Wait, I'm not done yapping! I remembered yet another “giveaway” story!
*****
It was July 2014. The prior week an EMP employee had flown into DC and stolen, er I mean packed up/accepted for consignment, my final 500+ MPs.
So my ginormous poster cabinet was bare, useless, and taking up lotsa space. I was feeling charitable, so I listed it in the “Free” section of Craigslist DC. I listed it as “Large Art/Poster Cabinet” and warned that it was very heavy, enormous, and would require two men – sexist! – with a handtruck to haul it off. I also included a pic but did not know/detail its exact dimensions.
I expected 1-2 emails expressing interest in the next week. But the next morning I opened my email and 100+ interest emails popped up! Every five minutes another came in! I cancelled the listing and skimmed the requests, most of which were pleading “artistic poverty” and ever-lasting gratitude if I gave it to him/her. (I guess the DC arts community was larger/poorer than I thought.)
I lamely picked one at random and two perfectly-nice dudes showed up the next day with a handtruck. They were hopelessly outmatched/outwitted by the cabinet, shelves flying out at 100mph, etc. After 30 minutes of Olympian struggle, they FINALLY got it out into the hallway. I said goodbye/good luck. 45 minutes they hauled it BACK into the apt. because it was too big for their truck!
So I measured it and picked another email, explaining what had happened to the first pair. They showed up and handled it with aplomb. Goodbye forever….
*****
Want more “infotainment”?
Back in 2010, I bought the cabinet for $150 from a “yahoo in the sticks” off Craigslist.
I also paid him $75 to deliver it and gave him reasonable directions.
He was very late and he finally called me SCREAMING MANIACALLY about how he was hopelessly lost and how [BLEEPING] HORRIBLE [BLEEPING] LIBERAL GODLESS DC and I were! I spent 20 minutes on the phone calming him down and we finally got him on the right track. I thanked him afterwards but felt like SLUGGING him!
