With all of my efforts on Craig's List, placing ads everyday and waiting for the phone to ring. Dealing with the people that text "Is your "Item" still for sale" and you reply yes and hear nothing in return, I only got one single call that amounted to anything and finally, 36 hours later they showed up. All six of them. It kind of went like this.
When I awakened Saturday morning, there was one missed call that didn't leave a message. About an hour later, I was sipping coffee and decided to call the anonymous caller and explain that I got a message that he'd called. He answered and I immediately identified him as a youthful Hispanic, about 22 years old. A demographic that I rather enjoy dealing with. To get rid of me, he said he'd call me in an hour when he's ready to come out and see the bedroom set I'd advertised. I had no expectation of ever hearing from him again. About 3 hours later, the kid called again asked for instructions on how to find me, as he and his lady friend were coming my way. I gave him instructions and he and his girl appeared about another hour later. He was a tall youthful African-American man, about 22 and very polite and she was a Caucasian girl that never pushed herself away from the table in time. Cool, my first inter-racial couple. They were both very pleasant and I enjoyed their company for a few minutes, when he announced that he was doing a little front work for his aunt that was the real buyer, but she would take his word for it, that everything was quite nice. My own experience with people, is that when they spend a lot of time explaining why they are going to come back another time, you NEVER see them again. Human nature. As much as I liked this couple, I never expected to see them again. They were supposed to call me about 7 PM when Auntie got home from work. The call never came. Today, at about 10 AM, I replaced my ads because that's what you have to do on Craig's List and was relaxing from my full week of packing. At about 1 PM, I got a call from an elderly woman explaining she was the aunt I had been waiting for, but she would call me later to tell me when she was coming. After the Bears/Green Bay game, I looked at the clock and thought of her and decided she wasn't coming. At about 5 PM, the 22 year old Nigerian lad that I mistook for Hispanic called and said they were about 30 minutes away.
He didn't say he wanted to look this time, but he expressed himself by saying he wanted to "pick up" the bedroom set, so I was busy emptying the drawers and stripping the sheets and bedspread. They arrived, sans the chubby girl, about 6 of them. All very nice, all from Nigeria and all as pleasant as could be. One lady, an MD expressed herself very well and seemed to be the family leader. She was the negotiator. I felt that to explain my background in used car sales to be counterproductive, so I picked up my transient cat and pet my way to non-negotiating. How in the world do you get tough with a humble man petting a kitten? They caved and paid the asking price, but I offered them my old 27 inch TV that I remember buying in 1987. It worked fine, but did have a hand crank.
About that time, another of the ladies announced that she just bought a house and it's completely empty. She made the mistake of asking me what else I might consider selling. I pointed out the solid Oak wall unit that I bought when Columbus discovered this great land and the Oak table with the four Oak chairs, the tan leather sofa that the dogs somehow spared. a rocking chair that I haven't sat in since Brad was a baby. Each item the lady counter offered on and after the first time, I realized it was just her game and I didn't have to come down a penny. I stood firm and she kept saying, "I'll take it"! It was fun!
Someone called a friend with a truck and I almost got them to take the cat, but they backed out at the last minute. The little lady that did all the buying is supposed to call me in the morning to make arrangements to pick up her stuff. I hope she calls, I really liked them.
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