Last weekend, I was struck with the urge to purge. After cleaning out the contents of an old four-drawer filing cabinet, I put the cabinet up for sale for $30 on Craigslist. Within an hour, I received no fewer than ten responses to the ad. Here are my favorites:
"I don't drive but I want to buy the cabinet. Do you think that I can bring it home on the train?"
"Why are you selling the cabinet so cheap? What's wrong with it? If nothing, then I want it."
"How close is the Mainline to Maryland?"
"I would like to purchase the filing cabinet. If you could deliver it after 6pm weekdays or between 12-5 on Sunday, that would be great. I live near 19th and Chestnut."
This individual's email signature identified him as an academic. Specifically, he is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. This news totally shocked me as most academics are not this presumptuous and have a much higher level of self-awareness. He must not be tenured.
"Is the filing cabinet still available? If so, I want it. I have a lot of papers to feel."
I ended up selling the cabinet to a woman named Barb who lives two towns over. Once I gave her my phone number, she called me no less than 13 times asking for re-measurements, additional pictures, approximate weight, and my opinion on whether or not the cabinet would look good with black office furniture. I answered some of the calls; most I let go to voice mail.
Around call 7, I began to fantasize about delivering the cabinet to 19th and Chestnut. By call 11, I would have paid the professor $30 to take the cabinet from me. By the time Barb arrived, the cabinet was at the end of the driveway with a note taped to the top drawer instructing her to leave the money in my mailbox.
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and there you have it...i will never attempt a Craig's list sale...LOL
you crack me up. every. single. post. thanks for the giggle every day!
~amanda
I love your post! They're always funny.
Oy! I tried selling on Craigslist once. ONCE. And I pulled the ad within an hour.
I feel your pain! ;)
By the 13th call I would be thinking I might have a crazed stalker on my hands!
I would say you exaggerate, except that I have experiences like this every time I use craigslist! The most frustrating are the 10 emails within the first hour and then a week later, I am still holding the item I want to get rid of and noone has actually showed up to pick it up! We did deliver a computer desk down to Cape May once...we charged an extra $50 which bought us dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in AC on the way back home.. ;-)
Craigslist is really hit or miss. I sell my kid's stuff on there all the time. Sometimes stuff sells right away to normal people who come to pick it up when they say they will. Othertimes people email asking if they can have it for free ( that always comes along with a sob story) or they don't show up. My favorite though has to be the time I posted a printer for sale and I got an email asking me to ship it to them and they'd send me the money when they got paid.
Ha! I am on Craigslist right now searching for a bookcase and emailing every one I like for the dimensions. (I need it to hold scrapbooks so the depth kinda matters).
But I am polite and compliment their bookcases, too. Bonus points?
Hahaha - next time just put it at the curb with a FREE sign - I think that would be much eaiser. Yes, you wouldn't get $30, but you wouldn't have any hassle either.
You should see what you get from FreeCycle.
Oh I was going to try and sell some things on craigslist but now I am afraid to LOL
Gotta love Craigslist. Often the descriptions are just as outrageous as those emails! You can almost consider Craigslist the Sunday comics.
I've had some of the same experiences with selling items in our local newspaper.
Thank you for confirming that it's just easier to leave the stuff at the end of the driveway and hope someone takes it. If not, there's always trash day. Why does Craigslist attract such crazies?
Craiglist emails are so much fun - I posted a job on there once for a part time office person - oh the emails!
We've gotten crazy emails from people on CL!
My favorite was when the guy got here to pick up whatever it was. And asked for $5 off for "gas money" because it took him longer than he thought to arrive. Seriously!?! I gave it to him, because I was seriously SHOCKED!
"He must not be tenured." Hahahahah
Correction,
academics are very presumptuous and have an incredibly low level of self awareness.
Believe me I know, I've worked with many of them.
I sold my LSAT books on craigslist. The guy that bought them asked me what I got on my LSAT. I wanted to punch him.
