Player Piano: Reading Leads to Bidding Frenzy

Isn’t it amazing how one thing leads to another?

I’m only about 50 pages into the 341-page Player Piano, but I’ve already gotten to the scene where the author introduces the player piano. The song that it plays is “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” I don’t know the lyrics, but I figure they’re probably important, so I went online to look for them. While poking around the vintage sheet music section at E-bay, I found an interesting lot containing 100 pieces of popular sheet music from the early 1900s. It may or may not have contained “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” but that’s irrelevant. We’re talking about some really cool old stuff here, and with the bid at just $19.99, how could I resist?

I entered my maximum bid of $25.00 and I was winning until just a few minutes before the end of the auction. Someone had the nerve to outbid me! So I bid again. And again. The adrenaline was really pumping and the next thing I knew, I had bid $35.00. But that still wasn’t enough to win. I was about to go one more when my sanity caught up with me, and instead I watched the seconds tick away. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I think I just missed out on one heck of a deal, but on the bright side, the seller made an extra $15.00. Good for them.

And in case you were wondering . . . Yes, I did buy a copy of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” It was only a few bucks and I thought it might be fun to learn it. In a few weeks, if I can figure out how to make all the gizmos work, I’ll post an audio file of me playing it.