Online auctions like MadBid.com and Swoopo.com require nerves of steel and a clear head. So be smart, don’t mix bidding and boozing.
There was a time when coming home late from the pub meant a slice of cheese on toast and the last 20 minutes of a black and white horror film. A weekly ritual that had us waking up on the sofa at 4am with ITV’s nightscreen, half a cup of cold tea and a crick in the neck for company.
Nowadays, post pub entertainment is significantly more sophisticated. We can terrorise the neighbours with a quick blast of Guitar Hero or get online and test our Pro Evo skills against a kid in China. Digital TV means no more nightscreen. Even in the wee hours there will be something still showing – and not just a 40-year-old offering starring Christopher Lee.
And of course, there’s the internet. Information, entertainment and stimulation the likes of which our parents could only dream of. There’s something on the worldwide web to cater for every taste. No matter how eclectic you think you are, there is probably already a Facebook group for your chosen passion.
But beware. The internet can be an expensive place when whiskey and beer – not to mention shooters of brightly-coloured goo – are clouding your judgment. Take online auctions for example. To pick up a brand new iPhone, a home entertainment system, a bundle of cash or even a car for a fraction of the ticket price, you need to have your wits about you.
If you were fighting in the trenches, you would have got a shot of rum to calm your nerves before charging a line of machine gun positions armed with a rifle and a big coat. And if you hit the rum before a late night online auction session you too could become cannon fodder – albeit metaphorically rather than literally.
Boozed-up post-pub amateurs are like the lame wildebeests of the online auction world. They thrash about in a haze of liquor-induced bravado, blowing their precious bids and missing out on the biggest savings.
Our lions – the practised, experienced bidders - are biding their time. Calm, collected – and sober – they pick off their drunken rivals, landing the top prizes and laughing all the way to the front page of the MadBid website. Our wildebeests wake up – prizeless and penniless - wishing they had passed out on the sofa.
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