Today was the day I made my first Craigslist purchase. I am an Amazon/Etsy type guy. I love having things delivered by mail because getting something in the mail is so much more awesome than actually going out and buying your item. It keeps you waiting and you anticipate when it will show up at your door step.
Unfortunately, I needed some weight plates for my weight bench. I’m sure the UPS guy would love not having to lift about 300 lbs of weights to my door. The last heavy thing he delivered was a power tower that I bought off of Amazon and weighed about 70 lbs. He made me help him carry it to my door step then just left it there for me to do the rest.
So I got looking on Craigslist. Recently in a city nearby we had one of those “Craigslist Murders” where two people died and the guy who committed the crime killed himself (wow…).
Naturally I was a bit skittish about the whole going to the guys house and risking getting a knife in my face, but I found a deal that I couldn’t pass up. This guy was selling a bunch of weights (total: 225 lbs) for only $200. I talked him down to $100.
Luckily this guy lives in the town that set the Guinness World Records for most churches on a road for a mile. I thought this would be a safe bet.
It was snowing like crazy so it took me about an hour to drive fifteen miles to his place. Once I got there I saw a sort of run down house that had a million bicycles in the yard. Looking in the window I saw loads of skis, scrap metal, and a few car parts. I thought I was at the wrong place, but I texted the guy and said I was at this house.
Next thing I knew there was this pick up truck, that was all rusted, pulling up to the side of the road. Out walked this tall bearded guy with a cigarette in his mouth. He looked at me and said “who are you?”
“I’m the guy who wants to buy the weights, sir..”
I thought I was going to be murdered. Thankfully the guy realized he had customer and said “Oh yeah, yeah come on in.” (NOPE!)
So I stood at the foot of the stairs inside his garage. Inside were even more bikes! All hanging from the ceiling and the walls. He brought all of the weights to my car after I gave him the money.
To create small talk, because I didn’t want to get murdered there, I asked him why he had so many bikes. He told me he sells basically everything off Craigslist and pretty much makes a living having junk bikes brought to his house and restoring them to working order.
He also sells used winter sports gear, auto parts, work out equipment, pet cages, cat scratches, fish tanks, bird cages, lawn ornaments, and pretty much what else he can get his hands on.
After he put everything in my car I thanked him and walked as fast as I could back to my car without seeming obvious about it (still didn’t trust him).
I finally drove off as fast as I could in hopes that he wasn’t going to follow me.
But I did it! My first Craigslist purchase went without a hitch! Probably never going to do that again and will most likely stick to just buying things online like I normally do.
What a strange guy though…
Above and Below Average 