OMG we sold a dresser on Craigslist last year & seriously the emails I got on that were almost identical. I could NOT believe the amount of people who wanted me to deliver the dresser to them! I even stated in the ad "Pick Up Only" and I STILL got emails asking if I would deliver. One person even asked if I would take $20 instead of the $40 asking price AND deliver it.
I feel your pain!
This is EVERY craigslist sale I have tried. Once, a man emailed me that he wanted me to deduct his mileage and gas from the price, then another man tried to guilt me into dropping the price b/c he was on a fixed-income.....blah blah blah, and then showed up in a shiny Jaguar convertible!
I always know where to go when I need a little clever humor.
Love it. This explains why our house is a cluttered mess.
I've had success on craigslist but it is time consumming. And now when people comment me I always let my husband handle it. I sold a mirror once. took a picture of it and of course I was in the picture. creepy people out there. one guy said he wanted to buy it as a present for his wife. (it was an ugly mirror by the way) and then I responded to him asking if he could come pick it up he then responded with some nasty comments. I got a few other replys from other guys too. Good thing I never gave out my number or address. the picture was fuzzy too. and I was a huge pregnate fat lady wearing my husbands basketball shorts and t-shirt so I'm not sure how anyone found that attractive. So be careful not to take pictures that show your reflextion. I just let my husband deal with it now. too many perves out there!
You are just DAMN funny!
That's all there is to it.
No if ands or buts...just hysteria!
Love, love, love your posts! I would SO hang out with your navy hose, geriatric glass wearin', matronly self if we lived close. You are FUNNY!!
Speaking of CraigsList...
I found a litter of kittens in my garage once. After nursing them back to health and getting them de-wormed I placed an ad on -- you got it – CraigsList, offering them for FREE. I was amazed at how many of the inquiries requested I pay for their shots and neutering first. Why would I be offering kittens for free to strangers if I had invested $200 into each one of them? Soon enough, I found homes for all of them but six months later I received an email from one owner telling me she was pregnant and no longer wanted the kitten and asked me to take it back. That's when I decided I was done with CraigsList.
You obviously should have asked for more money :)
Why are people SO CRAZY? It is a file cabinet! Not a villa in the South of frickin' France!
x,
Paula
www.adhocmom.com
Hilarious! I sold my daughter's Barbie Jeep at Christmas and I had one person email and ask if I'd consider just giving it to her. Um. No. I finally sold it to a super nice mother who made the whole thing worth it.
I love craigslist. Best place on earth to get hand me down stuff rather cheaply. I have similar experiences to those listed, but I found them to be similar to working retail. People would come up to me at work and ask me if something or another would match their furniture. I've gotten similar e-mails on craigslist ads.
But by far it is a great place to get great items.
--
To the person who gave the kittens away, that is actually against the law and against the terms and agreements of Craigslist. Be careful doing that or you might get fined.
Actually Sean, it is not against the Craigslist rules to re-home an animal. Their website states:
"No pet sales or breeding please -- rehoming with small adoption fee OK"
I did not accept any money whatsoever (which is the reason I was so surprised that people expected me to neuter and spay the kittens before giving them away).
Also, there is no law in my state saying an animal cannot be re-homed. I did have them vet checked (on my own dime) before adopting them out and they were deemed healthy.
Coincidentally, I did a craigslist sale today. My husband took the photos, placed the ad on Craigslist, fielded the e-mails, took the calls to HIS cell, set up the meet time, met the people and sold the item. He then handed me the cash. It was a perfect sale.
HAHAHAHA!!! Just as bad as a yard sale!!!
i bought a stroller on craigslist recently and i think i know more about reasons for the sellers recent divorce than her rat of an ex-husband.
clearly, i chose sides.
that's what you do for people whose address you now know and whose crap you now own.
I have yet to have a non-creepy Craiglist experience. My only solace is that the extremely EXTREMELY homosexual Dungeons and Dragons costumed gentlemen with butt-length hair picked up the xbox at our OLD apartment, days before we moved. They were really very nice on the phone and in person. They drove down to Provo from SLC and you could tell they were trying so hard to be extra special careful not to scare the Happy Valley residents. They smiled big and spoke in soft, gentle, "don't be afraid of us" tones. Fortunately I'm from upstate NY, LOL!
