Today is the birthday party for our nephew who is turning 14. 14! How did that happen? I am sure you all know the feeling of seeing the youngsters in your life growing up. For some reason this birthday seems to be pretty monumental. Maybe because in my head I know that I was just 14 when I met Jim? I was a fresh faced high school Freshman when we met (he was one year ahead of me in high school but we shared Spanish I together)!
Anyway, when our nephew was born we started the Precious Moments Birthday Train for him. Are you familiar with this? It’s a series of Precious Moments figures that form a train. Every year a piece of the train is added that corresponds to the age. For example, this year is the walrus train car.
We typically order the piece online from Amazon or eBay because the pricing is about the same as buying them in a store. Some Hallmark stores carry Precious Moments figures but it is hit or miss and we don’t have a Hallmark store in our town so ordering online just makes sense for us.
Last weekend we were being thrifty and checking prices; I found the walrus on Amazon for $20.95 and added it to my cart. It was on Amazon Prime, so that meant shipping would be free. For some stupid reason I did not check out Saturday night but decided I would complete the sale on Sunday. Dumb move – when I logged back in to my Amazon account on Sunday morning I discovered the price had jumped to $29. This happens a lot with Amazon and is one of the reasons we always warn you not to wait when a hot deal on Amazon pops up. Why did I not heed our own advice?
I complained to Jim and he checked eBay and found a seller in New York with the #14 for $24 with free shipping. We emailed to say if they could ship it out Priority Mail on Monday we would go ahead and buy it. They responded that they would. Priority Mail from New York to Michigan should arrive in plenty of time we figured so we went ahead with the sale. We received confirmation on Monday that the item had indeed been shipped. End of story, right?
Nope! As I write this it is Saturday morning and Wally the walrus is still not here. Arg! The last update on the tracking number is dated the 23rd …. Monday! The party is this afternoon.
If our mail comes on time there is a slim chance that we will receive the package today and we can quickly wrap it and make it to the party on time. But what if it doesn’t arrive? It isn’t and end of the world problem but it does make me sad. Although our nephew is 14, he is a collector kind of kid and really enjoys getting the piece each year along with all the other gifts we give. I know he will understand if he unwraps a box with a note saying that Wally is coming soon, but it just isn’t the same.
This whole scenario just makes us both realize how Amazon Prime has impacted our lives. Had we have ordered this from Amazon we would have had it in 2 days guaranteed. No stress, no waiting for the mail, no guessing. 2 days guaranteed. We ended up saving a total of $5 by purchasing on eBay instead of Amazon; totally not worth it as we look back at the scenario now. It’s not the eBay sellers fault. The seller shipped the item on time so they upheld their end of the deal. My frustration lies with the US Post Office and their time frame for the delivery. Lesson learned!
If you are not an Amazon Prime member you may not be familiar with all the perks of the program. We’ve written quite a few articles about Amazon Prime you can view here. You can try Amazon Prime for free for 30 days!
