posted on September 1, 2007 09:11:14 AM new
By Katherine Rosman
On Sept. 17, 2003, in a chaotic intensive-care ward, just before being medically induced into a coma, my mother summoned all of her energy and whatever oxygen she could to make one request: "Take care of my eBay."
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Article appears in WSJ Weekend Edition and at wsj.com, but you need to have a subscription for the latter.
Basically it's a story about how a daughter goes on an odyssey to meet the people who interacted with her mother, an avid collector of Venetian glass who spent about $25,000 in one year on eBay.
Oddly (this writer must not have much experience online!) she published both her mother's email password and her eBay password. Her mother's eBay account is still active, even though Suzanne Rosin died in 2005.
posted on September 1, 2007 10:21:10 AM new
Fortunately it looks like someone changed the password before the bidding started.
I just read the complete article. It is enough to break your heart.
It was also very insightful as I saw a bit of myself in the way ebay becomes a controllable world in the midst of the uncontrollable thing we call life.
posted on September 1, 2007 10:27:30 AM new
I didn't see any activity. Did someone list/bid using the user id? What cads!
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posted on September 1, 2007 10:51:02 AM newI saw a bit of myself in the way ebay becomes a controllable world in the midst of the uncontrollable thing we call life.
Interesting.
Mrs. Rosin apparently also depended on that controllable world controlling her. Her adamant insistence that her eBay transactions be taken care of. Her fear that she might lose that world if she didn't complete the table transaction.
I had a similar situation with a big buyer who suffered a stroke. Her daughter said later that one of the first things she did when she was able to communicate in some way was to make sure I was paid for everything.
To aid her recovery, her daughter brought her back on eBay and even though she could not read or speak, she would point to pictures and her daughter would bid. This stopped after a few months. That account hasn't done anything on eBay since, though it is still open.
posted on September 1, 2007 11:07:52 AM new
While not quite as "dire" as this story, I recently had a buyer who was in the hospital. She had her neighbor e-mail me to let me know that she would pay just as soon as she was home and out of the hospital. I know we all hear these "hard luck" stories but this turned out to be legit and the lady paid two weeks later.
