(Special thanks to Glamma Fabulous for these Swarovski-studded shoes!)I have a love/hate relationship with Craigslist.
I have only started to use it in the last year, with mostly good results, but I’m still a little skeptical. Something about inviting a stranger, with whom you have only communicated via email, into your home to exchange cash for your stuff … One wonders if you won’t become the next Lifetime made-for-TV movie. (I can hear the voiceover now: “She was looking for a buyer, he was looking for his next victim.”)
Another reason, I hate Craigslist (and Ebay, too) is that you now feel obligated/entitled to some compensation, if not profit, for your old stuff. In my next life as a researcher, I plan to conduct a huge study on whether thrift stores have suffered from the Ebay explosion. Are things that used to be donated to charity now being sold online instead? (See, sometimes my blog actually makes you think.)
So, as you can see, I’ve developed a moral dilemma about the whole thing. But that hasn’t stopped us from placing our couch, dining table and guest bed on Craigslist recently. And from selling some plates and glasses on Ebay. (Mostly because we’re still poor and need some spare cash before we can make new purchases.)
So far, only our bed has sold on Craigslist. A bed that we bought on Craigslist in October. A bed that I suggested – nay, insisted – was necessary for our growing family. A place for Mr. Dub to sleep when the baby was first born. A place for me to change Miss Dub’s outfit 5-6 times a day. A place for guests to lay their heads. Until I decided I would rather have a glider and, since space is limited in our small apartment, there was no room for a glider and a bed.
So we put the bed back on Craigslist.
Within a day, someone had committed to buying it. But then, they stood us up. The next person who was interested seemed a little scary. He wrote, “Give me your address. Must see bed now.” (I mean, why not write, “I am actually coming to plunder your household. Please place all valuables in reaching distance.”) So I carefully explained that I needed to know when this person was coming before I could share my address. “OK. 6 p.m. Give me address,” he wrote back.
I have only started to use it in the last year, with mostly good results, but I’m still a little skeptical. Something about inviting a stranger, with whom you have only communicated via email, into your home to exchange cash for your stuff … One wonders if you won’t become the next Lifetime made-for-TV movie. (I can hear the voiceover now: “She was looking for a buyer, he was looking for his next victim.”)
Another reason, I hate Craigslist (and Ebay, too) is that you now feel obligated/entitled to some compensation, if not profit, for your old stuff. In my next life as a researcher, I plan to conduct a huge study on whether thrift stores have suffered from the Ebay explosion. Are things that used to be donated to charity now being sold online instead? (See, sometimes my blog actually makes you think.)
So, as you can see, I’ve developed a moral dilemma about the whole thing. But that hasn’t stopped us from placing our couch, dining table and guest bed on Craigslist recently. And from selling some plates and glasses on Ebay. (Mostly because we’re still poor and need some spare cash before we can make new purchases.)
So far, only our bed has sold on Craigslist. A bed that we bought on Craigslist in October. A bed that I suggested – nay, insisted – was necessary for our growing family. A place for Mr. Dub to sleep when the baby was first born. A place for me to change Miss Dub’s outfit 5-6 times a day. A place for guests to lay their heads. Until I decided I would rather have a glider and, since space is limited in our small apartment, there was no room for a glider and a bed.
So we put the bed back on Craigslist.
Within a day, someone had committed to buying it. But then, they stood us up. The next person who was interested seemed a little scary. He wrote, “Give me your address. Must see bed now.” (I mean, why not write, “I am actually coming to plunder your household. Please place all valuables in reaching distance.”) So I carefully explained that I needed to know when this person was coming before I could share my address. “OK. 6 p.m. Give me address,” he wrote back.
I have to admit I got a little nervous about the whole thing and made sure Mr. Dub was home for the exchange.
Come 6 p.m., we heard the hard knocks on our door. We braced ourselves and opened the door to reveal – a sweet Korean couple. (Thus explaining the halting email sentences.) The wife was very heavy with child. (Thus explaining the urgent need to see the bed.) When I asked her when she was due, she said, “Tomorrow.” Yes, she was five days overdue and was being induced this morning.
Like me, she was having a little girl. Like me, she would have her mom sleep on the bed when she came to help out after the delivery. Like me, she wanted a place for her husband to sleep when mother and child needed to figure out sleeping and feeding in the master bedroom. Like me, she would change her baby’s outfits and swaddle her sweet daughter on the bed.
The whole thing seemed so natural and beautiful – until the husband talked us down $30.
Still, we made $20 on the whole deal.
Gotta love Craigslist!
Come 6 p.m., we heard the hard knocks on our door. We braced ourselves and opened the door to reveal – a sweet Korean couple. (Thus explaining the halting email sentences.) The wife was very heavy with child. (Thus explaining the urgent need to see the bed.) When I asked her when she was due, she said, “Tomorrow.” Yes, she was five days overdue and was being induced this morning.
Like me, she was having a little girl. Like me, she would have her mom sleep on the bed when she came to help out after the delivery. Like me, she wanted a place for her husband to sleep when mother and child needed to figure out sleeping and feeding in the master bedroom. Like me, she would change her baby’s outfits and swaddle her sweet daughter on the bed.
The whole thing seemed so natural and beautiful – until the husband talked us down $30.
Still, we made $20 on the whole deal.
Gotta love Craigslist!
3 comments:
I must admit, when I want to get rid of something now, I think, "craigslist or D.I.?". Also, sometimes I get a little overobsessed with craigslist and walk around my house just looking for things to sell. But it's the only source of income our family has this year, so I have to say that I approve of it.
i have often wondered the very same thing about thrift stores. well, consignment stores, actually, since that's where i sell old kids' clothes. i don't think i would ever buy a "lot" of 4T clothes, baby gap or not, on ebay. gotta see the stuff in real life.
i LIVE for craigslist and look at it almost daily. so far, we've purchased (well, sometimes it's free) a bookshelf, a dresser, two beds, carpet, and armoir from craigslist. so i'm grateful to people like you who are willing to take the time to post things. there's no way we could afford anything if it wasn't for craigslist. so, keep up the selling!
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