Thursday, June 30, 2005
The Daily Planet: Misadventures in Free Stuff
Last summer, we bought a new bed. The old bed has been sitting in our basement ever since. I called some charities, but no one would take it. So it sat there. Last week, a friend told me about a Free Market website for the Twin Cities, where you can post stuff that you want to give away, and people can come take it. Sounded good to me, so I tried it. Uncle Tony didn't want me to post our address, so I put my e-mail address for people to e-mail me for directions (first mistake). I posted in the evening, and I got a couple of responses. I had looked through other postings, and they seemed to stay up for a few days. I figured it would take a few days to get someone to take the bed. So my e-mail responses were quite friendly - "call me tomorrow evening, I can give you directions, come by and see if you want it". And the people were pretty non-committal - "I'll come look to see if I like it, I only want the frame, not the mattress", etc. So, I thought I could just have the couple people come look at it, and if they wanted it, fine. If not, fine.
So I go to work the next morning, and I decide to check my e-mail mid-morning to see if I have any more takers. There were over 30 people asking for that bed! People wanting me to hold it for them, people telling me how badly they needed it, people going nuts! Of course, in my deluded brain, I thought it was only fair to give everyone a chance at the bed (second mistake). I created a form letter, informing everyone who asked that I would be home at 7:00 (including the people I had already e-mailed), and they could come take the bed on a first-come, first-served basis. I had a few people ask if they could call and have me hold the bed for them, but I replied no. And I got e-mails back from the first couple of people I had e-mailed, who felt upset and betrayed because they felt I had promised the bed to just them.
I never felt like I had promised anyone the bed, and I even had told each that there were other lookers. But, I still felt bad that I had “led them on.” In reality, I shouldn’t feel bad at all, because I was giving away a pretty expensive piece of furniture out of the goodness of my heart, but I felt bad anyway. I sent them all very apologetic e-mails, blaming my ignorance about the subtleties of giving stuff away.
I think I would have been OK at this point, except for one thing – I called Uncle Tony. I told him about it, and he immediately starting spinning this horror story of 30 people all showing up an hour before the 7:00 posted time, arguing over who was there first, getting angry than they didn’t get the bed and throwing rocks at our house, etc. He really scared me!! So I sent out another form letter, telling everyone not to come if they couldn’t afford to drive out and not get the bed, and that I would have everyone there at 7:00 draw a number. I came home early because I was so nervous about the impending catastrophe.
2 people showed up at 7:00, both very polite ladies. One woman won the bed, and we gave the other woman an extra dresser we had, which she seemed pleased to get. They both went away happy and peacefully. One more gentleman showed up around 7:30, and when I told him the bed was gone, he politely thanked me and drove away. So, maybe I scared away all the troublemakers, or maybe our fears were completely unjustified. I did get one nice e-mail from a lady who said she understood how difficult it was to go to all the work to give this stuff away, and she appreciated the people who did it. I thought that was nice.
All in all, it was a very stressful learning experience for me. I would like to use Free Market again, although with a big change in strategy, and less self-induced freaking out. It is a great site, which gives people a chance to get nice things they couldn’t otherwise afford. And it did finally get that bed out of our basement, so all in all it was a win-win. Maybe one day of gut-wrenching turmoil was worth it.
Twin Cities Free Market can be found at http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org/
So I go to work the next morning, and I decide to check my e-mail mid-morning to see if I have any more takers. There were over 30 people asking for that bed! People wanting me to hold it for them, people telling me how badly they needed it, people going nuts! Of course, in my deluded brain, I thought it was only fair to give everyone a chance at the bed (second mistake). I created a form letter, informing everyone who asked that I would be home at 7:00 (including the people I had already e-mailed), and they could come take the bed on a first-come, first-served basis. I had a few people ask if they could call and have me hold the bed for them, but I replied no. And I got e-mails back from the first couple of people I had e-mailed, who felt upset and betrayed because they felt I had promised the bed to just them.
I never felt like I had promised anyone the bed, and I even had told each that there were other lookers. But, I still felt bad that I had “led them on.” In reality, I shouldn’t feel bad at all, because I was giving away a pretty expensive piece of furniture out of the goodness of my heart, but I felt bad anyway. I sent them all very apologetic e-mails, blaming my ignorance about the subtleties of giving stuff away.
I think I would have been OK at this point, except for one thing – I called Uncle Tony. I told him about it, and he immediately starting spinning this horror story of 30 people all showing up an hour before the 7:00 posted time, arguing over who was there first, getting angry than they didn’t get the bed and throwing rocks at our house, etc. He really scared me!! So I sent out another form letter, telling everyone not to come if they couldn’t afford to drive out and not get the bed, and that I would have everyone there at 7:00 draw a number. I came home early because I was so nervous about the impending catastrophe.
2 people showed up at 7:00, both very polite ladies. One woman won the bed, and we gave the other woman an extra dresser we had, which she seemed pleased to get. They both went away happy and peacefully. One more gentleman showed up around 7:30, and when I told him the bed was gone, he politely thanked me and drove away. So, maybe I scared away all the troublemakers, or maybe our fears were completely unjustified. I did get one nice e-mail from a lady who said she understood how difficult it was to go to all the work to give this stuff away, and she appreciated the people who did it. I thought that was nice.
All in all, it was a very stressful learning experience for me. I would like to use Free Market again, although with a big change in strategy, and less self-induced freaking out. It is a great site, which gives people a chance to get nice things they couldn’t otherwise afford. And it did finally get that bed out of our basement, so all in all it was a win-win. Maybe one day of gut-wrenching turmoil was worth it.
Twin Cities Free Market can be found at http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org/
# posted by Thatchermom @ 8:03 PM 
