PS3 Mania Hits Home

My boyfriend is a lucky guy. He’s getting PS3 for Christmas but man does he need to thank me. With two weeks to go before Christmas I finally bit the bullet and hopped onto an eBay auction along with throngs of others all on the same quest – to own one of the 200,000 to 300,000 PS3 systems released in the U.S. prior to Christmas.

Now normally I’m the type of person who would wait a few months until all the hype faded, but I totally fell into the game on this one. After all, how else does one get their hands on something which is like gold thanks to the fact the demand for the original estimated 400,000 units for U.S. retailers could not be met due to production issues?

Innocently enough, I went to eBay just to see what was out there. Next thing I know I was possessed by what goes on there and I knew I had to get one and no matter what I would win it.

My strategy: search through the PS3 listings to see which auctions were coming to a close and lo and behold, I found one that no one seemed to be onto. Seriously I was the only one who bid on it. I kept thinking something had to be wrong here. The price was still under $650 and no one was interested? What was the issue here?

I checked the feedback on the seller, no issues. I simply couldn’t figure it out and I’m such a skeptic it was very hard for me to determine what the problem could be.

That being said, I placed my first bid - $621. Boy did I think it was a lock! Up until two hours before the online auction closed I was still the only bidder. It was a pretty good deal too. Came with a game, a movie and an extra controller – what more could a girl want than an expensive piece of gaming equipment for her beau with all the trimmings?

Then, with 15 minutes to go, those who obviously spend their days and nights watching for online auctions to close jumped in and started raising the bar. I was addicted, and just kept bidding. They outbid me by $10, I outbid them by $20. It was thrilling. Like the time I hit on a slot machine in Niagara Falls and then felt like it was “my machine” and it was going to pay me again. And would you believe it actually did? What can I say, at times I have a lucky star or like to think I do.

So there I was, outbid at five minutes to go, significantly over the maximum price I was willing to pay for the machine. I pondered what to do. I polled my co-workers, I polled my friends, I even did a little soul searching and then I did it - I pulled the trigger. With less than a minute to go, it was all mine! Sure I spent a little more than I should have or even wanted to, but at the end of the day it was a good experience and I finally have that perfect something to give the technology lover in my life for Christmas.