of everything on the lot and won't negotiate (I despise these people...because my dad did)
-the 7 year old with a lemonade stand that is so adorable you can't just pass up paying 5 bucks for a dixie cup of delicious yellow ade
Obviously, as much as I gripe about yard sales, I really do prefer them to Ebay. I just like people and the thrill of the hunt for...whatever they have that I might want...for no good reason at all. Even though Ebay is more convenient and less confrontational, I'm up for yard sales whenever. Call me on a Saturday morning and promise me bacon and I'm in.
