The year was 1999 and we were just two kids relishing in the hopes, dreams, and passions like any other set of newlyweds. We were living on Spaghetti O’s and love. I was a very low-paid assistant basketball coach and she was a bank teller. Our household income was below the poverty line.
Little did we know that our financial situation was about to change.
A friend of mine told me about a company that was just a couple of years old. You could get all kinds of cool things at this eBay auction site called eBay. This included sports cards and boy, did I love sports cards.
One night I went online to check out this eBay thing. It started off innocently enough. They had Nolan Ryan rookie cards. That was a bucket list item for me. He was my favorite baseball player and I had always wanted this valuable card.
I would soon discover that I could bid on any card from any of my favorite players. Barry Sanders, Mark Price, Steve Yzerman, Joe Montana, Ricky Henderson, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Isaiah Thomas were all now on my radar.
I was bound and determine to get the rookie card for each of my other favorite players. All I had to do was outbid the other people online that night.
The objection was clear, though. I had to get that Nolan Ryan card. The book value was more than I could afford so I figured out a bid that I could live with. I would be disappointed if I missed my opportunity and didn’t end up getting one so I decided to bid on multiple Nolan Ryan cards. I just had to have one so I put in that affordable bid price for five or six different ones that were available. I then repeated this for all my other favorite players.
When I logged off and went to bed, I dreamed off waking up the next day as the new owner of a Nolan Ryan rookie card, a Barry Sanders rookie card, or an Isaiah Thomas rookie card. This would be awesome!
There is a real possibility that my picture is up on some wall of honor at eBay headquarters because I owned eBay that night. I dominated eBay in a way that they’d probably never seen before.
“You’ve got mail” said my computer as I opened up AOL. That was an understatement. I had more unread messages than I had ever seen before. Email after email with the subject line reading “congratulations”.
Not only did I achieve my dream of owning the rookie card of my favorite players. I now owned multiple copies of each. I won almost every card I bidded on. My stomach dropped. It was like the feeling you get when you crest the top of a rollercoaster and then frighteningly descend.
I owed nearly $4,000.
Like I said earlier, our financial situation was about to change – for the worse!
I owed nearly 25% of our family’s gross yearly income.
“Congratulations you were successful” eBay’s emails repeatedly told me.
As Rosie Perez said in the movie White Men Can’t Jump, “Sometimes when you win, you really lose. Sometimes when you lose, you really win. And sometimes you don’t win or lose, you tie.” Anyway, I might have won but I really lost.
Even though I won, I had really lost.
I was so focused on what I wanted, I didn’t think of the consequences. I didn’t take a moment to consider my actions. I knew I wanted the card(s) and I was bound and determine to make it a reality.
I still remember that night when I owned eBay. I beat them. I took them out back to the woodshed. I also beat the other bidders. I won, but I really lost … to the tune of $4,000.
Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.