July 13, 2009
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Craigslist
I know it looks long, but don’t let that scare you.
Ahem… just read, please?
New plan: Weekly posts. On Sunday. I know I can’t write (or at least enough to post) every day– if I’m not accomplishing it in summer, it sure as hell isn’t going to happen once school starts. I noticed that Andy posts on a regularly weekly basis, every Friday. If a dedicated writer like him can do it, so can I. But I know better than to do it on a weekday, and I figure giving myself Saturday to work something up will be helpful. All the best columnists get front-page treatment in the Sunday newspaper, so I can pretend to follow in that tradition. Plus, during fantasy-football season, I can remember to post to my blog when I post my lineup.
Now we conclude our meta-xangation and move on to our regularly scheduled post…
This week will feature a visit from my wife’s best friend. On the 29th, my wife goes in for her third major abdominal surgery in the past six years (she explains much better than I can on her site). Meanwhile, I’m taking my first class of my M.Ed. program and trying to get all my teaching stuff organized– a project I procrastinated all last summer and have so far this one as well, but I know I will be miserable through the year if I don’t get it done.
Now let me relate the exploits of last week…
So, in my pulse I had mentioned the adventure of trying to give away a TV. Yes, give away. You figure that would be easy, but it was not quite so easy as I would hope.
When we moved here, into our own house (OK, we’re renting it but consider it ours) and moved out of my mother-in-law’s house, we brought two televisions with us. Both were 32″ models but one was a three-year-old LCD HDTV and the other was a seven-year-old CRT monster. The latter behemoth weighs at least as much as I do and was no fun whatsoever getting out of or into a house. Although we did not keep it on the main level here, we did at least have the sense to take it downstairs to the basement, where we figured it might remain even after we left because there was no way we were moving that thing again.
This TV generally worked fine but had one small problem. Sometimes you would turn it on, and after a few seconds it would turn off– actually, the picture would disappear and then you had to turn it off and on again. Sometimes you would have to repeat the cycle several times and flip through the channel guide, raise and lower the volume, etc. to make it be “active” so it would stay on. Even when it stayed on TV itself, if you changed to another input like the DVD player or Wii, it would go out again. But we could always get it to stay on eventually. However, our child with autism did not understand the problem and did not have the patience for it, which sometimes became an issue itself.
So, my wife and I decided that we could get a new TV once we saw a really good deal. That good deal finally came along at the end of June with a special at Costco.com. With a $100 “instant rebate” they were offering a 40″ HDTV for $499. I got the green light from the missus to order it, and as soon as I did, I said “We should get rid of that old one.”
There was brief discussion about asking some small amount of money for it, but we decided that considering its one issue and its sheer bulk, we would give it away for free provided that the takers would carry it out of our house with no assistance from us.
And where do you go to give something away for free? To Craigslist, of course.
I posted the ad, complete with two photos, shortly after 3 p.m. The first three offers came in less than 10 minutes. By 4 p.m. I had received a dozen offers. I started off by responding only to the first three. I hadn’t mentioned the TV’s “issue” in the ad, but felt I should do so to anyone who was seriously ready to take it. That mention led #1 to decide she didn’t want it. #2 was going to come get it, but it would be she and her husband and 1-year-old twins in the car so could we help her husband get it while she stayed in the car? NO, we couldn’t, that’s not part of the bargain. Read the ad. (But I was polite about it). #3 just didn’t respond right away, as I recall.
Several of the early offers promised they could “come get it right now” but those didn’t have priority in the first received, first offered order which I tried to maintain, for a while anyway. Various people said they wanted to get the TV for their son, daughter, grandmother, etc. But by the time we came back from picking up dinner, roughly 8:00, the more interesting e-mails were coming.
