I suck at craigslist

One of my new favorite websites is yousuckatcraigslist.com. There is always a good showing of craptastic stuff and the mastery of the English language with aside of photography combines for a fantastic train wreck.

But evidently, I suck at craigslist a different way. You see, I seem to never make any money on my craiglist deals because I am just enough of a bleeding heart liberal and a sucker for people who show up on time.

Granted, I never put anything on craigs, or the local freecycle list that I would not be willing to drop off at the neighborhood Goodwill store. We are not talking the highest quality merchandise, here. But whatever I have to offer online, it usually isn't complete junk.

A few years ago I tried to give away an old boat on craigslist. I grew really tired of people calling to quiz me about the boat and then not showing up to look it over. So I re-listed it a few weeks later, with a $250 price tag. Within 10 minutes I had two guys ready to drive over to check it out. When the guy who had first contacted me about the boat showed up, I gave him the dang thing, just to get it out of my backyard.

This week I listed The Talker's old bike($25), a wagon($40) and a tricycle($20) on craigslist. After I listed everything, (but before anyone contacted me about the stuff), I ended up giving the wagon to our neighbors. I deleted the ad listing the wagon and all was good. Then, this morning a couple came over to look at the bike for their 5 year old's birthday. They showed up when they told me they would so I sent them away with the bike and their cash so that they could replace the threadbare seat before the birthday party.

In the end, I have the trike still for sale. And if I find a sucker willing to pay me $85 for it, then I will have made my $$ AND cleaned out a few more square feet of my garage.

For the past two days I have been working on cleaning out the garage, trying to get ready for a slew of home improvement projects that are on tap for this fall. I stopped cleaning to hang a ceiling fan out there. I had stashed the fan away in the attic after a neighbor upgraded to a nicer fan probably 5 years ago. I was using the stashed-away fan to replace one that had finally died after I moved it out of The Princess bedroom and installed it in the garage at least 7 years ago. Since the washer and dryer are in our west facing garage, the fan is almost a necessity in the afternoon.

I was laughing about how my scrounging and pack rat skills had paid off once again with this "new" fan when I started thinking about the stuff I had listed on craigslist. Then I did not feel too bad about giving it all away.

The wagon sells new for close to a hundred bucks. But we found it brand new for something like $15 at at Target store that was remodeling and they needed to get everything out of the sporting goods section in short order. The clearance prices were ridiculous and I remember we brought home a van load of stuff.

The bike was given to us by a friend of The Boss Lady after her two or three boys outgrew it. The Talker got a new bike a couple of months ago when he finally outgrew the hand me down bike, too. And the trike came out of a dumpster. The handlebars wouldn't stay tight but after a little work, they have held perfectly for years. The Princess has ridden it a million miles around the neighborhood.

Anyways, if you ever need a good deal off of craigs, check for my ads. And be sure to show up on time.