Craigslist Adventure

Close on the heels of my monthly Craigslist edition, here is our latest find;

These chairs, all six of them, have got to be #1 on the excitement list when it comes to 3 years of Craigslist shopping for us. As you all know we have been looking for chairs to go with our other Craigslist find, the breakfast table. No, these weren’t my first choice. As usual, a lot of deals fell through, some the owners never bothered to reply (I guess my price might have been too low), others I didn’t want to go as low as the seller suggested.

I found this posting on a Wednesday, the seller had listed a rectangular table and the six chairs as a set for $300. I asked if he would be willing to sell just the chairs for $130 and that I could pick them up on the weekend. The seller replied that he wants to sell it that day itself as he was relocating. Usually our weeknights are full with kids’activities, homework, etc. that night was no exception. Also anyone familiar with the traffic in the DC area will know how long it takes to cross the border over to Maryland from this side of Norther Va in the evenings. There was no way we could pick it up that day. That’s when I remembered that one of our friends lived pretty close to where the seller was. After checking with my friend (who agreed to pick it up that evening) I reached out to the seller. He came back saying;

“I need the table gone too. Can you take it all for $200 cash?”

Me: I don’t need the table. I bought a table from Craigslist last week! 

Seller: “OK, if I can’t sell the set by 5 pm. I’ll sell you just the chairs for $130. Does that work?” 

I was sure the deal was on the verge of falling through like so many others and started looking at other postings. At 3.45 pm I got an email from the seller; “I’m not going to wait until 5 pm anymore. Can your friend come pick them up now?” Ugh…Ugh…not gonna happen. Of course it is too much to ask of them to leave whatever they were doing (work maybe?) and go pick up the chairs right then and there! Those chairs were gone for good. 🙁

I clicked on the Craigslist posting link one more time to bid adieu to the set of chairs that could have worked really great in our breakfast room.  And there it was in bold letters, “Free Delivery within 15 miles”! The seller was so desperate to get rid of the set that he had updated the posting with a free delivery offer! I almost freaked out and holding onto hope emailed him asking if he could deliver to my friend’s place by 6pm (by then they would be home). And sure he did! Yay! That turned out to be way easier than I expected!

When our friends came over during the weekend they brought the chairs with them. $130 for 6 chairs made of real wood and that too in a great condition! That comes to around $22 per chair, not bad right?

 

Not sure if I’m gonna paint the chairs yet. Will wait to see how the table turns out. By the way I’m in the home stretch on that table redo. See all that dust on the chairs? That’s all from sanding the table top! Reveal coming up next week.

PS: We are so grateful for having such awesome friends who were willing to help us at such short notice. A big thank you to you two, K & S!

Do you have any crazy shopping stories like this?