Some people collect coins, other stamps. I collect video games.

It’s funny when life imitates art, especially when it’s comedy-like in this case. I enjoy the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. If you’ve ever seen the show, there’s a particular episode called “The Nerdvana Annihilation” where one of the main characters named Leonard Hofstadter bids $800 on a whim for what he thinks is a prop from the classic 1960 movie The Time Machine. Well, he ends up winning the auction because no one else bid and now is faced with paying the $800 amount and getting something that he didn’t think he would. I think you can see more or less where this story is going?

Since I hadn’t returned to my local “flea” market lately, most of my recent experiences looking for games have been online.

I decided to search for a couple of things on eBay, mainly just to see what would catch my eye and maybe get ideas into what I could look for later. I found a couple of games I had kept in the back of my mind, but nothing that I wanted to invest money into or that I had to have. I placed them along with a couple of more games and other things into my list to check back again later.

Let’s fast forward to a couple of days later. What I usually do at this time is sort of “trim the fat” from the list and eliminate what I think wouldn’t really be a priority in getting. Easier to find games that you can buy on websites and almost any local game store in your town. One game I for some odd reason left on the list was a brand new, still sealed, copy of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World for the Wii. Yes, the Wii. I said in an earlier article that I enjoy JRPGs, and this one would cost me a little. I noticed that the ending time for the game was a couple of hours away, so I set my alarm. After returning to my computer, I noticed that there were only around 10 minutes left in the auction. I, like Leonard, placed a bid on a whim seeing that other brand new copies were being sold for more than what I bid. I waited, and waited seeing the time tick down and my bid still the highest. 2 minutes to go in what I guess was someone trying to snipe for the game. This proved unsuccessful for them because by then time was over. I won the auction. I stayed there, staring at the screen, looking at the amount I had to pay now coming at a time when I really needed the cash, and this wasn’t a game that I felt I needed to get at this moment. But I paid and had the game shipped to me while I continued to eat my steady diet of ramen noodle soup and sandwiches. Oh and I removed the rest of the items in my eBay list.

I guess being spontaneous can be exciting at certain times. Walking over to that attractive person and striking up a conversation just for the sake of it, or doing something exciting like skydiving simply because you get the urge to. Here’s a small tip; never be spontaneous when it involves money. Or at the very least your own money.