Thursday, March 21, 2013

Craigslist Desk ad and a Life Lesson

by BooBoo

Being former thruhikers we have not acquired much in the way of material possessions, including furniture. As we are both working almost right up until when we leave Wisconsin to drive to Seattle just before the trail, we are emptying out our apartment in stages.

The first stage included a round of donating things we have not used once in the last 6 months and throwing things out with permission in a work dumpster. After that first round we looked at each other and we both said that this move will be less painful than others due to the low volume of "stuff."

The second round, I had 1.5 days off before another 60-70 hour work week and decided to get done our furniture listing on craigslist. I had interest in my desk and spoke to a gentleman on the phone, "I will be there in a hour after I walk my dog. I think this will be a perfect desk for my son in college." OK great, see you then. The desk was offered at $35.

About 30 minutes later he called me back, "look I really like the desk and I am certain we will be buying it. My son is between classes and I am going to go pick him and bring him along. He is pretty shy and  I want him to learn some negotiating skills. I am going to have him offer you $25, if you can think about it for a moment and then offer it to him, to build his confidence. And then I will slip you the remaining $10."

They came, the son hemmed and hawed about the desk. And didn't want it. I was a little annoyed because I had already pulled the ad from craigslist based on the dad's enthusiasm.

I reposted the ad, sold the desk the next day, and I ended up with stories not things.