Artsy Fartsy

OK, perhaps that’s a little dramatic, but in the scope of my world, it was a feat pretty close to life-saving.

On Friday, I lost my debit card.  Again.  It was only hours before the big opening reception at work which has been eating away at my brain, and also my will to live.  I went to the ATM to get cash for breakfast with Luke, went to work and decided I needed a bottle of water (and maybe some Gummi Bears) and when I went to pay, I could not find my debit card anywhere.  Wallet, purse, pants pockets, coat pockets, desk, car… I looked everywhere.  I was convinced that I had thrown it out by accident, although after talking with Luke later in the day, I think I may have left the ATM without taking my card out of the machine.  Either way, just to be safe, I called the bank and canceled my card.  Again.

This would be the third time I lost my card.  The last two times, it wasn’t actually lost, I just stuck it in the wrong side of my wallet where it got lost behind my checkbook, and never mind, I’m an idiot.  Each time I lose it, I have to pay $5 to the bank, a stupidity fee I think, and then wait two weeks to get a new card.  That’s fine, except that this time I lost my card on a Friday before a holiday.  I was too busy lazy to go to the bank on Saturday to order my card, the bank was closed Monday, so I had to wait until this morning to go there in person to reorder my card.  Now next week is another holiday and I probably won’t get my new debit card until December!  (Panic, shortness of breath… )  How do I BUY anything without a debit card???

Enter Paypal, beloved Paypal.  A while back I got myself a handy Paypal debit card so I could spend the money in my Paypal account on things like shipping for the things I sold on ebay, instead using the money in my bank account for the shipping and leaving my Paypal money in the virtual bank of Paypal where Luke uses it to buy motorcycle stuff on ebay.  Anyhow, sitting at my computer debit card-less and sad, I realized that I could link my Paypal debit card not only my Paypal account, but also to my bank account!  Hallelujah!  I found a way around my sad state and I have Paypal to thank.  Now I’m spendy and free, able to buy Thanksgiving fixins and Christmas presents while I wait for my real debit card to arrive.

Thank you Paypal, you saved my life.

I am profoundly ashamed. I pride myself in spotting scams and fake emails. I don’t fall for any of that crap, or so I thought. I just found out that I was the victim of a scam. I was so excited to reach a feedback rating of 100 on ebay that when I received the email copied below, I couldn’t wait to click the link and become a Power Seller. Dummy. All signs point to scam. The email address the message is coming from doesn’t relate to ebay. The website I was directed to, which I paid no attention to at the time, is www.powersetup1.com, not ebay. But still, I clicked, I linked, I entered my account name and password, and now, two days later, I get a message from ebay telling me that my account was accessed by an unauthorized third party to list items without my authorization. I am ashamed. I am so thankful to ebay for being on the ball, and so mad at myself for being a giant jackass, that I haven’t even explored the feelings of violation and rage at the scammers who stole my ID. Maybe tomorrow.

Take this as a warning my ebay friends, beware of where you click. Know where you are when you’re entering your account information. Do what I usually do when I get an email from ebay, but I stupidly did not do in this situation, log onto ebay and check the messages on your account. If ebay did in fact send a message to your email address, the same email will be in your messages on your account page and you can trust that it is safe, otherwise delete it.

Sometimes ebay can be a fun place to find unique treasures at a great price.  Sometimes it’s a battlefield of frustration and frantic bidding where, if I could reach into my computer and slap some people, I would.  I’d break their keyboards, too, if I could.

Last winter when I was looking for a cast iron floor grate, I found an ebay enemy named island_resident.  She outbid me on every grate auction.  She was driving me insane, and then she bought a grate that I had for sale.  Oh, the irony!

Now that I’m again searching for something specific, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01 (translation: camera), I have a fresh crop of enemies bidding against me.  Don’t they understand that I NEED a camera?  Can’t they just back off once?  Please?  I have lost eleven, ELEVEN auctions in the past three days to the same small group of camera-hunters.  We really need to get together and share.

Ebay is a funny place.

We heat our home with a wood stove which is located in the basement. Recently, in case you hadn’t noticed or don’t live in Connecticut, it’s been really damn cold outside. The heat from the wood stove travels up the stairway to get into the main floor of the house, but we’d like to put a grate in the floor to allow more warm air to come up to the living space so that less fleece and wool need to be worn inside of the house. Which takes me to Ebay.

Two months ago I began the hunt for a cool old floor grate on Ebay. And there are plenty of them. I figured it would be a piece of cake but, once again, I was wrong. Back in November I bid on and won a grate that looked very cool. It was cast iron and in great shape. It had a flap that opened and closed and a scrollwork face. I managed to snag it for $10 plus shipping and was pretty psyched until I got it. First off, it was cracked, which I think happened during shipping. Secondly, the one free listing photo that Ebay offers was a front shot of the grate which hid the fact that it stood a couple of inches off the floor because it was actually meant to be in the wall. If we did put it in, I would trip over it and then something else would be cracked, like my ankle bone or my skull. Time to start over.

Unfortunately, December seems to be a hot time to buy a floor grate on Ebay and I couldn’t find one I was willing to pay for. The prices shot way up from the $10 I bought to at least $50. I looked and looked and then gave up. Christmas time, etc. etc. I just wasn’t in the grate-shopping mood.

Oh, and if by now you’re wondering why I didn’t just buy a new one, #1, you must not know me. I think that old stuff is so much better than new stuff (for the house, at least). And #2, you must have never shopped for a grate. We’re looking for a sizable one, at least 12″ square, hopefully bigger. These go for about $225 brand new.

So recently I sold some stuff on Ebay and had a bit of cash sitting in my Paypal account. I figured that, since I never actually held the money, I only traded it for some old junk I wasn’t using anyway, it wasn’t real money and it wouldn’t hurt as much as if I spent real money on a grate. So I was back on the hunt.

I found one I loved, watched it, bid on it, and lost it to a person with the Ebay ID of island_resident. Crap. I found another, watched it, bid on it, and lost it to island_resident. Grr! Three times, island_resident outbid me and I was mad. I wanted to see what this person (I, for some reason, imagine that it’s a man) was buying. I checked his feedback - which was very good - and checked to see what he had been buying and what he was paying for it. For the past week, at least, all he has been buying are cast iron grates. Bunches of them. And he pays a lot for them. I don’t think, in the past three days, that he had paid less that $70 for one! What on earth could he be doing with all of these expensive grates? I am intrigued.

There was one grate that I really loved that was holding at about $50. I was prepared to go to $75 until I saw that my buddy, island_resident, was now in on the bidding. I said to Luke, “I just know he’s willing to pay over $100 for that thing”. And he did. I bowed out and he got it for $114. Seriously! Where is he getting this money and why is he stealing all of the good grates?

Last night I finally found a grate that was ratty enough that even island_resident didn’t want it. It’s big and it’s all rusty with peeling paint. Perfect! I love it. We placed our bid and waited and waited. The auction was ending just after 8:00 last night and we had to pause the movie we were watching to go and keep and eye on the bidding. I had a knot in my stomach thinking that island_resident was going to swoop in at the last minute and snatch it from me but we sat and watched that last five minutes of the auction, refreshing the screen constantly, and we managed to win it. Hallelujah.

I’m trying not to get too excited, though. It’s a big grate, about 14″ x 17″ and if the Post Office could manage to break a 10″ x 12″ grate, I’m a little concerned about this one. It’s also coming Parcel Post which means a longer time in the system and a slower delivery. I just really hope that it comes in decent shape (peeling paint and rust aside) because I really don’t want to go through this all over again. And warmer weather is on the way.