eBay Addiction

I think I can honestly say that Hubby and I are completely addicted to eBay.



See, it all started when he bought a toy train for our kids for Christmas. We thought it'd be so neat to have the train going and whistles blaring for our 3-year-old Princess and not quite 2-year-old Curly. Yeah, then the train bug hit.



First, we just got a couple of cars. Okay, no big deal, we'll make the track a little longer, add a couple more bends. Soon, this train that was supposed to go around the Christmas tree took up the whole living room! I swear we bought 10 cars for it off eBay within a week! Of course, I panicked...we were supposed to have dinner at our house Christmas Eve. We were having company. We were opening presents. How could we do this with a monsterous train taking up our whole living room and dining area? Hubby has a light bulb go off over his head (I swear I saw it). "Let's put the train in the basement in the kids' toyroom!"



Brilliant.



Next trip was not to the hobby store, but the orange box store. He came home with plywood and 2x4's. He was now going to build a table for this train that was supposed to go around the Christmas tree. And, of course, it's not a regular size table; we took down walls and opened up into another section of our basement. The kids now play under the table. I'm thinking curtains around the table and they've got the biggest tent/fort ever!



Back to the eBay...Hubby now comes home from work, gives his perfunctory kiss and heads to the basement to the computer. He keeps telling me he needs to get away from the thing. He keeps finding things to add to our ever growing watch list. He'll tell me he's just watching it to see where the price goes. Next thing I know, we're buying it.



Now, don't get me wrong, I'm having fun, too. My thing is not the eBay, it's building little houses and trees and shrubs and mountains and rivers. He thinks I've gone over the edge with that. Well, I just want the over-size, 'round the Christmas tree train to have a nice view while it goes perpectually around in a circle.

How do you know you are addicted? When you keep tabs of your watch list on your cell phone. When you purchase about 10 items a day that you didn't really need. I think it's fun to watch Hubby as he clicks "refresh" a million times in one minute to make sure we'll win the item.

It's amazing to think that one small, simple thing could bring back childhood memories. Hubby had a train set while he was growing up and I used to pick wild blueberries and raspberries by the tracks behind my house. Are we really trying to recreate that for our precious ones, or are we trying to bring back something from our own memories?