Are all Freecylers this moochy?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I decided to get rid of some small appliances that I thought might get some interest on Freecycle, so I joined two local ones.

So far, there have been three requests for free cars. One for a washer/dryer combo. Three requests over the two groups from the same person for a set of four tires. A laptop. A Pomeranian. The latest Microsoft Office. Bunk beds. An IPod docking station. A digital camera. And three requests for toddler beds.

And two of the three car requests claimed that it was tax deductible.

There have been three times more wanted posts than offer posts.

Don’t these requests seem a bit excessive, or am I being weird?

2

I used to belong to my local Freecycle group until I started running into the same things you have and unsubscribed.

My understanding is that at least some of the requests, especially those claiming to be tax-deductible, are from charities soliciting donations. Freecycle posts do two things. First, it allows them to find people who want to give their cars away while being cheap to do so. If they post and get no responses, they’re not out anything. Second, it allows some measure of privacy, which is useful when you’re a women’s shelter trying to stay private. The shelter can send someone over to pick up the item and no one’s the wiser.

But most of the “wanted” posts seem to be of the mindset that it never hurts to ask.

Robin

3

These posts are including sob stories about how their families are stuck without reliable transportation. I’d be disappointed if charities were lying on Freecycle.

4

I agree. There are definitely more “Wanted” posts than “Offer” posts, but it still is a nice place to go to get rid of your gently used stuff. I was able to unload an old IOmega Zip-100 drive there, and I was able to get some Nintendo Game Cube games and extra controllers for my kids’ system.

So you can benefit from the system that FreeCycle has in place, but you do have to be patient.

5

To answer your question, it would seem so.
I’ve always wanted to respond to those wanting an iPod or some other extravagant thing. And the moderators in my area seem to allow tags at the bottom spouting about politics and religion. And the sob stories. And bad spelling and punctuation. Makes my head hurt.
I still subscribe, but look at the posts maybe once a month.

6

I guess different groups have different rules. My local group allows only one wanted post per user per month. There are far more offers than wanteds. My group is pretty strict. I got reprimanded for offering a coupon worth $4.00 of formula that had no restrictions because I missed the rule about “no coupons”

I have not noticed any particular moochiness in the people I have given stuff too, but if I get several responses and one says “it is so generous of you to offer this. If it is still available I would like to be considered” and another says “I’ll have this.” guess who I pick?

There is one person who seems to respond quickly to every single thing that I’ve offered and I have given her some things. She is always very grateful and sweet, but in our interactions she mentioned she only has a computer access at work, which made me think she must spend every possible work moment reading and responding to freecycle posts.

7

A Pomeranian? A dog? I can’t even imagine asking someone to give me a living creature, especially where there’s probably some other little yappy dog waiting to be adopted somewhere.

8

Animals are given away by the pawload here. The mod will come in and warn about the dangers in this, but it’s still done a lot.

I’ve only requested two things, and never gotten a response. Bowling balls and old embroidery patterns. I used to offer up quite a few things, but got a lot of repeat askers, and some bordered on stalking.

9

I’ve used the local Freecycle a couple of times. Mostly for getting rid of old (mostly dead) computers.

Locally, the majority of the posts from the time I was on the list were offers, with only a few wanteds. I don’t know whether it’s an effect of moderation, or if it was simply that I haven’t been back after it got more popular.

10

My local freecyclers must be less greedy as I’ve never seen cars, pets and expensive items offered or wanted. Lots of firewood, moving boxes, children’s clothing, plants, toys, aging but working TVs, etc., up for grabs.

I got rid of a bunch of books, vinyl albums, cassettes and text books. All the transactions were easily handled and I met the recipients at a local Starbuck’s to make the exchange. One of my recipients kept postponing our meeting so I finally offered to drop them off at her home. When I got there I realized I was donating to a hoarder. Her garage door (a double) couldn’t be closed because of the crap that was piled in the doorway. I could see into the garage and saw boxes stacked to the ceiling. The items spilling into the driveway were water logged from our recent rains.

I posted on the freecycle message board to say that I thought that hoarding was against the principles of freecycle, that I believed that people really wanted items for whatever reason. Several responses stated that many people took whatever was offered and then sold the items at garage sales. Not necessarily kosher, but at least things are being recycled. One poster stated that it was none of my business where the items went, that I wasn’t ‘throwing them away.’ I didn’t bother to answer the post; I don’t think hoarding is the same as recycling.

I love the premise but have found a few flakes who didn’t show up for the pickup. I haven’t ‘wanted’ anything but continue to offer items, but with far less frequency. Good Will isn’t too far away and I may stick with them.

11

I set up and ran this city’s Freecycle group about four years ago, and stuck with it for a couple of years until some other people came on board to take the burden of moderation off me. That was a relief - being a moderator is a bit like having to reply politely to every “user comment” you see on YouTube. Every day. Ugh.

Anyway, the thing to remember is that there’s a large amount of legroom given to the local groups - aside from a few mandatory rules (no drugs, no porn, no money, etc), you can run your group as tightly as you like, or just let it slide into near-anarchy.

