A Holiday Story…the eBay Way!
by Daphne
eBay Staff Member

One night, Pat was restless and couldn't sleep, so she got out of bed and went to the computer to surf eBay.

As a Cabbage Patch Doll collector, she had made many purchases on the site for her collection. When she started to look at listings of her favorite dolls that night, however, somehow they didn't hold their usual attraction for her. Bored and restless, she turned her attention to exploring what other dolls were available on eBay, and somehow she ended up looking at the Tiny Tears category.

Pat had owned a 13" Tiny Tears baby doll when she was a child. It had been a gift from her father when she was born, and it had reddish-brown painted hair the same color of her own. It was the only personal gift her father had ever given her, and Pat had loved that doll! Each morning while her mother put on her nursing uniform, she would dress herself and her baby doll. As Pat grew older, she tucked it secretly into the bottom of her book bag and carried it with her everywhere she went. Even as a grown woman with children of her own, she'd kept that cherished doll with her. Then 26 years ago, it was in a box that was lost during a move. She had regretted losing it ever since.

Surfing eBay that late night, Pat was stunned when the very first Tiny Tears listing she looked at was her doll!

"I thought I was just imagining things," said Pat. She looked at all the other listings for Tiny Tears dolls, but it was evident to her that none of them were her doll.

"I began emailing the seller questions that I knew only the seller of my doll would be able to answer," Pat continued.

The seller had restored the doll's head and was able to describe each little flaw. Patrice, the doll's seller, was amazed on her end, as well!

"She could describe every little problem with the doll and tell me the story behind each one and how it happened!"

One of the flaws that convinced Pat this was her doll was a little finger that had been bitten off by Pat when she was five or six.

"I was so mad at my Dad that I bit her finger off, and then I cried for hours and hours that I'd hurt my doll!"

Needless to say, Pat placed a bid on the doll, but there were other interested buyers, and so the start of a very long six-day wait began. Soon the word got out about her story, and she began receiving email from people she didn't even know who were rooting for her.

"I even heard from one lady who had lit a candle for me at her church!" Pat said, amazed at the outpouring of support.

At one point, Pat was afraid she might lose the doll. She increased her bid, and then nervously waited until the listing closed.

"Both of us were on Pepto by the end!" said Patrice, who had even set aside a few special Cabbage Patch clothes to send Pat, as a way of cheering her a bit in case she didn't win the doll.

The story has a very happy ending. Pat won her doll back, and within a few days she had the cherished doll--which the seller had dressed in a special 'welcome home' outfit--back in her possession.

"To me this is a story of hope," said Pat. "I wish I could email my Dad!"

Although her father passed away eight years ago, Pat continued, "I like to think my dad had something to do with helping me find her."