March 13, 2008

Ever since I saw Steve Wiebe owned it in King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, I knew it was a good book and wanted it.  It jumped to the top of my want list (well, #2 to a Donkey Kong machine).

However, the search has been rough.  I read success stories online of people stumbling across it at a yard sale, or used book store for a quarter.  But, it seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.  During my search, however, I learned of more books that dealt with the strategies of Donkey Kong.  I stumbled across How to Win at Video Games – A Complete Guide (it is far from a complete guide by the way) and How to Win at Video Games by the editors of Consumer Guide (the same people that wrote How to Win at Donkey Kong) on Amazon.  So, I immediately ordered those.  While the latter is not the spiral book in the link, it is, as far as I know, an original of the same revision.

There is also another book on eBay currently that I want, which is called Playing Donkey Kong to Win.  But, the auction is out of my price range so I’ll wait to find it on Amazon or in a book store.  And finally, The Video Master’s Guide to Donkey Kong is also on my list.  I trust this will be a good book because it is written by one of the best players, and friend to Billy Mitchell, Steve Sanders.

Back to my original point.  I was looking at the eBay auction for Playing Donkey Kong to Win and thought to search for, on a whim, How to Win at Donkey Kong.  My eBay search came up short so I thought, “well, I’ll just do a quick Amazon search.”  Which, lately, on the advice of Andrew my quick Amazon searches usually include Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, and any other country I can think of.

Success!  Someone on Amazon.com has it!  So, I click on the link… $25!?  I really want the book, but I already have the PDF.  Do I really want to drop $25 plus $4 shipping?  I thought about it, added it to the cart just in case I can convince myself to buy it.  Then, I notice Amazon is running a special.  For signing up to receive an Amazon Visa Card, they will credit $30 to my account.  So I did what anyone would do in this situation… I sold my soul to the credit card company for a free book.

Yes, I signed up for a credit card to receive a book for free.  Which, I have a history of doing such things.  A few years ago I went to the Cincinnati Reds opening day with Andrew and it was cold!  It wasn’t so bad when the wind wasn’t blowing, but wouldn’t you know, the wind was constantly blowing.  And, of course I didn’t plan ahead and wore short sleeves.  So, we signed up for a credit card to receive a free long sleeve shirt.  Let me tell you, it was worth it.  Then as soon as the credit card came, it got cancelled.  Sorry MasterCard.  You win some, you lose some.

Some people may be thinking I’m a horrible person about now.  But, I look at myself as being a sort of Robin Hood.  Credit card companies will not think twice about trying to take everything you own because you get caught up in ridiculously high interest rates (which some people can’t help but for a lot of people it’s just bad money management).  Anyway, this is my way of sticking it to the credit card companies.  I’m signing up for their offer, getting my “reward” and never using the card.  Nowhere in the agreement does it say I have to use the card.  So, why not go ahead and cancel if I’m never going to use it?

But, of course, now they have my contact information so they’ll just sell it to some spammers.  I guess nothing is ever really free.   At least I’ll have my (rare) book.