Be my Valentine - EBay

I for one have had quite a few good experiences buying things on EBay. It’s quite possible that everyone has good experiences buying things off EBay and I’m the only one who heard that song Weird Al did parodying that Backstreet Boys song ‘I Want it that Way’ with ‘I Bought it on EBay’. Anywoo – Valentine’s Day! Here’s my love letter to EBay.

I know I’ve complained about this before, but I have an awkward body shape. Needless to say, bathing suit shopping has always been a complete nightmare. I’ve done everything in my power to avoid it since I turned 13. Yeah, don’t ask. So finally I had this brainy idea that it wouldn’t cost much to ship a bit of fabric as small as a bathing suit and typed my bra size into the search engine on EBay followed by the words ‘bathing suit’. Instant success! They had several ones to pick from. At first I didn’t buy one because I’d never bought anything on EBay before and I felt funny about it. I dead serious woke up in the middle of the night and went, ‘Well, dang. That one bathing suit was $7 plus $7 for shipping from Calgary and it was modest. Even if I got ripped off – it’s only $14 bucks.’ And I bought it. It arrived, and now I don’t feel like slitting my wrists every time I’m forced to wear a bathing suit. Does it get any better?

Oh, but it does. Do you have any idea what the markup is on jewelry that is sold in a mall? It’s obscene. This last summer I met a woman who was selling jewelry with some pyramid company like Mary Kay or Avon (I know they’re not actual pyramid schemes – sheesh!) and she showed me their catalog. It was disturbing … skin crawling. They were selling copper (yes – copper) jewelry that would have cost under $2 with free shipping on EBay for $15. When I was in Hawaii, street venders were selling jewelry I’d seen on EBay for $6 marked up to $30. That makes the markup in the hundredth percentile. Ew!

And lastly comes the reason Valentine’s baking was wonderful this year. I love sugar cookies with icing on them. It’s my thing. I make them all the time for no reason. But I absolutely hate those bag cake decorators. Keeping the pressure consistent in the bag makes my hand cramp after three cookies. And when I ice the cookies with a knife, the edges are uneven. So, finally I got ticked off and bought a cake decorator that looks like a syringe. Dude! Dreams really do come true. My cookies were super beautiful with zero hand cramping.

Let’s face it. I love EBay.