Category Archives: Shopping

I’ve mentioned before of our plans to move back to the childhood home of my kids. It’s the house I sold to my paternal auntie so I could defray part of the medical bills of my brother who was sick of leukemia and had to be brought to the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Just when I thought the deal was going my way, my aunt pegs a price that we couldn’t afford. I thought that since I sold the property at below market value , she would also give us the same deal. I think she knows how much we want the property. Even if I didn’t expect her to sell it at below market value, her selling price was illogical. Feeling disappointed, I checked out the listings of 3 brokers in the same village.

To my delight, I found a house wthin my budget not far from our old property. The sprawling bungalow owned by Dr C, a single woman in her seventies and a US citizen is almost twice the lot size of our previous home. The interiors looked brand new. If the house was a car, the mileage is quite low. What I found interesting was an apartment attached to the main house, with a kitchen /living room, bathroom, and 2 bedrooms. Construction materials were of premium quality. Though I am not too keen on marble floors, I loved the overall feel of the house. And the price? 30% below market value. Amazing value. The broker told me that it was in the market for more than a year so the owner was convinced to lower her price. Hmm, although I was still cautious , I excitedly broke the news to girls. They were thrilled to have an apartment to themselves. My husband said “it’s really a good deal”. It was pretty much everything we were looking for in a home, and it was at a price that we could afford. After checking the title at the Register of Deeds and a mutual agreement to the terms, we were ready to pay earnest money.

Something ticked in me. “This is too good to be true”

Though I loved the house, I hesitated to commit to the sale.

“Maybe the street gets flooded?” I thought.

I went back to the village to sniff around for any clues to the house. I saw a small sari-sari (convenience store) store a block away from Dr C’s house. In the pretext of buying a diet Coke, I asked the lady if the street flooded all the way to Dr. C’s house. She shook her head “no. but did you know that her maid got stabbed a year ago? and died at the hospital? Her neighbors claim to hear eerie shouts every midnight. Too bad her killer was never found. No justice at all to the poor girl”

“uh-oh. No wonder Dr C is selling it so cheap”

I was quite peeved at my broker for not revealing the violent death of a household member. I asked for the details. It went like this. It didn’t happen last year but over 3 years ago. Dr C’s helper woke up early in the morning and was surprised to see their carpenter waiting by the door armed with a knife. She yelled at Dr C to run and lock herself in the room. The poor girl was unable to run back inside the house since the carpenter caught up with her and repeatedly stabbed her at the chest.

Ugh! Do we still want the house? I asked L what she thought of the eerie ghostly sounds, and the killing.

The curious writer in her squealed “Cool… a ghost in a house would be exciting and spooktacular!”

Haha, I didn’t expect that reaction.

i turned to M . “What do you think of the ghost?”

M, in an imaginative mode was more intuitive “I’m not scared of the ghost. What’s scary is the living. That killer could come back to kill the new occupants. Just like that Amityville House killer”

M is right. Safety is an important consideration. The back of the house was a vacant lot prone to burglars who can easily climb the fence. Even with high fence rails, it was still possible to gain entrance using ropes and steel cutter. Using an electrified fence is not feasible since we had cats.

Much as we loved the house and the affordable selling price, we had to let it go. No , we don’t want a Filipino version of the Amityville Nightmare.

So we’re back to another house hunting adventure. Have any ideas?

(I’m in Baguio right now cooling it off)

Online shopping is quite tempting especially if one finds bargains. My sister in San Francisco tells me that she doesn’t go to the mall anymore to buy her clothes, gifts and even appliances. Unfortunately our credit card’s exchange rate is quite high. The only online shopping experience that is financially rewarding is buying at Amazon. All of my grief recovery books were purchased from Amazon. I often browse at myayala.com’s online shop but their prices there are not bargain deals. You know how we moms love bargain shopping. Three years ago, my sister-in-law in the States urged me to try selling at Ebay. Her vintage jewelry and children’s books raked in modest income. At that time, my online business was still at its infant stage. I thought maybe I should try selling some of my services at ebay.

Being an Ebay newbie, I didn’t actuallly read the fine print. Maybe I did but I could not comprehend the listing rules. Ebay requires sellers to input your credit card and dollar account details which I readily supplied. A few days after a failed Ebay sale, my Wells Fargo statement said that $7.00 was deducted from my balance. Confused, I emailed Wells Fargo that I don’t remember the sale and to investigate the matter. A few days later, Ebay emailed a strongly worded legal letter that I should pay $7.00 listing fee. OOh so that’s where the money went , I thought. But Wells Fargo was a bit too hasty. They credited the $7.00 back to me just because I complained. I didn’t tell the bank to do that. Now Ebay was breathing down my neck. In the next few days, I received frequent “nasty” notices until they wrote back that my credit card will be billed $30 something for collection fees plus listing fee. Ridiculous! Now I owe them $30.00. I quickly called Citibank to stop the transaction. They said they can’t do that until the bill arrives and suggested that I talk to them. Thinking it was hopeless, I wrote a letter to Ebay apologizing that since I was an Ebay seller newbie to give me a chance. Happily, they did. I still had to pay the $7.00 though. My gosh, these Ebay guys can really hound you just for $7.00. Imagine the millions of sellers worldwide giving that income.

That Ebay seller experience prompted me to give up on Ebay selling. I know a lot of stay-at-home moms earn quite a living from it. I know I shouldn’t judge Ebay for that first bad experience but it dampened my Ebay seller enthusiasm. Now being a bargain shopper, I thought I’d test out The Ebay stores. Last year , my daughter spent two months in the states so it was perfect to deliver any purchases to her. I found a second hand book that was out of print and cheaper than Amazon. Oh dear. I found out too late that once you click “purchase to buy”, it’s good as sold. But I didn’t know that. I didn’t push through with the sale because the delivery time was too long. It was scheduled to arrive around the time my daughter’s return trip to Manila. To cut the story short and a few “nasty” emails later, I apologized once again to the buyer and Ebay for being such a clueless Ebay buyer.

Never again will I go to that darned Ebay site. Or so I thought.

 

To my horror, Lauren got herself a belly piercing. I comforted myself with the thought that the piercing will get covered by her clothes. However the belly piercing failed. My husband and I were happy but not for long. To my utter disbelief, she got an eyebrow piercing. My husband and I wailed! “How could you disfigure your pretty eyebrows?” My husband said he will get a metal ring on his nose. I nodded and added that I will get a diamond studded nose ring too. “You look too feminine for an eyebrow ring!” , I continued with my rant. My daughter was steadfast in her decision and said that she will order pretty eyebrow rings so she won’t end up looking like a punk.

I don’t know why she chose an ebay store but she found PiercingPal
, which is based in Thailand. She wanted these rings that cost $20.19 including shipping.

Not only was I stressed out with her eyebrow piercing, I suddenly felt heavy pit in my stomach . I recalled the past Ebay horrors as I waded my way around the Ebay site navigation. (Actually she could have done this herself but Paypal is weird. It doesn’t like different Philippine IP addresses in a Paypal account)

Finally, I found the “PAY ME NOW” link glaring at me. Purchase was succesful.

My daughter awaits eagerly for her purchase. Let’s see in the coming days if that Ebay experience is positive.