Ah, the joy of Chinese market shopping

I was over at the nearby local market the other day buying fruit and veggies and some hardware.. wire cutters for changing guitar strings, clippers for trimming plants, etc.. and I saw this lady selling sports stuff.. and we needed a new soccer ball so I went over.. did some good bargaining and got a nice looking full size ball for 50 rmb (about $7).

I felt pretty good about my shopping prowess. Came home, Eli kicked it once and the leather popped. We played and suddenly it just started morphing and blowing up and exploding. And then it looked like this.