I Almost Lost at the eBay Game Today

So I've been watching an eBay listing for cans (go figure) for the last several days.  I didn't want to bid too early, that would make my opponents aware that they had competition.  So I waited until today, until the last hour, actually until two minutes left and then I made my move.  I figured two minutes was a good time to surprise the others, let them know I was in the game.  IF they were well-prepared, they could come back with a higher bid.  Or if their max bid was already higher than what I bid, the ball would be back in my court.  Two minutes should be enough time to see their move and leave me enough time to counter it.  So I typed in my bid at T-2:00 and hit the BID button.

That's when I panicked.  I got a message that said this seller required a PayPal account to be linked to the buyer's eBay account.  Couldn't the system see how many purchases I have made on eBay using PayPal?  Ok, maybe there was a glitch. I logged out of eBay, closed the browser, and faster than a speeding locomotive, opened a new browser, popped back into eBay, logged in and found the listing at T-1:00.  I placed my bid again and got the same message.  I'm not sure why, but at this point of near defeat, I fell back in my chair and thought, "I might as well be sitting on a penguin watching Santa bake cookies."  Again, I'm not sure why that popped into my head.

"Please don't sit on me"

I considered sending a message to the seller, "I wanted to buy the cans but I was having technical problems, can we do it outside of eBay?"  But there was already a bid, so then I considered contacting the seller and offering $2 more than the other offer.  Haha, but all jokes aside, time was still running out.  Luckily, there were no bidding wars going on.

I composed myself, entered my bid yet again, and this time when I got the message I noticed a button at the bottom of the screen that said "link your account," so I pressed it.  It went to PayPal, I logged in, I clicked the LINK button, it said I was successful, I clicked on "back to eBay" and ended up back on the listing page with twenty-three seconds left.  I calmly entered my max bid at this point, there was no time left for haggling, I had to shoot straight to the maximum amount I wanted to spend and hope for the best.  The page refreshed and I watched the counter tick down from 7-6-5-4-3-2-1.  I won the auction.

No one else cared about those cans.  That had been the most intense bidding war against myself I have ever been in!  And now my accounts are linked, so I shouldn't have to go through that again.  And now I will reconsider my Two-Minute Technique.  Things can go wrong in two minutes, maybe I should allow for a little more cushion when bidding.  Such a fun game to play.