I Got Dooped

I just got shafted again into buying something in a ridiculous manner. I want to share my story with all of you so you can perhaps more easily identify scams yourself in the future.
Before this hockey season, I have never played fantasy sports. For some reason, I was never open to them, learning about them, or being associated with them in any matter. I guess I was worried about becoming another fantasy sports playing/obsessed “nerd”—I apologize if you are one of these nerds. But now, the inevitable has become a reality as I have become a fantasy hockey obsessed nerd.
It all started this summer during my internship. I intern for a hockey writer and in our office, there are a number of my-age guys who all claim to know more than each other about hockey personnel—nobody is crazy enough to question my trivia prowess. But for years now, never have we had a way to settle this dispute.
Then this fall, our office’s senior intern—age not experience—decided that we should all create a fantasy hockey league for just the Fischler Hockey interns. Although I have no experience in playing any fantasy sport and although I really wasn’t even pen to the idea of playing any fantasy sport, as I take great pride in my hockey knowledge and as I am ultra competitive in these regards, I could not help but being dragged into this battle.
So about a month ago we held our fantasy draft. And not only was I determined to win our league, I was determined to do so by using non-big name players. So I went analyzed the 2006-07 stats and developed an elaborate cheat sheet to help me decide which players could best help me succeed in all fantasy hockey areas. In goal I took a first time number one goalie Niklas Backstrom (Minnesota Wild), I took second year defenseman Shea Weber (Nashville Predators), and second year forward Milan Michalek (San Jose Sharks). Although I would add a few established veteran stars, my fantasy hockey roster was sprinkled with young talent under the age of twenty-five. Then our season started an din week 1, I went 1-9-1. Not to impressive. But then in the next two weeks, as I went 9-1-1 and 8-2-1, as my “genius” began to be revealed, I could not help but begin to be obsessed with my fantasy team. Every night, I would go onto our league’s yahoo.com page to change my roster for the upcoming day and to more importantly, check my progress through checking on that day’s stats. Then a few days ago it happened.
Yahoo.com said that for me to be able to access player stats through yahoo.com fantasy sports, I would have to for 10 dollars purchase a stats tracker. I immediately bought the tracker.
The next day, I realized that I had been dooped in a very terrible way. You see, without the Stats Tracker, I would not be able to see my fantasy stats on the night that they occurred. But what I hadn’t realized was that while I would not be able to see my fantasy stats on the night they occurred, even without Stats Tracker, I could see my players and my entire team’s stats the following day. If I could just go to bed without knowing my fantasy hockey progress, I could have saved 10 dollars. And just like that, I was dooped out of 10 dollars.
You see, many times, these sucker-buys are not the couple hundred dollar jerseys or over priced ticker and season ticket packages. Sometimes, these products are marketed with the Wal-Mart mentality in that the goal is low price but high quantity. The idea is that if a person sees a product for maybe only $5 or $10 or whatever, then there is a good chance that the person would be willing to buy the product with little provocation.
I fell into the trip. With little provocation I though, “what could be the harm in spending only 10 dollars?” And just like that, my money was gone on something that I really didn’t need to buy.
That is how I got dooped. In order for you to not get dooped I have only one bit of advice, “think before you buy.” This may seem like a painfully simple concept but in reality, practicing this such behavior can go a long way. Maybe even sleep on a decision. I am not advocating putting yourself in a position where you never buy anything. I am just saying be careful and choose your spots. Or in other words, don’t be like me.