First Success

ENTRY 0005


I finally got tired of auction stalking.  Yesterday, I finally made my move, and took the first steps in filling some of the gaps in my collection.

First, though, a little bit of exposition is required.  There was one very big reason I decided to get my account on Ebay reinstated.  Several weeks ago -- July 19, to be precise -- I lost a backpack.  Or it was stolen; I'm not certain which.  All I do know is that I know that I had it at one point, and suddenly discovered that I didn't have it at another.  I retraced my steps, and tried everything I could to find the backpack, all without success.

There wasn't anything particularly valuable in the pack -- at least, probably nothing of value to anyone but me.  But I did have a few magazines in the pack that I am now trying to replace.  Among those were a couple of old issues of Asimov's Science Fiction; the July 1997 and August 1997 issues, to be precise.  I had a feeling that Ebay would probably be the most likely place for me to find replacement copies.

Once my reinstatement was in place, I started running a number of searches on Ebay.  In this particular case, the search was "asimov's magazine 1997."  Lady Luck was on my side; there was a listing for the July 1997 issue.  I sent the seller a message, asking him if he accepted forms of payment besides PayPal.  I don't have a PayPal account, and to be quite frank, I don't see any particular reason or advantage in getting one.  At least, I don't see any at the moment.

The seller replied, saying that he did accept money orders, which is my preferred method of payment.  And so I began waiting.  I put the listing on my watch list, and waited.  Now, I'm not particularly certain why I was waiting.  This listing was a "Buy It Now" listing, meaning that anyone could have swooped in and snatched it out of my eager hands at any time.

Last night, I decided that I had waited long enough.  The time left on the listing had ticked down to under 10 days, and I decided that I was pressing my luck just a little too much.  So, I clicked on the "Buy It Now" button, confirmed that I wanted to buy the item, and sent a message to the seller asking where I should mail the payment.

I received a reply earlier today.  I wrote a very businesslike letter, restating what I had purchased, and that payment was enclosed.  I purchased a money order, filled it out, put everything in an envelope, and went to the post office to mail the letter.

Now, all I have to do is wait.  And at this point, I can be patient.  That is how I'm going to fill in all of the gaps in my collection, after all.  Just taking things one at a time.

One gap filled . . . more than a few left to fill.

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