All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

I just won an auction for an iRiver iFP-899 on eBay (link) — and I wasn’t at my computer. The ones that aren’t set with “Buy It Now” are selling for $100+ at the moment.

My two weapons:

1. UnWired Buyer (free)
2. Auction Sniper (first three snipes are free, add three more snipes per referral - more details)

A few days ago, I set a maximum bid within Auction Sniper. Today, I was on the way back from school when I got a text message notifying me that in five minutes, I’d be receiving a phone call from UnWired Buyer. I wasn’t planning on bidding in realtime, because Auction Sniper would do that for me within the last five seconds of the auction.

Listening to the bids being made in real-time, I chuckled and listened in anticipation for the final seconds. At the end, the voice said something to the effect that I won with a bid of $78. I hung up and giggled with glee for about a minute.

If you’re curious, I bought this device in hopes that it’ll record class lectures much better than my iPod + iTalk. Also, I might use it to start a podcast. Have I mentioned that before?

Don’t you hate it when you see a good price for an item you were thinking of purchasing retail - only to find that the shipping costs made up for it? That’s my exact gripe trying to find an iTalk for my 3G iPod thru eBay, since retail is $39.95. I wanted to record class lectures, mainly. (I can care less if the speaker stinks, just as long as it records well.) It looks like I’ll just be buying it tomorrow in the Pasadena Apple Store after class. (I’ll have to hold off on the LCD monitor for awhile.)

Note: I’m not saying that all eBay sellers charge a lot for shipping. It just seems like a lot do. No offense.