iPod Magic

Carl finally got his Christmas present this weekend. Since it is actually a rather funny (in a sick sort of way), I will share the story with you. Here's what happened:

He has an 8GB iPod touch, but wanted the 2nd Generation with more memory. I had this brilliant idea (or so I thought) to check eBay first. Lo and behold, you could get a brand new 32 GB for the same price as the 16GB! So, I quickly bought the first one I won. In my defense, there were over twenty people bidding on each of the listings, so I was distracted by that fact. Because I was distracted, I failed to notice that the seller had NO feedback and was from THAILAND. Yup, you read that correctly. I chose to bid over three hundred dollars of our money on just such an item. 

Needless to say, we never received the world's greatest deal. I (thankfully) had paid through PayPal, and upon filing a claim for an unrecieved item, discovered that PayPal will give you a full refund if the seller does not respond to their e-mails. Of course our seller never responded, the case was closed, and we should have payment today or tomorrow. 

In the midst of all this, Carl ended up without a Christmas present from me at all. We had ordered him a new snowboard jacket from Steep and Cheap as well, but it was too big and had to be sent back. Not the best of Christmas luck! 

So, while I was at Costco stocking up on a multitude of things last week, I browsed the electronic section (quickly, so as to avoid children screaming) and discovered they now carried a 16 GB iPod Touch. The price was great, I knew we were getting our refund, so I bought him one. I think it did more for me than for him, since I felt awful about failing to give him a Christmas present, whereas I don't think he cared all that much. Nevertheless, he loves his new iPod and I do too -- I inherited his 8GB. :) 

Moral of the story: Don't order eBay items from sellers with zero feedback that reside in Thailand. I know, I probably don't need to state this fact, but I wouldn't have thought I would forget something so simple either!