Scrolling, Not Spending

Have you reached the end of Netflix, read every Reddit board, and just want to scroll?

• Stay off social media (you’ll just feel bad).

• Stay off the big A(mazon) (you’ll just go broke).

It’s time to window search. It’s window shopping, but online. And my favorite place to do it? eBay. 

Here are my favorite things to window search on eBay:

• “toys from (the decade you were in elementary school)”

  • where are my fellow Puppy in my Pocket fans?!

• “(the year you were a college sophomore) clothing catalogs”

  • all I would ask for every year was gift cards to Urban Outfitters

• “merchandise from (the name of your favorite restaurant)”

  • why is this the cutest Starbucks cup ever?

Window searching on eBay can often bring you that hit of nostalgia…or you just get random links to text someone and say “isn’t this sooooo cool/retro/fun.” And since you’re just searching things to find rabbit holes to go down, I’ve found I am way less likely to purchase something than if I was on a more traditional e-commerce site with lots of sizes, free shipping, a non-auction model, etc.

(Note: I said less likely, not zero likely. Ask me how I ended up with a 1990s Pizza Hut lamp in our living room…).

-Molly Beck