tales from the list

changing lists

Courtney — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:47:37 +0000

My time is winding down for trolling the Raleigh CL. We’re officially moving west and I have to admit that I took Craigslist into account when we were discussing our next city of residence. IKEA was also in the mix. On the CL front, Salt Lake City (SLC CL) seems to not be as popular as Raleigh, but still active enough to be worth the time to browse.

In the meantime, I’m weeding out items that don’t need to make the move and have had some successful sales. I think this might be why I keep coming back to post more stuff. You just never know what is going to strike the interest of someone else. For instance, I just sold two metal stars to a woman who had just moved to the area herself and, “had to get rid of a lot of stuff before moving.”

I told her I was doing the same and glad she wanted some of my stuff. It was also nice to know that I got $20 for items I was planning on dropping off at Goodwill. Maybe I should take that money and save it for my first purchase out in Salt Lake City.

“Acclaim! Acclaim!” – said in the voice of Tattoo from Fantasy Island

Courtney — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:31:15 +0000

Trolling the furniture section the past few months, I kept seeing these vintage tables that had an awesome dovetail inlay design pop up every so often.

Turns out they are from the Acclaim line manufactured by Lane Furniture Company. By no means did we need any more tables in the Alabama Avenue house, but I decided that we’d have to make room. A few clicks through Google later, I came across this article that the Acclaim was a patent by Lane in 1959 and designed by Andre Bus. The Acclaim line wasn’t just living room tables though, you could dovetail your whole house. I’ve seen several really cool “boomerang” coffee tables on various city Craigslists. This piece is essentially two coffee tables on a hinge, with the smaller one having the ability to stow underneath the larger one when not in use. The cool factor pretty much takes it out of my price range.

Lucky for me, Gabe is in Asheville this summer and we were able to coordinate a transaction that was only slightly sketchy (but did involve a happy chocolate lab). We now just need to figure out how to get these tables back to Durham when there is constantly a dog in tow.

Just to keep things interesting, I also scored a simple square Acclaim side table in Chapel Hill on Saturday. It’s in decent condition and I’ve already caught Deacon hanging out on the bottom shelf.

Now I know from Antiques Roadshow that I shouldn’t mess with the original finish, but Lane used some sort of varnish that has yellowed over time and contrast between the walnut and oak has dulled over time. I’m still not certain if I’ll refinish them. I’ve jokingly told Gabe that when he returns home at the end of the summer our front room is going to be filled with Lane Acclaim. Fingers crossed.

Check out the awesome dovetail. What’s not to love?

deals gone wrong

Courtney — Sat, 08 May 2010 10:04:53 +0000

I’m not quite sure why, but Fayetteville seems to be a hot spot for nefarious CL activity. A few months ago there was a posting from a guy who almost got beat up trying to sell his motorcycle. Of course he did say he drove down a dirt road to a dead end in an attempt to complete the transaction, so maybe he just really needed to sell his bike. I also seem to recall that this was where the truck of stolen Maidenform bras ended up being traced to. Unfortunately (?) I missed the ad selling 200 or so bras for a rock bottom price.

Just to keep things interesting, Fayetteville has once again been home to a bad CL deal. Apparently some woman managed to scam numerous people by accepting down payments for apartments she didn’t own. One has to wonder if there was any sort of paperwork involved (unlikely) or if an apartment was even viewed before handing over any deposit.

Well done Laprecia. I’ll be on the lookout for you the next time I’m in Spring Lake, Greensboro, or Fayetteville.

sad to see her go

Courtney — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:00:03 +0000

I just parted with my third bicycle thanks to CL. Not to worry, the house still has two road bikes, one mountain bike frame, and a “commuter” bike that Gabe got at Toys R Us for $40. After a bout of laziness that lasted about six months, I finally decided to post the Gary Fisher Tassajara that I won from The Hub Bicycle Shop in Athens, GA. I used it some, but it’s really just been sitting in the way since Gabe moved into this house. Overheard an argument between the girl and her boyfriend about him riding it before they even got it on the bike rack. Hopefully, the Trek 8500 frame can be built up by fall.

thank you CL and the weather

Courtney — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:40:37 +0000

After meaning to post, and wanting to post several items for weeks now, the weather this weekend finally made it not such a miserable task. We recently inherited some 1940s Colonial Revival bedroom furniture so we were in need of offloading several more modern items. Once again I managed to purchase something on CL, this chest of drawer, for more than we bought it off of CL a year and a half ago.

The post that created the most interest though was the posting for a queen platform bed. With twelve responses in four hours, I figured that I probably should have set the asking price higher. Since it’s been sitting unassembled in our dining room for over a month, I’m just happy to have it out of the house. The guy who ended up buying it happens to have a name that is another name for the large intestine. He also sells a “healthy energy supplement drink” and he threw a couple of cans of the drink our way to try. Debating if I should drink it.

in process

Courtney — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:34:11 +0000

Today I posted a bunch of stuff for sale, with the hope of clearing out about half of it. I posted two items from the IKEA Aneboda collection – a nightstand and a wardrobe. I got a hit within two hours expressing interest in the nightstand. Exchanged my phone number.

