Ping pong; make your reaction fast and beat your opponent is the only way I can describe the last 2.5 days. Our car broke down on Saturday. Sunday we walked to the stores. Monday, labor day, we shopped and found most of the car places not open on a holiday. Tuesday, I called in for a personal day. We went to the bank, arranged paperwork and then begin the search again. The car places that were open and the cars available had high mileage and not good consumer reports. I needed a way to arrive in work in one piece and in a car still running.

By the time, we were approved and the husband called the first place: our volley was off and the car was already sold. Good mileage, etc. As with the dealerships, we found some of the cars on the lot had already been sold. How was that possible? We did not understand the game.

The car was already sold on line to the prospective buyer. This is the way the game is unfolding. We were squashed for a few minutes and then we began to volley. Husband got on the phone and I got on the phone. We found the Ford escape 2019 with 24,000 miles within our price range. We said “yes” quickly.

At one point, I even posted on social media that we were looking and no one came back. No volley. After we got the deal we wanted and they promised to deliver as our car was not good for a long trip we found a dealership willing to deliver. I need the car for Wednesday to return to work, so it looks like the car will be coming in later today. I reported back to social media, ‘Looks like we found one. Whew.” An instant like letting me know others are looking for the same thing.

Ping-pong, the husband was pinging and I was pongginnnggg….and tomorrow, hopefully, I will be back in the flow. Lesson learned: people are buying online, so inventory is low and you have to volley quickly. Pull the trigger fast and not hesitate. It helps if you can work together and synchronize your play. Searching for a car, reviewing internet sites, going to the bank, following up with the purchase order has to be as stressful as buying a home, getting married, job interviewing, your first day on a job, having a child, meeting the step children, etc…the list could go on but we got this one, mostly.