material of a thousand uses

I have another problem. It's called vintage kitchenware on eBay.

I am now the proud owner of a smattering of Fire King pieces and this beauty, a vintage (70s is vintage now, yes) Sunbeam 12-speed Mixmaster.
It all started so innocently.

Like everything else that is wrong with this world, I started looking on eBay for spoons. Me and the roommate (like nails on a blackboard, Katy?) have one spoon between the two of us. We had soup the other day and he kindly let me use it while he managed with a soup ladle. But he suggested I try eBay for a set, and since I got paid that day I thought why the hell not. A flurry of bidding later, I had a mixer, some bowls, and no spoons.

I have yet to use the mixer, but it is so damn pretty I don't care. The ("peach lustre," for all you lovers of kitchen porn) loaf pan made a terribly uneven banana bread, so I think I will be sticking to my clear Pyrex from now on. It is nice to look at, though!

I started to see something called Bakelite showing up in the vintage category. What was this marvel of physics and plastics, exactly? To Wikipedia!. It turns out it has a thousand uses, including handles for flatware. I was drawn in by the color, the tantalizing pictures, the - dare I say - tackiness of it all. I never once cared about what my forks were made of. I endlessly mocked a friend's boyfriend for buying a state-of-the-art titanium spork for camping trips. And here I am, debating "butterscotch or jade."

When the bidding reached $50, I knew I was in over my head. This is not why I am on eBay - I could buy a brand new set for cheaper than this, or just go to Junk in Williamsburg and buy 10 spoons for a dollar. Isn't that where this all started? I could understand if this was an ultra rare silver service set, but plastic?

Needless to say, we are still sharing one spoon. And wouldn't you know - tonight is soup night!