“hi my name is sheila i am a cancer pt. when i got home from chemo today my house had been cleaned out by my ex. is the tv still available pls let me know”
“Do you still have this TV? My TV went out and I am a single working [college student] mother…and right now getting a new TV isnt in my budget. I can have 2 people come get it for me….Please? I can get it tonight also…please let me know”
“Hello my name’s Marie & i desperately need a new TV i am currently struggling just to make the rent and last week my only TV was stolen while i was at work. Please call me if your TV is still available i have friends that could pick it up and carry it for me tomorrow.”
“Hi my name is Tina and I just came across your ad on craigslist for your 32 inch tv. Well I understand that you have had alot of replys about the tv and I just would like to pretty much beg for you to give me the opportunity to have the tv. The reason is I just moved into my apartment with my daughter its our first apartment together we are recovery from a really bad loss in the family. Both of my grandparents just passed away 2 weeks ago and when I went to my daughters friends to break the news to her she took it very hard cuz we were living with my grandparents at the time they passed away. Well as we were getting funeral arrangements ready for my grandparents our house (grandparents house) had got robbed by some thugs and stole my daughters tv that my grandmother had previously bought her and other electronics as well, so I would really like to get my daughter another tv the only problem is I don’t have that kind of money to get it for her. I’m not trying to have you feel sorry for me but I’m just telling you the truth of why I desperately need one. Please if possibly can you call me at …”
Color me cynical, but I guessed at least some of these stories/pleas to be fictional. Suddenly I felt elevated to a kind of benevolent philanthrophist who had to decide who was most deserving of my goodwill? The cancer patient cleaned out by her ex? Someone who just recently had their TV stolen? (The last story there tops them all for melodrama, especially with the addition of the line “I’m not trying to have you feel sorry for me”). No, I picked the one that sounded most legitimate to me– the single mom in college. She wasn’t anywhere near next in line in terms of when the e-mail was received, but she seemed the most worthy beneficiary to me.
She was going to get it. We made it as far as exchanging numbers and I called and gave her directions. I waited. Two, close to three hours passed. Finally I checked my e-mail again. She had written again, and as far as one can read tone in an e-mail, she seemed genuinely frustrated and apologetic at once. Her help had “flaked out at the last minute” on her. I felt bad but had to stick to the rules as stated before.
So I was left trying to sort through the now over 40 e-mails (although I had deleted the ad earlier in the day, after she said she was coming). I started sending out offers in the order received; I just wanted whoever could come get it first. Eventually this young woman and her husband who was, I could tell, corresponding with me via her cell phone showed up about 8 p.m. Monday night and carried it away.
The new TV was supposed to arrive the next day, Tuesday. UPS gave its infamous “9 a.m. to 7 p.m.” window for when it could be delivered. By 5 there’d been no sign of it and I wondered if I should say something. My wife advised me that until 7 p.m., all they would tell you is “it’s out for delivery.” So I waited. And sure enough, at 6:50– with all of ten minutes to spare– the truck shows up.
I had purchased a new DirecTV HD DVR the same day at– you guessed it– Costco and was looking forward to big-screen full-HD glory that night. But, of course, DirecTV’s systems were being updated and their agents had no access to user accounts. Ultimately I had to wait almost 48 hours, until Thursday evening, to get my new receiver authorized but, let me tell you, looking at this thing, the wait was well worth it. I’m such a guy.
Comments (10)
Wow… I guess I am not that cynical because I felt sorry for all those people… except for maybe the last one. I had no idea that this was the kind of stuff people received in response to Craigslist ads! Congrats on the new TV!
Now we just need a new DVD player that will actually play NEW DVDs down there and we’ll be set!
Love you!!
That’s what you get for being nice. I guess I would’ve picked first-come, first-serve, regardless of story. I recently got a 32″ HDTV…. sports in HD is a whole new world….
Alright, maybe we can start a trend. I’ve actually been discouraged lately about my weekly writing plan, because I find I stress about posting to my blog and neglect the short story, etc. And as you may be able to tell, though I haven’t technically missed a week since starting the Friday schedule, I have been putting less and less into it, and this last week’s was really pitiful in terms of the effort. I’ve been thinking of giving up and focusing more on creating a portfolio of fiction ( which I could post, but I wouldn’t necessarily complete one a week).
