In all honesty, I’ve sold zero items on craigslist, and used either OfferUp or LetGo for almost all of these sales. I had better luck with OfferUp overall, and recommend it if you’re looking to buy or sell something.
Before leaving Virginia we sold a desk with a chair, couch, paddleboards, surfboard, roof rack, and a mattress and box spring set. Cara also sold her wedding dress and some other dresses at a consignment shop, but that really doesn’t lend itself to a good story.
The first thing we sold was actually Cara’s snowboard, but that was so uneventful its hardly worth mentioning. I sold the paddleboards via Facebook in about 2 hours, and the only funny part of that was watching the buyer try to put an 11 foot paddleboard in a Trailblazer with half the middle seat still up because there was a kid in a carseat in it, and the look of surprise when it didn’t fit. I met a kid to sell him the roof rack I had bought for my old car and he just kept asking if it would fit his civic without buying anything else, and then wanted to “try it” without paying me, so I was a little worried he would try to put it on his car and just drive off. I really should try to see better in people…
The mattress and box spring were eventful exchanges because the first time someone came to buy it, they brought a flair side F150 with a cap on the bed, and were shocked when the box spring didn’t fit. They came back later with a bigger truck, and I hope they made it back across the HRBT before the rain started… The couch was also a very uneventful sale, they came over, gave me some cash, and left with a couch. Everybody wins!
The surfboard was a pretty good story just because if you imagine a 25ish surfer dude with a beat up station wagon and who just seemed to be living life as it came to him, you’d pretty much see the guy that bought it. Flip flops, tank top, board shorts, a tan despite it still being early spring, and a fanny pack that he had all kinds of junk in, including a wad of cash that got sorted out to pay for the surfboard. Hopefully he catches some waves and enjoys the ride of life…
Now the only really good story was selling the desk. I set up the meet for a Walgreens parking lot close to our house, and got there before the buyer arrived. I stood the desk up in the back of the truck and set the chair in the parking lot, and stood by to wait. A beat up old minivan rolls in and parks next to me with two very large women in the front seats. The younger woman in the driver seat got out of the car, but based on the very loud conversation, it was clear that the passenger was the one buying. I asked if she wanted to look at the desk, and she just handed $40 out the window and said it looked good without even turning to glance at it. The driver immediately sat down in the desk chair and watched me load the desk into the back of their van (which was full of other junk), and only got up when I asked if she was going to put the chair in the car. That clearly wasn’t happening… After I loaded the desk and chair for them and said “Have a nice day,” I got in my car and was spending a few seconds updating the desk as sold online, and they started driving away, which is when it got odd. They pulled about half way out of their parking spot, and then backed up, which made me nervous. The driver than yelled at me, “Have you heard about Prince?” which I heard, “Have you heard about prints?” So I thought she wanted to print some photos or something (we were still at Walgreens), and I was really confused. After a few back and forth exchanges, I figured out that she meant the artist Prince. I was then informed that he had died that day, and that this lady was a big fan. She “Didn’t know how to feel about it.” Shortly after we established that she was a big Prince fan and that he had died, she told me to have a nice day and drove off. I sat for a few moments trying to figure out what had just happened, and why I seemed like someone that needed to know she was a Prince fan, gave up and drove home.
Clearly none of these people tried to kill me, but I still recommend meeting people in public places. Who knows who you will meet from the wide world of the internet?
-Jeff
