A Laptop, Some Repeaters, a Sailboat, And a Quarter-Ton Server
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 04.20.07
Picking up from my last post, this TH was part of a discussion to determine how far you could push sites such as Freecycle and Craigslist, where people give and get items for free. Would people really treasure my junk? Here's my experience; what's yours?
Let's start with a Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop that I owned for about 6 years. I don't know the exact specs, but it was running GNU/Linux and everything except the battery worked. I posted it on Craigslist - I got 15 "I'll take its" in 10 minutes. The guy picked it up the next day for his ten year old daughter to use. I felt great.
Next one; ten circa-1992 Thinnet repeaters with BNC connectors. For those not on the floor laughing, nowadays these are about as useful as shouting "One!" and "Zero!" into two tin cans with a string between them. Posted on Freecycle and gone in 30 minutes, to a guy right down the street from me. He needed then to run some old system that was still in use.
Sailboat. This is no joke; Freecycle lets people asks for items as well, so one guy asked for a sailboat for his family to cruise around in. After taking considerable flak from the rest of the group for asking for such a 'luxurious' item, he got it! A week later, a guy offered a 14-foot sailboat that needed work, had a trailer with two flat tires, and he just wanted the thing out of his yard.
Finally, a 500 pound server; this one is my favorite. This thing was huge - three feet high, two feet wide, two feet deep - and solid metal. It took three men to move it with a handtruck. There were dozens of hard drives, backup power supplies - the works - but it was old. We had tried for over a year to get rid of it; it sat in the main hallway, sometimes being used as a table. Then I posted it on Freecycle.
Gone. In under a minute, to a guy that wanted to run an Internet site. He picked it up that day.
[one more, just got rid of a broken coffee maker using Craigslist in half an hour! Mark]
See also: ::The Freecycle Network, ::Freecycle Arrives in Argentina
My best offloading: I took down a large, dry rotted, termite ridden (literally, you could see them) wooden pergola over a patio. The nail-filled dry rotted 2x6s and 4x8s went fairly fast, as I advertised them as "perfect for making raised planter beds." I even made some of my own....
I have gotten rid of old beer bottles ... someone posted a want ad for them (he was a home-brewer) and I got rid of 10 to 15 dozen bottles.
It was great because they were going to get re-used instead of recycled.
Freecycling is awesome. I have been freecycling for a couple of years now & have probably given way more than I have recieved. That just means there is less clutter in my house. Along the way, my son is learning the value of charity, non-materialism, and kindness. Many times, I have said to him, "If we aren't using it, why do we have it? Let's give it someone who will get some good use out of it."
Well, maybe......
I did have some nice moments with Free Cycle when cleaning out our basement.
That is until it came to a free color t.v. in good working order. The first person made an appointment and never showed. I called, he said... "oh, gee, sorry, I forgot."
So on to the next person of interest. This was a professional for a homeless shelter. I made the appointment. (I do have a life other than giving away free things) She never showed. I called her, she said "Oh, gee, sorry, I forgot". As this was a worthy cause, I made another appointment asking her to please call me if she wasn't going to make it. Guess what? She never showed and never called.
I moved onto the next person who was no longer interested. By this time, I'm getting a little bit annoyed at the amount of time it is taking me to give away a perfectly good t.v. and the lack of courtesy from people accepting free goods.
I have been put off by free cycle ever since.
What did I do with the t.v? My brother came for a visit and he gladly took it off my hands. He even said "thank you"!
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I'm with you, Clare. I have tried and tried to give things away, and it is not for lack of response that I have had trouble with a lot of items. I try to be fair and let the first responder claim the item, but often the first responses are the most flaky. I had 25 responses for a Club (car security device), and I still have the darn thing in my basement because nobody would follow through to come get it. Maybe all their cars were stolen.
And that brings me to another point--people will be very wasteful with resources to claim nearly worthless items if those items are free. I have on more than one occasion had to talk people out of coming to get items worth maybe $1, because they were planning to drive 20-30 minutes each way to pick them up. Let's make sure we're doing more good than harm.
Hi Clare, Jay,
I agree with you, I used to have trouble with people coming by to pick up the free stuff, and it's frustrating.
What I do now is that no longer go with with the first person who responds, I go with the person that can pick up the item first, even if they are 8 or 9 in the list. I'm brutal about it - just email everyone back and tell them to pick it up today. The first response gets it, and I don't hold items.
mark