Talk about cold hearted. Last week I was telling my mom about how much I had been lusting after an HP Photosmart 8750 professional photo printer for the last few months, but couldn’t justify spending $500 on a printer at this point and time. Well, I found several auctions for used and demo printers, and had been watching one that only had a few bids. When I last talked to her about it, there was an hour left on the bidding, and at that time the price was $142 for a demo photo printer that was in perfect working order. It had one or two scratches on the lid, but came with $100 worth of HP brand ink. Hey, $150 or so for a $500 printer that was only demoed AND came with $100 worth of ink? Sounds good to me!
When there was just a few minutes left on the auction, I began bidding. I thought I had it, for less than $160, when at the last minute (LITERALLY!), another user began bidding against me. With 27 seconds left, I put my maximum bid of $200, because there were other auctions where I might have a chance at getting the same thing for less than that. Outbid. Fuck a duck. Disgusted, I closed the browser window and moved on to other things.
Later that night, my mom called to find out if I won the auction. I told her I didn’t, but had seen a similar auction elsewhere on ebay, and decided to keep an eye on that one. “Good”, she told me, and then mentioned seeing several auctions for the same printer, and she wished me luck with winning one.
For the record, I did win another auction – $210.00 + cheap shipping for a demoed printer with no damages and with inks. Go me. 
Anyway, the other night while at my grandfather’s place, he was complimenting some of the photos I had taken with my camera and printed on my small photo printer (an HP Photosmart 475 compact printer). I started gushing about the awesome professional printer I won on ebay. My mom suddenly pipes up with, “I guess I might as well tell you…”
Well, I’m sure you can figure out what she told me, based on the title of this entry. My mother, my own flesh and blood, sniped me on ebay. She swore she felt “a little bad”, and promised herself that she’d let me have the printer if I couldn’t get another one on ebay. Then she said she saw the ink she was getting with the printer, and didn’t feel that bad after all. I asked her how she could sleep that night, and she told me she slept just fine. Hah. 
14 Comments
, on February 2 2008 at 9:11pm:
If she’d have TOLD you she’d have gotten it cheaper so she really screwed herself there! 
, on February 2 2008 at 10:23pm:
That’s a hilarious story, but I’d probably be way more angry than you sound! Sounds like you have a good relationship with your mom.
, on February 2 2008 at 11:20pm:
What really pisses me off about that, is she will probably NEVER use the goddamn thing and it’ll just collect dust in her bedroom just like everything else. She just wanted it because you wanted it.
, on February 2 2008 at 8:32am:
I’ve never met your mom before, don’t know anything about her more than what you post here on occasion, but from what I’ve read I can totally see where’s Dan’s coming from. I would be so beyond angry.
But, at least it’s good that you’re able to see it as something kind of petty, and let it go rather than dwell and stew in it. Not really much sense in being mad about something you can’t change, right?
I’d still be mad lol
, on February 2 2008 at 10:30am:
I would be extremely mad. Its one thing if its some random person you dont know, but when its your own mother, who knew you were trying to win it… Like I said, I would be mad.
, on February 2 2008 at 10:33am:
That’s why when I make bids on Ebay, I don’t tell anyone about it until after I have won it. You just never know who will try to snipe you.
, on February 2 2008 at 4:01pm:
OMG! I would have been so mad (lol)! I would have probably asked the same thing: “How the hell do you sleep at night!!?”
lol, funny.
Glad you won a printer though.
As the domain name suggests, my name is Jenn, and I own this blog. I'm 26 years old and married to my one true ♥, Daniel. And while I have two kids (Alyssa is five, and Ryan is three), you won't find "mommy" in my username or email address, nor does my blog revolve around them. I'm a mother, but most importantly I am me, with a passion for love, blogging, reading, and photography. I'm also a busy freelance writer, web designer & SEO goddess, and a blogger relations person for an adult toy company.
lol…parents can be evil like that sometimes.