An example of this is the ratio between OFFER and WANTED posts. We loosely enforced a 1:1 - you had to post an offer for any request - but even then you can’t win all the time. One guy, who’d been sending in dozens of WANTED ads for up-to-date computer gear and consumer electronics, was told that he had to offer an item first. Sure, he said, no problem - and offered a brand-new Lamborghini. Needless to say, it had been snapped up by the time anyone responded. (He got banned, by the way, and rejoined under another nym with the same modus operandi.)

As for what people do with the stuff they receive, we were pretty lax about that. After all, the guiding principle of Freecycle is to “keep stuff out of landfill”. The only rule we had was that if someone was taking stuff for resale, this had to be made plain in the ad. So it doesn’t really matter if someone’s going to use an item or keep it in their garage - it’s achieving the stated aim of the organisation.

As for pets and other live critters - that’s left to the group mods to set a rule and enforce it. By far the majority of groups don’t allow pets, but instead provide links to local animal welfare groups. In our case, we polled the users and gladly implemented a no-pets policy based on the results.

“No sob stories” is another rule we enforced. Some people would try it on, saying they needed a flat-screen TV for their terminally-ill daughter or something, but we’d ask them to resubmit without the melodramatic explanation. Again, a common rule.

And cross-posting to other groups is a definite no-no. People often didn’t realise that moderators also read the nearby groups, mainly looking for that exact thing. It violates another guiding principle: “keep it local”, as well as wasting people’s time. Sure, if they can’t shift an item in our group, then a couple of weeks later post the same in another nearby group, that’s fine, but don’t do them both at the same time.

We even had people cross-posting nationally on many groups, especially with WANTED ads. If they got a reply, they’d make up some story about being out of town, and could the item be posted to Bristol? Again, they didn’t seem to realise that we’re aware of other groups on a national level - anyone caught doing that would be mentioned on the national Freecycle forum, and individual groups’ mods would watch out for those posts coming in.

12

My roomie is the moderator for our local freecycle. We have gotten some good stuff, and I have unloaded a lot of household goods that were duplicates, clothing in fantastic condition that no longer fits, and it is a great way to unload books that just didnt appeal to me that I got as gifts [I hate chick lit, but my mom continues to give it to me. Id rather have cook books…]

She has amazing stories of stuff she has run across. Most people only have to be reminded of the rules once, maybe twice at the most but she has had a few winners that have to be banned because they can’t follow the rules about no sob stories, or needing to post offers [i think it is sort of 1 good offer for 4 or 5 little asks [cheap stuff like paperback books, small kitchen goods, stuff that new is under $20 ish] or 1 offer of good for 1 large request, or 4 or 5 little things for 1 good thing. She seems to keep it managed fairly well.

13

Hey, I’m actually jumping on this to ask for references for a good freecycle site. I joined one about a year ago, offered up some metal shelving units… Got one bite on it, who never showed up to get them… And then just silence from the entire site for about the past six months.

14

“Whatever you’ve got planned for tonight Homer, count me out.”

15

In defense of the charities who are asking for cars, I think it is a little different than an individual who wants a car but does not want to pay for it. It is not uncommon for people to have an old car lying around that the owner wants to get rid of, but does not know how. Learning that someone will come and take it away for free, and they get a tax break could actually be considered a service.

16

We have a pretty good Freecycle group in Baltimore. I have been able to get rid of things we’d have had to otherwise pay to haul (beds, etc) which can really help someone else. I’ve given clothes that my kids have outgrown, of that I’ve dieted out of. I’ve received some good things, most notably cookbooks.

We don’t really have a huge lot of wanted posts, thankfully.

I’ve only had one bad experience, and it was a matter of a no-show.

I wish your Freecycle was more like ours.

17

Our freecycle group is pretty good. Mostly offers outweigh the wanteds, and most of the wanteds and pretty reasonable. Occasionally you’ll see someone asking for something absurd, but most of the posts are great.

18

Yeah, that was pretty much my point. I took a course in non-profit management, so my information came from that. One of the speakers who talked to my class mentioned Freecycle as a way to get things they needed, particularly when the charity is short of cash. And, as you said, it’s also a good way to introduce people to various, um, non-traditional ways of giving. He said there was a local shelter that got some of its furniture through Freecycle because a) it freed up cash for day-to-day expenses, and b) the charity didn’t have to go through a local store to get it. The donors got rid of stuff they didn’t want and they got a tax break. The shelter got what it wanted and didn’t have to spend cash to do it. It’s a win-win all the way around.

Robin

19

I wouldn’t have an issue with a charity requesting a car.

I would have an issue IF a charity requested a car by posting a sob story like this one:

“I recently became a widow and I’m raising 2 grandchildren. We are in need
of reliable transportation. I am physically disabled by don’t need special
equipment to drive. If you have a mechanically sound car, van, or SUV can
you please keep me in your thoughts to receive it.”

So, if these are charities, they are lying to get donations, and that I would have a huge problem with.

So, I hope they are just individuals.

20

The one here had a posting from a lady who wanted a Rascal scooter for her daughter. Not because the child was handicapped or anything, mind you, but because she “thought they looked cool.” :rolleyes: