Comments on: Dear People Selling Furniture On Craigslist

By: dani

dani — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:18:39 +0000

“you really don’t need to email me to ask if it’s available (and then never email me again).”

OMG FOR REALS. I had FOUR people in a row flake out on the mattress/boxspring I was trying to sell, and now they’re basically trashed by the cats who have since started using them as scratching posts. (The mattress/boxspring is trashed, not the flakes, although that would have been more satisfying to me.) And I posted with pictures and accurate words about what little damage the cats had done by that point. And it was only $40 for both.

At one point recently, I calculated that 90% of the responses I got from Craigslist were people who either said they were interested and never wrote back, or set up a time to come and never showed up or wrote back, or showed up, gave me too little money (yes, I should have double-checked the posted price before they came) and left.

Do you think it’s all a plot to make Freecycle more desirable?

By: michelle @ TNS

michelle @ TNS — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:29:04 +0000

i just violated the unspoken “pictures are a necessity” rule, rationalizing that since it’s a 2-month old bike and not a used sofa that i’ve had sex on, it wouldn’t be as big a deal.

but i know that i have become “that person” and feel appropriately shamed.

i’m sorry, craigslist.

By: liz

liz — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:49:21 +0000

Ha ha – all these remind me of the time I was trying to get rid of some chain link gates. I basically said to bring a truck to carry it & some tools to take them off the hinges. So some man called me for his mom & started asking me all these questions, and I was getting really impatient & almost like “dude, do you want the gates or not?” When they came over to get them, turns out the man was really a kid of maybe 14-15. His voice had already dropped, so he sounded like an adult. I felt so bad for getting so snippy with a kid.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:33:25 +0000

I felt pretty much exactly the same way about DC Craigslist. And then I moved to Baltimore. Seriously, there is not a decent sofa to be found on Baltimore Craigslist. EVERYTHING is floral, striped, shredded, or just ugly. I long for the days of the Storehouse couch listed on Craigslist.

By: Bev

Bev — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:28:43 +0000

Oh, If only everyone posting on craigslist had to read (and check that they read and accepted) your suggestions. And the thing about photos is true on craigslist and freecycle.

By: Ariel

Ariel — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:32:52 +0000

I have become a little more charitable to Craigslist posters since I became one of them. Now I find myself agonizing over the nicest possible way to say I promise on all that is holy, as soon as I sell it I’ll delete the ad, you really don’t need to email me to ask if it’s available (and then never email me again). And if I give the dimensions of my desk and tell you in the ad you’ll need a truck to move it, I don’t want have a philosophical exchange over the course of a day about whether it would fit in the back seat of a Civic. How about the trunk? What about the back seat of a your neighbor’s Camry? Or a taxi, would a taxi have more space?

By: Pam (Sibella)

Pam (Sibella) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:21:47 +0000

Some of the people with whom I Freecycle are not terribly literate. And one of them was being a pest the other day, trying to get an item after I said it was spoken for.

Nevertheless, I love Freecycle–so much so that we have a surfeit of furniture here now, in the greater D.C. area. We could probably spare a rocker or two, maybe some occasional tables, definitely a green metal plant stand and matching glass-topped table…so holler, Linda, if you want something….

By: Debby

Debby — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:25:20 +0000

I posted a couch on Freecycle and I received 2 replies which left me scratching my head.

The photo I posted had a white circle on it, some reflection or something, and I wrote that it was the photo, not a spot on the couch.

Sometime emailed me to tell me that white spots like that are “ghosts called orbs”. He never mentioned anything about wanting the couch, just wanted to let me know I had ghosts…

Another woman said she wanted it, but “I can’t come tomorrow, because I’ll be having my baby”. Seriously, that is exactly what she wrote. I was tempted to reply : “Okay, how about the day after?”

Not to mention the people who wanted me to DELIVER! The FREE couch I was giving away. Those are people who are definitely unclear on the concept of : I am giving it to you free so that you will come and take it away.

By: liz

liz — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:24:38 +0000

God, WORD!! My addendum: don’t respond to an ad & make jokes that might come off as creepy. I had some volunteer trees in my backyard I was hoping to get rid of to people who might transplant them, and my ad said “you’ll have to dig it up”, and one guy wrote & said “I’m good with a shovel & an axe!” I think he was joking, but I didn’t write back to find out. I mean . . . an axe? For real??

Actually, Linda, I still have some of those volunteers (baby elms!), if you’d like one (I’m in Old Town Alexandria)! Or if you know anyone who would! I’d hate to dig them up for the trash.

By: Barb

Barb — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:17:41 +0000

A part of my business is selling used appliances. A lot of people just give us old appliances to rehab and resell but every so often I’ll get someone who thinks I should pay them a ridiculous sum for their broken avocado green refrigerator.