Bigger and Better

Have you ever played the game Bigger and Better?  Our youth group played once when I was in high school.  Here's how it works:  you split into teams of a few people, and each team gets a penny.  You go around the neighborhood or town knocking on doors and asking people if they have anything "bigger and better" that they would trade you for.

It's an amazing game - we started with a penny.  I remember the next thing we got was a quarter (some guy thought it was worth 24 cents just to get us off of his front porch).  Eventually we figured out a better marketing strategy.  We'd ask for something "bigger and better" perhaps something they'd been meaning to get rid of, or were tired of having around the house.  This eventually yielded us old exercise equipment and a canoe with holes in it.  Definitely bigger and better than a penny!

Yesterday Lily and I were at home.  It was about 12:30 and we were finishing up lunch.  Through the kitchen windows, I saw 3 middle to high school age boys bound onto my porch and ring the doorbell.  I thought they were probably boy scouts (sans uniforms) trying to sell popcorn or something.  So I trudged to the door.

When I opened it, the eldest smiled and said, "We're playing a game called Bigger and Better, boys against girls."  I nodded my understanding and he held out a can of Chef Boyarde.  "Do you have anything bigger and better than this you'd like to trade us for?"  I told them I was sure I did, and to hang on a minute.

I walked to the pantry trying to think of what larger can of something I had that I would never use.  Then it caught my eye - that thing that had been sitting around collecting dust for months, that thing that I was tired of looking at:

It was a fully functional PS3 Guitar Hero game, game and working guitar with batteries included.  Chase's PS3 bit the dust a few months back and despite our best efforts to fix it, we ended up getting rid of it.  So this game and guitar are now useless to us.  I tried posting it on a buy/sell/trade network I'm on, but hadn't gotten much response, and every time I thought about reposting it I got a headache.  So I grabbed the dusty box and trotted back to the front porch.

I handed it over to the boys and explained, "My husband's PS3 broke, so we don't have a use for this any more.  It's all here, game, guitar, everything - it works perfectly.  You may not want to trade up from this, I don't know.  But good luck."

They looked at me with wide eyes, handed over my can of Chef Boyarde, and took off.  Through my kitchen window, I watched them consult one another as they walked away.  I wondered what they'd do with the thing.  In any case, I was glad it was no longer collecting dust in my house.

Later that day, around supper time, I hadn't yet had the heart to tell Chase I'd just given away the PS3 Guitar Hero without even a chance of getting any $ out of it.  I wasn't regretting my trade with those boys, I was just unsure Chase's response.  About that time, the eldest of the three boys came trotting up the walk.  I met him at the door.  He said that they had sold the game and that he'd come to give me this:



It was my turn to look at him wide eyed.  I asked how much they made off of it.  He said they sold it for $60, and that he was there to give me $20.  I was floored!  I asked what group he was with, a youth group or a school or something?  He said it was just a group of cousins playing a game.  I asked if he lived in town, and he told me which neighborhood.  I congratulated him, took the $20, thanked him and sent him on his way.

I returned to the kitchen and Chased asked, "Who was that?"  I relayed the story, handed over the $20, and we sat in happy disbelieving silence for a minute.

"What a great story."  Indeed.  And what a great place to live.