Guy calls, says he’s interested, but wants me to ship (a piece of furniture, mind you) to Baltimore. Now, I’m asking $25 for something that cost $40 new. I don’t care that IKEA no longer offers this in “birch effect.” In what world did this guy think I’m going to pack and ship an oversized item the week before Christmas.

Bah Humbug! I’ll sell it locally, thank you very much. Remember, craigslist is a yard sale at the seller’s convenience.

UPDATE: it’s now five hours since the original post; both items are out of the house; I’ve got $80 in cash, and I don’t have to ship anything to Baltimore.

recently seen

Courtney — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:42:03 +0000

Dance Poles

This posting appeared in the materials section of the Raleigh CL on November 12. Only 15 were left as of Thursday. A quick search revealed that the same ad had been posted in the furniture section the day before with a quantity of 23. Wow, somebody in Raleigh must love a “dance” pole. While I love craigslist, there are a few items I am willing to pay full price for new. A mattress is tops on that list. This ad makes me think that stripper pole should be added as well.

grammar police

Courtney — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:24:16 +0000

Nothing serves as a better reminder that the written English language is in the toilet as a few minutes spent browsing the furniture category of the list. Some ads are so poorly written, I have to imagine that English is not the first spoken language of the poster. More often than not though, the same grammatical/spelling errors are seen over and over again. The most basic is mixing up sell and sale. As a poster you are advertising an item for sale, not for sell. An ad should state that you are selling your kitchen table, not saleing it. Other common mistakes I’ve seen:

dining NOT dinning (as in a dinning table that seats six)
mirror NOT mirrow (old wardrobe with mirrowed doors)
chest of NOT chester, as in chest of drawers (old wood chester drawers)
wrought NOT rot, as in wrought iron
futon NOT fouton

Once I saw a posting for “Wayne’s coating” paneling, which is most likely only funny to us architecturally-inclined people. Who’s Wayne? Is he missing his coat?

Finally, it really doesn’t make sense to include the words beautiful or reduced in your ad title. Neither word is really going to help you sell your item. Beautiful is subjective, and if you ask me, your 1980s bedroom furniture is not a BEAUTIFUL BEDROOM SET. Also, reducing the price when you relist your item is fine, but as browsers, we don’t need to know this. What you’re really saying is, “hey, I’ve posted my item for sale several times haven’t sold it because the price is too high. So please take a look.”

selling the timex bodylink

Courtney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:41:23 +0000

Gabe is running his first marathon this Sunday. About halfway through his training he decided he wanted to upgrade his training watch to a Garmin 305. So of course that meant selling his Timex Bodylink system. The watch was practically brand new since the original got waterlogged in Bermuda in less than six feet of water and thus was covered under warranty.

timex bodylink GPS watch

We got zero interest the first time the watch was posted and Gabe was starting to wonder if he’d ever get the Garmin. After the second posting for $100, we got a lowball offer, which we countered with a more realistic and fair price of $80. No response back from that guy (update: just last week that guy emailed back and said he’d give us $50 for the watch. He received an email back that it sold for full price). Then I got an email from C. C wanted to know the lowest price I would take for the watch. I emailed him $85 seemed fair. This is the response I got back (grammatical errors not corrected):

Im very Interested if you take 80 flat no jokes!!! and all the stuff in the pictures , oh hope it fits … i don’t have large wrists Im 180 lb. with boney wrists … Im currently in oh but will be back to my home in Durham NC on tuesday evening…If your down for the deal My number is xxx.; If its any consolation Im a Law enforcement officer and My word is my bond and this deal is what i can afford..Thanks -C

Who is this guy? And why is all this extra information necessary to tell me. The extra information is a very common theme in my CL experiences. People feel the need to tell me things and to talk incessantly about what they are selling or why they want to buy what I am selling. It’s kind of weird. Anyway, C and I agreed on $80 and Gabe called him to set up a meeting time/place. The guy was “at the airport in North Durham.” It’s news to me that there is an airport up there. They agreed to meet at the mall since C didn’t know where Whole Foods was. I told Gabe that if it seemed any more sketchy than the usual CL deal to bail and come home. Turns out the guy is training to be a Federal Air Marshal and needs a watch to track his run pace to pass the test. The watch did fit around his wrist. Money was exchanged. Gabe came home and immediately ordered the Garmin. I guess there isn’t a grammar section on the Air Marshal test.

compiling the list

Courtney — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:19:08 +0000

I’ve been working on my personal CL list of things bought and sold. So far, I can recall post two items in the free section, nine purchased items, and twenty-nine items sold. This totally makes me feel like I am actually removing things we don’t use from this house. Gabe will look at this and see a heavy bent towards his days of bachelorhood. Of note, there are two items that I purchased on craigslist and later resold –both times for a few dollars more than I paid. The master at work?