Crazies on auction sites/freecycle...

flea72

Curious_George wrote: »

I have to say this thread has thrown me....

some of you have labled people as "crazies" for asking for sofas etc when i have seen plenty of good condition 3 piece suites and other furniture given away on the 2 freecycle groups i check

i dont think its the fact someone asks for a sofa, its more the fact they will only take a certain colour/style - ie 'wanted brown leather corner sofa, must be in good condition'

now the way i see it, beggars cant be chosers, so if you really need a sofa, then you would be willing to take what is available, and as long as it isnt threadbare or broken, then be thankful someone has been kind enough to offer it to you

F

merdoom

lol, i advertised a non working xbox with no leads or controllers thinking someone could use it as a spare and ended up with roughly 100 emails asking for it.
not a 360, just an xbox, and one of them said her husband was a disabled ex army veteran who needed some shooting games to play. i kid you not.:eek:

also i recently saw someone asking for a flat screen tv, console, 3 seater sofa, washer/drier and new phone as they were moving into their first home...................................................................:rotfl:
people don't want alot do they..............?

babyblooz

On our local one someone asked for 3 or 4 different high-ish priced items, then had the cheek to offer their item for money!

SailorSam

On our Freecycle last week someone wss asking for a working car; van; or motorbike which i thought was cheeky but i have seen them asked for before. What really got me though when they put it must have at least one months road tax.

cyberbob

Curious_George wrote: »

I have to say this thread has thrown me....

some of you have labled people as "crazies" for asking for sofas etc when i have seen plenty of good condition 3 piece suites and other furniture given away on the 2 freecycle groups i check,

I think its the fact as flea says they are specific also when people are doing lists to basically refurnish there house it looks like they are taking the !!!!. Also sometimes peoples requests are so specific or unrealistic. Our freecycle basically turned into a list of wanted adds. So I just gave up on it as did many.

My unwanted things either get sold given to charity or i'm afraid thrown. We do have a local charity that that takes furniture for low income families.

Curious_George_2

ahhh right, thanks... i was starting to think my group was really special for regularly giving away sofas etc!

denchys

This was posted on my local freecycle. Not asking much are they???

i have an allotment which needs things such as shed, greenhouse and composting bin, anything really would be gratefully received.

victoriajayne1987

i posted an old microwave of ours earlier. clearly said it stopped working and we bought a new one, not sure if its working and probably needs some fiddling with like.

had someone email me about it, asking me to fully test it and make sure it all completely works (no time and i said it needed attention), and to meet in the centre (3 miles away from my house) because they dont have a car and its convenient for them. I dont have a car either, and STILL they wondered why i wouldnt lug a microwave into town!!

giving something away is surely for the benefit of the receiver not yourself really, so why are some people so rude about asking for things?!

Stryder

i work on a simple basis. i give to the 1st person, unless i get to my emails and there is a few. in that case i may read what they said, and if it cant be split, make a personal decision based on what and how they wrote.

I would not mind giving it to the crazies - just dont meet them at your house ... choose the gate of a neighbour you dislike!

brokeinwales

I got a bizarre response recently when I posted a wanted ad (for old pots and pans) - someone responded direct to my email with a long list of questions about how freecycle worked, and what the rules were and how to reply to posts. At the end of the email they added "I might have some pans, I'll have a look."

There have been a lot of cheeky wanted ad's recently too. Often it's not so much the fact that they're asking for something expensive ( I kind of get that, when I needed a new desk lamp for example, I was perfectly willing to go out and buy one, but it seemed sensible to check first whether anyone had one they didn't need - I don't blame people for just asking on the off-chance.). But a lot of the time it's the tone of the message comes across as downright cheeky.

Personally I find it a bit off when people mention price - recently we had (paraphrased)
"Wanted: sewing machine. I am a textiles student and I need a sewing machine so that I can do my work but they are really overpriced." (It's difficult to explain exactly why this p'd me off, as I got a sewing machine from freecycle myself! - I think it's to do with the fact that she's admits it's an essential piece of kit for her course, but wants somebody else to foot the bill for it. Maybe it's just me,...)

"Wanted: PS2. My daughter has been begging me for one and I can't afford it."

I guess it's because I feel the point of freecycle is more for people to pass around stuff for re-use, to avoid people buying new things uneccesarily, and to reduce waste. The moneysaving element is a nice bonus, but not the main point. Maybe it's a British thing, but mentioning money outright just doesn't seem right. And it's really unclassy when someone gets on there and practically posts their Argos shopping list:

"WANTED: Furniture
I have just moved into an unfurnished flat and I need:
A TV stand or table
A two or three seater sofa
A computer chair and desk
Maybe some DVD and CD racks?
Anything else you have."

The ones that really baffle me are where you have someone posting a wanted ad, then a few minutes later, someone else posts an offered ad for the same item (seems to happen with washing machines a lot, oddly...) - do people not actually read the boards?

All time favourite is a legendary post I heard about from another group though:

WANTED: Moon, preferably on a stick

Another thing I do is narrow it down to people I might give it to then check on the site to see what they have offered. It's amazing how many people have only posted wants but never given:mad:

Can see your thinking but not always reliable - I've only ever posted two Offered ad's (for the same thing actually), but I've given away more than that by responding to other people's ad's (usually stuff I didn't think to offer because I'd forgotten I had it, or really didn't see why anyone would want it!)