Man's Search for iPod

I decided that I wanted to get my wife an iPod for Valentine's Day. I found out just before last Christmas that she'd like to have one, but I had already exceeded the strict limit that she places on my Christmas spending so that I won't do something ridiculous like buy her an iPod. Lucky for me, (and her) she forgot to put a limit on Valentine's Day. Knowing, as any nerd worth his salt does, that you can always find something online for less than retail, I began mid-January to search for an iPod. I quickly found that the cheapest place to get an iPod is eBay. The difficulty with eBay is that you have to read product descriptions very clearly to make sure that you are buying what you want to. On eBay, the title may say "Brand New!!! Apple iPod!!! Blue!!! Gen 3!!! 8MB!!!" What you are really buying is:

• An iPod knockoff
• Nothing, the seller is going to take your money and send you nothing
• A real iPod, but in a cheap plastic box with knockoff accessories and without those stylish yet oh so hard to keep in your ear white earbuds.
• What do you know! An actual new in the sealed box iPod

So I read the item descriptions carefully, selected my iPod with care, and... curse you eBay sniper! Repeat the process until you actually win an iPod. (This is where starting a month in advance seemed like a good idea)

The seller was listed with a Seattle zip code so I figured a week tops for shipping. After a week and a half and no iPod, I emailed the seller and asked where my iPod was. Some arm pulling ensued and he finally coughed up a tracking number. I was a little hesitant when I saw that my iPod had just cleared customs coming from China, but I reasoned, "iPods are made in China, right? Maybe he gets them for cheaper over there." When my package showed up three days later, I opened it to discover a chiPod (looks kinda like an iPod, smells vaguely like an iPod, but it isn't an iPod). There was no way I was falling for that. I emailed the seller who assured me that his supplier was to blame and that he would be more than happy to send me a real iPod. I sent his sorry excuse for Apple's finest back and again waited for my iPod. This was the week before Valentine's Day, and I started to get nervous. On February 12th, he sent me a refund and an apology - apparently, someone took offense to being sent a fake iPod (go figure) and complained via a Paypal dispute. His funds were frozen and this was all he could do.

I hopped on eBay again, because I needed an iPod fast. Putting all your Valentine's hearts in one basket is trouble if it gets replaced with a Chinese knockoff. I upped my bid to make sure I could get an iPod fast, thinking I could get it by Valentine's Day if I offered to sweeten the shipping. Valentine's Day came and went with no iPod. I thought for sure it would come soon and I could present it on Saturday, kind of a whole weekend celebration of Valentine's. On Saturday morning I got an email from eBay's loss prevention department. By Saturday night, I'd gotten another refund.

What choice was there now? Swearing off eBay for the fourth time didn't fix anything. I planned a month in advance and still came up empty handed on Valentine's Day. So I went to the apple store and paid full price. What did I get for that extra money? Well, for one thing, I actually got an iPod. I also got free shipping and engraving, real iPod accessories, and most of all, I got to celebrate Valentine's Day on February 28th and make up for missing it the first time around. Think she'll like it?

I think so too.