selling stuff still sucks...but freecycling is fantastic

So I'm really way too tired to post tonight---this should be interesting.

But I did want to relate my views on the difference between selling stuff and freecycling:

Selling stuff:

Process:

• Wait foreeeeeeeeeever to get the tiniest bit of interest.
• Carefully coax slightly interested prospective customer, wooing them with attentive emails, flashy photos and flexible pick up times, or even offers to drop off the item.
• Exchange multiple phone calls and emails about why the item is so perfect and how you are available for them to pick it up

Outcome: About 10% of the time, they buy something and you get good money for getting rid of something you don't need. The other 90% they don't show up, give up on you, never get back to you and you are stuck with the item, which you eventually freecycle.

Freecycling:

Process:

• Post a quick two-line email about something giving the minimum of details and emphasizing the need for you to get rid of it as quickly & conveniently as possible.
• Sit back and wait for the dozens of responses to pour in, each one more polite than the last.
  
• Sift through sob story after obsequious sob story and pick out the one that either makes you feel most warm & fuzzy or the one that seems most likely to pick up the item within the required time frame.
• Feel a warm glow of benevolence as the person arrives, usually promptly, and gratefully picks up said item.

Outcome:

• Hope that the warm glow of benevolence compensates for the fact that you didn't actually earn any money. But hey, at least the item isn't in the landfill or clogging up your storage space!