OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
In the 1996 Christmas movie "Jingle all the Way" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the premise of the movie centers on rival fathers Howard Langston (Schwarzenegger) and Myron Larabee (comedian Sinbad) fighting over the last Turbo-Man action figure that was available in stores because, as males typically do, they started shopping at the last minute. The movie was filmed at the Mall of America.
This year, I found myself, I assume along with many others, in a similar situation this holiday season even though I started shopping much earlier than usual.
My quest wasn't to obtain a Turbo-Man action figure. My search was for a Snoopy Puffer Jacket stuffed animal that was initially being sold for only $10 at CVS stores. Since this was such a reasonable price, the item was sold out in a matter of minutes in all the CVS stores that I called.
A worker at the CVS store in St. Cloud that I spoke with on a Thursday in late November assured me that a new shipment would be arriving in the store on the following Monday morning.
I woke up early that Monday and headed northeast from my home in Willmar to make the one-hour drive to St. Cloud. Upon arriving, I looked around the store, saw nothing resembling what I was seeking and asked an employee if the Snoopy Puffer Jacket stuffed animals had come in yet. A polite woman went to ask the manager and came back with information that they would not be getting any more of that item in their store because it was a one-time promotion.
I've always been a big fan of the Peanuts gang and I wanted to give this Snoopy Puffer Jacket as a gift for my granddaughter. I had many other items that I could get instead for her, but this now became my holiday quest and I wasn't about to give up so easily.
I made call after call to CVS stores in Minnesota (they are more popular in the Twin Cities area than the rest of the state.) I even had friends in numerous locations looking in stores for me.
I searched online at CVS, Walmart, Target, Amazon and several other sites. None of them had this item.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was persistent in trying to get a Turbo-Man doll in the movie, so I figured I would be just as persistent.
I continued my search online to see if anyone had a new one to sell. I didn't want a used one, so I avoided online garage sale sites and places like ebay. Not finding anything, I decided to see if someone might have one on ebay in good shape. I quickly realized why there weren't any in the stores. There were hundreds of 'brand new" ones available for sale on eBay. I have heard about people hoarding popular items and then selling them for a big profit, but didn't realize ebay was one of these sites. I was always of the understanding this was a site for used items. I was wrong. Because of the enormous demand for this Snoopy product, people were asking, and getting a lot of money for it on ebay. Many of the sellers put the item up for bid to jack the price up even more. They were getting three figures!
I spotted one Snoopy that must have just been placed on ebay while I was on the site because the bid price started at $5 and was set for bidding for three days. Just in case no one else had spotted it, I placed a $5 bid. Before I had barely tapped the send button, the bid went up to $10. I figured I will be smarter this time and not get into a bidding war until closer to the closing bid time. Three days later and with under 30 minutes remaining, the bid was still at $10. Gambling is not my forte, so I went ahead and bid $15 and waited with crossed fingers. The time was now down to 10 minutes and still no one had outbid me. I was as excited as a little puppy on a new rug.
With five minutes remaining for the closing, the bid went up to $20. Should I go to $25, I thought to myself? Is it really worth that amount for a small stuffed animal? Suddenly, like fireworks going off, the bidders were battling one another. Unless you've looked at this item online yourself, you won't believe what people are paying for this stuffed dog wearing a winter jacket and stocking cap.
On Sunday night, I checked ebay and saw two of this one-time $10 sale item selling for $259. Several others were over $100. The least expensive was $51 but it still had two days of bidding remaining.
My quest has officially ended. I'm not giving my money to hoarders that do this for a living.