Re: the professor -
He could also be old and not quite sure how Craigslist actually works. :)
Is it bad that I'm now reading your blog not only to read what YOU have to say but to read all of the comments? I think I need to get off the computer. :)
I was going to tell Sean the same :) There is a pets category ion the Community section and you can aske up to $50 to rehome. I know this because I am a Craigslist junkie. LOVE the place for buying and selling. Only I meet people in the grocery store parking lot or mall parking lot to make the exchange of goods. I also watch the pets section specifically so I can flag the idiots who breed their animals and try to sell them on CL for hundreds of dollars. I don't flag the ones that follow the rules though :)
I have had my weirdest experience on Craigslist as the purchaser--I called inquiring on a freezer and the lady spent half an hour telling me the sob story of her life and her health. I felt bad, but it guaranteed it I wasn't going to buy her freezer!
so funny. i have a ton of extra furniture in the garage, but i'm not ready to deal with the hardcore CListers.
Oh my gosh I love this post!! Some of my sales on craigslist have been smooth and great. Some have been almost as delightful as your experience.
That's too funny! I've never tried to sell on Craigslist before. If I ever sell anything, I use Kijiji and have had some great experiences selling a few things including a laptop a few months ago.
You never know who you will find on the Internet. 12 calls! I would have charged her extra, lol
Sincerely,
Moncton Blogger
hysterical!
I hate posting anything on CL, too many spammers!!
Fun post!!:)
lol! Craigslist is almost like posting your info on a truck stop bathroom stall. Every weirdo comes out.
This story is hillarious!! There are a lot of crazies out there...ooops did I say that?! I hate it when my inside voice takes over!! Cute post!
I never EVER let anyone come to my home when I sell something on craigslist. Just pick the most normal sounding person and have them meet you in a large public area, I usually choose a grocery store parking lot.........that way they don't know where you live then and you can make the transaction quick and get out of there. And make it somewhere close to you, they want to buy what YOU have, no need to waste your time and gas money. It's worked great for me, who has time to deal with possibly obnoxious/weird people?!
omg that is hilarious!!
Soooooooooooooo relate to this one.
a w e s o m e.
Heheh. Glad you did manage to unload it. I also have to recommend Kijiji next time. Craigslist is too full of scams, spams, and crazies, but I've had great experiences with Kijiji. And I love keeping my junk out of the landfill!
"This news totally shocked me as most academics are not this presumptuous and have a much higher level of self-awareness. He must not be tenured."
Really? I'm married to an academic and I beg to differ.
My favorite Craigslist posts are the free ones that say something similar to "couch is at the end of the driveway at XYZ driveway...first one to get here gets to take it"...I've always wondered how successful those are!
~WM
I use to be a huge fan of craigslist and actually met a lot of who I thought were normal people when I people when I offered to babysit kids on craigslist...turns out looks can be deceiving--one of the mom's ended up being investigated by the state and while that happened her 2 boys ended up living with us for a month, and just to let you know, while the mom was being investigated I was in communication with her case worker and mentioned how I wasn't licensed and and he was perfectly fine with that, then it turns out that another mother called 911 and accused me o various crimes I didn't do and when the state showed up to investigate me a week before Christmas they informed me that they were charging me with running an illegal daycare--yeah, after facing criminal charges because somebody else felt the need to make bogus charges when her life was in the crapper (by the way, not because of me, I bent over backwards to make her life easier, even lent her money to pay her rent one month and babysat for free on numerous occasions)so that she wasn't the only person suffering--the state tried to take my son because of my medical condition thanks to her phone call--
needless to say, I have avoided craigslist since then and had to hide all my blogs since she took information on it out of context and tried to say it proved I was abusing, neglecting, and perfectly incapable of caring for kids (did I mention I hadn't watched her kids in over a week before she felt the immidiate threat and had to call the cops at midnight to report me?)
anyhow, I am just trying to warn ya'll to watch out!!!! Even the normals can turn out to be super crazies and you don't want to have to find this out by talking to the cops at your door at 3 am on a saturday
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