Yup, have to go to a re-orientation camp organised by my sponsor this summer, so they have to pay for my flight ticket, which is good because I intend to go back whether or not there is a camp. And considering the increase in airline tax nowadays, the price can be really annoying. Six hundred pounds! Goodness. My term always finishes at the end of June so I can’t go back during the cheaper ticket season.
Anyway, I was coming to the realization that I have not been doing much reading lately, so I decided to do something about it. Which is how I ended up in eBay. Now, I’ve never used eBay before, having always been buying books from Amazon. However, a friend once told me how he got this set of books for a really cheap price and I decided to give it a look. And indeed it is. Though most of the stuffs there are used, some of them are still in mint condition and there are a few gems which are priced at about one pound! I was like, wow! The delivery rates are mostly okay as well, unlike Amazon marketplace which has a fixed rate of £2.75 per book. Honestly, the delivery costs more than the book itself.
So I decided to give it a try, and ended up bidding on a Garth Nix book which I found once while browsing in Kinokuniya but didn’t buy. One pound with the delivery rate of £1.50. Not bad. Little did I know that I will have a lesson on ‘loads of theory cannot compare to a bit of experience’. Now, I know all about auction sniping and I was thinking maybe I should increase my maximum bid a bit more so as not to be outbidded. However, being the naïve and inexperienced person that I was, I decided that it was unnecessary since there are only five minutes left for the auction. I can always place a second bid again if I’m outbidded.
So I waited. Five minutes… four…three… two…one…thirty seconds… and during that thirty seconds I refreshed the page only to find that somebody has placed another bid. What the…?! Cheeky bastard! I quickly typed in another bid but it was too late and the auction was closed. Drat! Drat! Drat!
And that’s my first eBay bidding experience. That really drives the lesson home, huh? I was so angry that I bought the whole series from Amazon straightaway. Retail therapy, gotta love it.
So anyway, now I’m keeping an eye on another lot, the first eight books of one of my favourite series, with a starting bid of just one pound. Hope I won’t make the same mistake again coz I really want this one. Wish me luck!
Yaz.
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