For the sake of the future of this country, I’m hoping to holy hell that the reason that the new Playstation 3 is fetching more than what I paid for my first 3 cars combined is an over-abundance of geeky internet millionaires that have money to burn, and not because of an army of Veruca Salts stomping around shrieking, “I want a PS3 NOW, Daddy!” Or perhaps now that the Baby Boomers are starting to cash in their retirement accounts they are feeling generous towards the grandkids. I know this is unusual optimism coming from me, but with my work stress lately I’ve been trying to stay in my “happy place”.

While the vast majority of us can’t pay a 20x markup on a $500 gadget, I’m sure somewhere along the line many of you were overtaken by the shiny lure of commercialism and went a little overboard at Christmas, be it paying above retail, waiting in insane lines, or blowing right past the gift budget. My most recent extravagance was a couple years ago paying a stupid amount over retail on eBay for a Spongebob Krabby Patty Grill, which of course now sits collecting dust at the bottom of the toy box.

Anyone else? What’s your tale about the greatest lengths you went through to buy a gift?

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