I’ve been looking on eBay for a particular item for my hubby’s upcoming birthday for a long time. A few days ago I found almost exactly what I wanted, and decided it was the best I was going to find. As in, not the color I had in mind and the wrong assortment of optional items, but still, pretty close – and time was getting short. (Sorry to be cryptic, but hubby has been known to frequent these boards.)
So I put in a bid for as much as my budget allows, and waited with crossed fingers to see if it would hold until the auction closed. (Five days, at that point.)
Two days ago, almost out of habit, I ‘searched’ for the item – and what pops up?? EXACTLY what I wanted, right down to the last little option, PLUS it had a bonus item thrown in, something that I hadn’t thought to get, but Hubby would love. And to top it off, it had a ‘Buy it now’ for $20 LESS than my bid for the first one. But – a bid’s a bid, I don’t welsh. 
So what do I find in my email tonight? Yep, an ‘outbid’ notice on the Almost Right one! I yelled Hooray, surfed right to the Absolutely Perfect One – and the Buy it Now was still active. CLICK! Mine, all mine! <does little happy dance>
This is not the first time this has happened to me, btw. It’s almost a theme in my life: I ‘lose’ an opportunity or prize or item that I really, really wanted – only to have it turn out that losing Version A left me open to get a much much better Version B.
For example, I missed out on a promotion a couple years back. I was totally upset, especially since the woman who got the job was my least favorite coworker. That is, I was unhappy until six weeks later when our company announced it was merging with another, and in the shakeout the newly promoted woman was let go, because there was a duplication of jobs and the other company’s ‘equivalent’ was much more experienced.
To make it even better, six months post-merge that guy moved up the ladder, and I ended up with the promotion anyway. 
So, how about the rest of you? What Happy Losses have you “suffered”?