Over the years I'm responsible for buying way too toys, and basically stuff I don't need. Every once in awhile I'll pull something out of my shed, garage, or basement, and throw it on Craig's List. It never ceases to amaze me how many people call, and say because they don't live in my neighborhood or close by they like to be compensated for their gas and time to come to my house to pick the item up. Say I have something on there for $200. It never fails someone will call and say would you take $180 or $175, and say yeah because I always list the item for more than what I want for the item. Then the person will say since I live in Redford, and you live in Washington Twp., and it will take me an hour to get to your house can you knock another $20 off to help pay for my gas, and make it worth my time to come and get the item?
I'm not kidding. It seems like this happens everytime I put something on Craig's List. If you're not familiar with the Detroit sububs someone can say they live in the Detroit suburbs, and another person can say they live in the Detroit suburbs, but these 2 people can literally live close to 2 hours from each other. I live on the extreme Northeast side of the suburbs almost up into the start of the thumb, and someone can call that lives south of Detroit down close to the Ohio border, but we both live in the Detroit suburbs, but we live 2 hours from each other.
A few months ago my wife and I were buying new furniture for our bedroom, and we had this huge king size bed wall unit we wanted to get rid off. It was a real nice piece, and I think we paid something like $1800, or more, for it when we bought it. None of this press wood crap. A real nice piece of furniture. We were basically just looking to get rid of it, but if worse to worse there's a Salvation Army like a half mile from our house I was going to take it to. I think I had in on Craig's List for $400. This lady calls me, and says her and her husband had already rented a U-Haul, and went to another person's house to buy a king size wall unit they found on Craig's List, but when they got there she didn't like the wall unit, and when she went back on Craig's List she found mine. The lady says she lives in St. Clair Shores which is like a 1/2 hour from me. She asked what was the least I'd take for the wall unit. I said if you want it come and get it for $300. This lady goes well since I live a 1/2 hour away, and considering what I already paid to rent the U-Haul, and what I will spend on gas I'll give you $200 for it. When I said no she got really snippy with me, and said something like I hope you get stuck with it. I explained to her I wasn't getting stuck with anything because I lived just around the block from a Salvation Army store, and I reminded her she was the one that had already rented a U-Haul, and I told her as far as I'm concerned you can return the U-Haul you already paid for without getting a wall unit. That's when the lady hung up on me.
I think before I go out to lunch tomorrow I'll call the restaurant and ask the owner if he can knock a few dollars off of my bill to help me pay for gas to get to his restaurant.