E-bay car shopping

I tried to ignore my husband’s enthusiasm for the selection of cars found on the Internet auction E-bay.
I refused to show any interest when he wanted me to look at the jillion pictures of yet another car he really liked. When he told me all the details of each car he really liked: brand, year, model, accessories and mileage. I asked where each car was located.
He nonchalantly told me places like: New York City, Cleveland Ohio, Texas, California.
I just rolled my eyes in disbelief.
It wasn’t that we didn’t need a car. We did. In fact we needed two cars. Both of our cars were totaled within a month of each other. Each time my husband was driving. An errant deer crashed the sedan. An errant driver crashed the mini-van.
After the sedan, my husband reluctantly respected my distrust of buying off the Internet and began checking the classified ads – I preferred for him to be able to touch the car before agreeing to purchase it.
He talked with several car dealers before he settled on a make-do-for-now car. He spent the next couple weeks, repairing and replacing parts in the sedan. It wasn’t quite finished when the mini-van was totaled.
The E-bay bug hit again, this time with a vengeance. He produced massive research and pictures about every mini-van that fit his strict parameters. I sighed and went about my business. I simply did not have the time or the energy or the interest to listen to every piece of his detailed research. I was coming down with a bug of my own.
“Too many numbers and statistics for me. I can’t hold anymore. I am all filled up,” I protested.
He looked at me with total disbelief – “but Joan, you majored in mathematics in college.”
Math, yes, statistics, no. He is the family statistician – and a persistent one at that.
One night I was laying flat out on the couch too tired to think, when he found a great deal with a “buy now” price on a golden van he found on E-bay. He wanted to buy it, NOW! At that point, I just wanted to sleep. “Whatever, just try to stay in your budget,” I groaned and covered up my head.
Two hours later he announced he had gotten the van for a great price in Ohio. He also had a very reasonably priced airline ticket and had arranged to meet the seller at the airport.
He began grabbing clothes and packing a bag, telling me he would drive right back home.
“You are going to be a couple hours from the folks in Indiana, you may as well stay and visit a while” I said.
“Good idea,” He added more clothes to his bag and left.
Silence descended on the house.
No more lengthy descriptions of cars and mini-vans. No more urgent count-downs to the end of another E-bay auction. I slept undisturbed. Several days later he returned and again headed straight for the repair shop.
Last week, the final repair was completed. Counting the cost of repairs, the end price of the two cars hovered around the official Blue Book value – but the ton of stories he has to tell from his Internet shopping and purchase is priceless.
May his friends and family never weary of his stories and may the roads he travels be henceforth be free of deer and reckless drivers – I really don’t want to go through this process again for a long time.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)