On the other side of the argument, I have slowly picked up a few consistent readers, and that was the point, so maybe I really shouldn’t give up. You have inspired me by picking up the gauntlet. Maybe even challenged me.
I do think that once a week posting, something that has a little effort behind it, is much better from a readers perspective, than posting three times a day like some people do. It is very hard to keep up with people, no matter how much you want to, who post that much. Good luck with it. The story of the TV was a good start. I can’t believe some of those sob stories you got. I’m surprised people actually try to get chosen out of order. It’s quite interesting. Bottom line is, it is good that you got the TV into the hands of someone who can appreciate it, whether they are making up a story or not.
@andyglasser -
and jason too:
oooh , challenge!!!! and testosterone pumping competition!!!! that was the stuff that made early xanga tick, remember them days???? the xangalympics, wasn’t it? indeed, i dare you both to outdo each other!
now, on your marks, get set, GO!!! and – write gentlemen, write like the wind!!!
That was rather an adventure, just to get rid of a TV!
@loopdeloup - xanga weak link, remember that one? Maybe we can inspire others to pick a day. It is said that the greatest tool in the writer’s toolbox doesn’t cost any money. It is the deadline. That’s why I started.
@loopdeloup - OK you may be a bit more enthused about this than either Andy or I
doubt either of us see it as “competition” but mutual encouragement is a great thing…
@andyglasser - I’m slowly concluding that I’ll never be a fiction writer, so I give you props for that pursuit. I’m just not much of a storyteller except when I have real material to work with. I think I could be really good at creative nonfiction though– which is basically what blogging is (in my experience anyway). I do think that the weekly plan is much better for those of us who take themselves seriously (perhaps too seriously) as writers. I’ve never been one who favors stream-of-consciousness type and submit. I have to re-read and edit before I post, and then sometimes I go back and edit again even after original posting. Of course you’re going to get lengthier pieces like this (over 1600 words as I recall) which I feel makes up for only once a week. The problem of course is that 95% of Xangans won’t take the time to read something like this, but that’s OK, because if I can do as you have and build a small core of consistent readers who are thoughtful and articulate, even just half a dozen, I’ll consider it success.
I thought the TV story was a great sociological experiment. I wonder if the woe-is-me stories wouldn’t have come along had I done this is in better economic times?
@rooney - Sports are why HDTV was invented.
@espoir - Your faith in humanity will surely be rewarded someday.
@MaRiA_JoY - Done. Of course I spent more than you wanted me to, but what else is new?
@andyglasser - Exactly, the idea of working to a deadline– self-imposed in this case, but what a professional writer would have to do– is my inspiration here. (Well, and you doing it first.
) Know what would be fabulous? Find five more people, each commiting to a different day of the week– and then the seven of us could be a blogring. Hmmm…
@jasonwrites - ( and @loopdeloup) -
I think of it more like we are on the same team, in promotion of what I would call “effort.” whether or not it culminates in thoughtful developed posts. That said, I like the idea of pushing each other with maybe a little subtext of competition also, but the kind that wants to see us both do well, and that encourages not winning but mutual advancement. I am getting all worked up about the prospect of setting an example for other bloggers too, many of whom I wish would write less, as funny as that sounds
That’s ok though, for them – many people use their blog as a release, and as voracious writing practice, and that can be good, if that’s where they are at, so to speak, but I wouldn’t mind if there were some, also, who felt inspired to take up the gauntlet. Thanks for starting something (two people makes a trend). I look forward to your Sunday posts.
btw, - I also think of blogging as a form that is better suited to the essay, and I mostly think of my blog that way, like it’s a “column” that I write, although I would post a story, or a link to one, or a poem, if and when I have one.