March 18, 2011
iPad Purchasing Follies
Here’s a tale of me being super stupid.
So my birthday is coming up, and the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted to get the stupid iPad and be done with it, so I can have fun fucking around with my expensive toy. All the reviews of the iPad 2 suggested that it was a nice upgrade, but not super necessary, so I started thinking I should just grab a used iPad 1, save some money, and still get to play with my stuff. I mean, my iPod Touch is 2 generations old now, and is still playing games just fine (though they take awhile to load sometimes). The iPad 1 is playing iPhone 4 level games with no issues, so it should be fine for awhile yet.
Where do you buy used electronics? Well, eBay, I suppose.
So I went to eBay, and I started looking at stuff. Prices were about where I expected, or so it seemed, so I started bidding. However, I soon realized that people on eBay are at least as awful as I remember. With 20 seconds left, the price of every one of these used iPads would jump up 40 bucks instantly. Still, I kept trying and trying. I even started bidding on the 32 gig models, figuring they’d actually be less in demand than the 16 gig cheap ones. I was right on that one, but I still kept failing.
38 failures later, I was kind of frustrated. However, I was angry at it, and that meant I couldn’t give up. I bid on a new auction, and it immediately shot up to my max price, but stayed there. “There’s no way that one won’t get sniped for 5 bucks more,” I thought, “I’ll just bid on another one then and call that one a loss.”
You can see where this is going.
Of course, with my luck, I won two iPads at the same time.
I could hear Essner’s voice in my ear mocking me for owning not one, but two iPads.
I pounded my head on the desk, and started doing damage control. Things will work out. I can either resell it, or if negotiations with the seller go well, I’ll just pay them a small fee and not buy the second iPad. But man, it’s just another stupid mistake on top of everything else going on in my life.
I guess it makes a story, though.