Be Adventurous. Buy a Car on eBay.

My mom traded my first car, an ’89 Pontiac Grand Am, for a washing machine.

I rolled my 2005 Toyota Celica about a eighteen months after I bought it – luckily, I emerged from that accident with barely a scratch.

I only owned my 2005 Toyota Camry for six months before it was t-boned and totaled by a drunk driver – miraculously, I wasn't hurt that time either.

For about two years now, I have driven lucky number 4 without any major incidents. My 2004 Honda Accord has heated leather seats, sun/moon roof, power locks, an alarm system, power seats, power windows, and all sorts of other features I would not have been able to afford if I hadn't found this jewel on eBay.

I looked through ads in the Grand Island Independent, the Kearney Hub, and test drove several Camrys that were older than my last one, practically falling apart, and cost more than the one I had just lost.
That's when my boyfriend suggested that I look on eBay.

I laughed it off at first, but he went straight to the computer and pulled up the eBay Motors page and started searching for Camrys.

I still thought he was crazy, so I went to the living room to watch T.V. About an hour and a half later he called me back to the computer. He hadn’t found any deals on Camrys, but he had found a tricked out Honda Accord that no one had bid on yet.

One little giggle slipped and in seconds I was rolling around on the floor holding my stomach and laughing. He wasn't impressed.

I felt bad for laughing at him because he thought I could get a really good deal on this car as long as I was logged on to eBay for the last few minutes of the auction to outbid anyone else who wanted it.
He threw a guilt trip at me – I printed out a CARFAX report and was surprised to find that the car sounded like a dream. It had a mile-long list of features, only one previous owner, and if I picked it up myself, I wouldn't have to pay $500.00 to have it delivered from St. Louis, MO.

I had just graduated from Central Community College the day after that drunk driver smashed my Camry, so I was ready to start my summer vacation. The eBay auction for the Accord was closing the next day, so I took the leap. I was starting to get pumped for a road trip.

I got on eBay the next day about an hour before the auction closed and I noticed that there was another bidder. I stayed online checking my numerous email accounts, but I barely raised my eyes from the clock.

Five minutes before the auction closed, I raised my bid. Less than 30 seconds later, the other guy copied. The bidding war went back and forth for four endless minutes, but I finally got smart – the other bidder had upped the bid at five seconds till closing time. I typed in my new bid, but I waited four agonizing seconds and posted my final bid in the last second.

I won the car! Too bad eBay isn’t a game show – I still had to pay for it.

I felt physically ill when I logged into my PayPal account and authorized the removal of thousands of dollars. Fortunately, my insurance money covered the new car and I had been saving for summer vacation all semester…and St. Louis happens to be on my way from Nebraska to my home state, North Carolina.

Thanks to the car I bought on eBay, my boyfriend and planned our first road trip together...two years ago.