Why do I wait?
It happened again. Just today, it happened again, and again I didn’t learn the lesson the last time. So I ask you, friends and neighbors: why do I wait?
Situation: I want a toy. We all know that feeling intimately, since we’re here. But it doesn’t have to be a toy. There have been a handful of the same type of situations lately. But for now, let’s go into the fact that there’s a toy I wanted.
The toy I’m speaking of right now is the new Storm Collectibles Scorpion. I don’t know how deep I want to go into the line as I’ve never been a big player of Mortal Kombat. Like, I haven’t played it since it was on the Sega Genesis and you had to input a code in order to do the entire point of the game, which was the bloody fatalities. I’ve been considering picking it up for the PS4, but there’s really only so many times I can do the same thing, so I don’t know.
Regardless, I love the idea of Mortal Kombat toys. There’s never really been exceptional ones, but these look like they might be it, so I wanted to test out Scorpion, and if I liked him, then I’d get the main ninjas. If I really got into it, maybe all of them. Who knows. I’m weak.
The trouble comes in when I bookmark something.
You know how it goes. You see a toy, you take notice of the price, you think about what else you could buy for that money, so you bookmark it, so you can decide. Since this happened to be at BBTS, I was able to check the stock. There were over 24 available. Good, I had time. Time to decide. Time to make a decision about that 50 bucks.
But then today I notice a flurry of activity on the Mortal Kombat thread.
People are talking about how Scorpion has sold out, and is selling out everywhere.
Son of a…
I went to my bookmark, and clicked it.
What the hell happened to “over 24 available?”
SOLD OUT. In big red letters.
Big red words that signal the end.
Son of a…
I put “Scorpion” into search, and narrowed it down to Storm Collectibles Scorpions. One regular, one deluxe—blood spattered—and both were SOLD OUT.
I do the usual thing you do when you find out something you had not yet made a final decision on has sold out at one place, which is start checking other sites.
Ok…not finding a whole lot elsewhere. Inflated prices, inflated prices, sold out, sold out.
I sort of cocked my head to the side, let my head lazily droop backwards, and stared cockeyed at the ceiling for a second. And there were obscenities, friends and neighbors. There were obscenities.
It happened again. I let indecisiveness and—let’s face it, plain old cheapassness—get in the way again.
Each time this happens—and yes, it happens over and over, because I am the stupidest man on the planet and literally never learn—I say to myself that I should know better than to wait, because every time I wait, the thing I’m waiting to buy ends up selling out. I’ve tried to get better attuned to my whims, but you can’t buy everything. Just….almost everything. Some things. This and that.
Either way, the universe is apparently trying to tell me something about waiting. It’s teaching me a cold cruel lesson. I say this because of October.
Last October, I wanted to buy the recent two-volume hardcover collection of Ralph McQuarrie’s Art of Star Wars. I love looking at things like that, design sketches, behind-the-scenes stuff and so forth. But it was…a hefty set, and at a large price.
If you’ve been reading this so far, then you know what I did. Yes, I bookmarked it. For later.
FOR LATER.
Later came. One week later, to be precise.
Sold out.
Sold out at amazon. Sold out at Barnes & Noble. Sold out everywhere, and going for a premium on eBay.
Fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….
I had let it happen again, after not learning the lesson the time before that. Because I am a stupid man. A stupid, cheap man.
Nevertheless, I kept clicking on that bookmark. For two days, I would routinely return to that bookmark, clicking it again and again. And again and again, it said out of stock.
What’s that they say about insanity and repeated actions, hoping for different results and all that? Don’t care, still clicked.
One week later, I clicked it.
In…stock?
I added it to cart. Hit submit. They were sold out by the end of the day. Days passed. I munched nails. It arrived.
I got one.
The universe threw me a damn bone, and I scooped it up. Never again, I said. Never again would I put off buying something I knew I’d want.
Well, that didn’t last long.
So back to today. Sold out. No Scorpions anywhere. Ok, I’d have to do without.
Before I closed BBTS, I decided to re-enter the word Scorpion into search, just one last time.
Nope. No luck. Sold…
Wait…the deluxe doesn’t have the big red SOLD OUT. Now it has the big green IN STOCK.
What a difference five minutes makes.
I clicked on the figure. I added to cart. Went through checkout. Finished. So instead of 50, I now spent 75. That was essentially a 25 dollar stupidity tax, but ok, I got one.
I searched again.
Beside both the regular and deluxe, once again, in big red letters: SOLD OUT.
The universe, I think she’s trying to tell me something. I don’t think there will be a third chance.
Number one, this better be the best toy in the world. Number two, I will never again be indecisive about something that I know I’ll probably want.
At least, until the next time.
