Auction Fever

   “I thought we were going to the ball game,” asked Uncle Billy.
   “We are,” I answered.
   “Then why are we turning here?”
   “I have to stop at the post office.”
   “What for? We’re gonna miss batting practice.”
   “It’ll only take a minute … I have to mail a package.”
   “What is so all-fired important that I’ll miss Cabrera knocking taters into the right-field stands?”
   “You won’t miss him … I have to mail something I sold on Ebay yesterday.”
   Billy glanced over at me. “You’re an Ebay tycoon?”
   “I didn’t say that … I just sold something, that’s all?”
   “What?”
   “A 1941 souvenir cigarette case from Myrtle Beach.”
   “You’re kidding … someone bought an old cigarette case?”
   “People collect all kinds of things … you’d be surprised.”
   Billy shook his head. "How much did you make from that?”
   “Ten dollars.”
   “You’re going through all this so you can make ten bucks?”
   “I’ve all ready got the money … I was hoping to make a little more, but that’s what it sold for, so I have to deliver the goods.”
   “What made you think that?”
   “Some of those cases go for several hundred dollars.”
   “Really?”
   “Yeah … I saw some of the sterling silver cases in the two to three hundred dollar range … there was even one going for over a thousand.”
   Uncle Billy stared out the window. “You know, I’ve got a cigarette case that my father gave me … his father brought it back from Europe after World War One.”
   “You wouldn’t sell that, would you? That has to have a lot of sentimental value.”
   “If I thought I could get a thousand bucks for it … it’s gone.”
   I glanced over at Billy. “Seriously?”
   Billy glanced at me. “A thousand bucks for a dust collector that I haven't looked at in years? You help me sell it and I’ll give you ten percent.”
   “You got a deal.”