Are there more flakes on CL than eBay?

[Octave Doctor]

A couple weeks ago, I put an extra living room chair in the free section. I actually got an email from somebody who," didn't know where they were going to put it, but they really wanted the chair."

Uh, yeah, go get your hoarding supplies at the Salvation Army.

[kap]

Octave Doctor wrote:
Uh, yeah, go get your hoarding supplies at the Salvation Army.

but then they would have to pay for the supplies.

[BernDog]

Octave Doctor wrote:
A couple weeks ago, I put an extra living room chair in the free section. I actually got an email from somebody who," didn't know where they were going to put it, but they really wanted the chair."

Uh, yeah, go get your hoarding supplies at the Salvation Army.

Why didn't you just list it as a "chair" instead of an " extra chair"? Then it wouldn't have even been a problem.

[Black]

Octave Doctor wrote:
A couple weeks ago, I put an extra living room chair in the free section. I actually got an email from somebody who," didn't know where they were going to put it, but they really wanted the chair."

Uh, yeah, go get your hoarding supplies at the Salvation Army.

The same concern keeps me from using freecycle. I have a fear, based on some of what I've experienced, that a lot of folks on there just drive all over town all day picking up stuff simply because it's free and they've got nothing else to do. My primary concern is that things that are useful get used, I'm happy to pass things along that I'm not making good use of, but I always go to some degree of effort to assure that it's going to get used on the other end.

[Black]

kap wrote:
[quote=Octave Doctor]
Uh, yeah, go get your hoarding supplies at the Salvation Army.

but then they would have to pay for the supplies.
Around here most of the stuff placed in the S.A. (or Goodwill for that matter) collection box never makes it into the building; a good percentage ends up on the ground in a muddy mess after the box is rummaged through.

[kap]

Black wrote:
The same concern keeps me from using freecycle. I have a fear, based on some of what I've experienced, that a lot of folks on there just drive all over town all day picking up stuff simply because it's free and they've got nothing else to do. My primary concern is that things that are useful get used, I'm happy to pass things along that I'm not making good use of, but I always go to some degree of effort to assure that it's going to get used on the other end.

Flakes still flake out on freebies :banghead:

[Octave Doctor]

I didn't list it as an extra chair at the time, but I'll be even more careful of it in the future. Lately Freecycle here seems to have become saturated with people who are obsessed with getting all the free stuff they can, whether they can use it or not. The mods even made mention of it.

But we have an even further extreme--a couple older ladies who go around to yard sales, buy up the deals and then donate them to Goodwill--fine, but why not donate the money and leave the deals for others, because they won't be deals after Goodwill gets done with them.

[modelamac]

I've never tried selling on eBay, so I have no personal experience on which to comment.

I have used Craigslist a number of times. Good photos and a very complete description of the article to be sold and the terms of the sale minimizes the number of flakes that respond. I do the first "culling" of respondents by email. It's easy to do. "See my listing for the answer" reduces the selling effort a lot. Gmail's Spam filter works to help the process.

The response that really makes me laugh: "Which ad is yours? I responds to a bunch and can't remember."

I had a couple of guys that might be described as gypsies trying to buy my van last year. After a half hour of refusing their offers, I told them I'd call them if I changed my mind. Sold it for asking $ to the next guy that showed up per appointment.