Get a drum machine, sing and play bass.
Lol, no.
I agree
Okay, I didn’t get any bites on the bass, so I ended up pawning it for $75, because I needed cash right now/
But I’m also trying to sell my bicycle, since I don’t use it any more, and it’s a really nice bike:
http://wenatchee.craigslist.org/bik/5358087514.html
I got one serious inquiry, but the guy asked the “size”, and I guess it wasn’t the right size for him (it’s a “size 49”, aka “the smallest frame available” because I’m 5’8" with a 30" inseam).
I have gotten two more inquiries, but I suspect that they are scam inquiries. Just look at how they read:
“Would you be available today? I am available today around 7pm but tomorrow after work which is 4pm is also fine by me because I close early. Will that work for you? I work until 4pm so it would have to be around 4:30pm on Saturday or anytime this evening, Is that ok? Where do you want us to meet to see the it and pay you in person with cash immediately if we can agree on a good price,will that be okay with you? I can as well come to your place to view and pick up if you do not mind. Let me know asap and you reach me back @ [e-mail address] or send me your number to call you Thanks!”
“Hi! I just viewed your ad posted. I can have a look at it today. I won’t be available anytime after 7pm today, I will be leaving town to go pickup my daughter from Airport in another city. I am available on Sunday and I can come around tomorrow to check it out anytime provide on Sunday . Could you possibly show it to me tomorrow? I can come after church service on my way home before i have some rest, Let me know what time i can come to take a look it, i want to be sure it’s still in great shape before i purchase it and i’m ready to pay in person by cash…You can email me here @ [e-mail address]. Let me know asap. Thanks!”
I went ahead and replied to both of them (and got an error message back from my mail server that the message to the first person was undeliverable).
But look at them: they both say basically the same thing, in the almost same way, despite (allegedly) coming from two different people.
The first was sent at around 4:45PM on Friday; the second was sent around 4:45PM on Saturday.
Neither message specifically names the item for sale. (Why would a legit interested buyer not mention the bike?)
Both read, to a degree, like they were written by a person speaking English as a second language, and the “style” doesn’t feel like a Spanish-speaker writing English (Spanish is the second-most-common language in my town, given that our population is about 30% Hispanic.)
OTOH, if these are scammers, I can’t guess at what they’re hoping to accomplish beyond harvesting my e-mail address and maybe my phone number. They both offer to pay cash, in person, so it’s not like they’re going to give me a check, take the bike, and then put a stop-payment on the check.
The “undeliverable” e-mail address in the first message was also kind of odd. It ended with “.co”. The only places I’ve seen “.co” are in British Web domains, and the “.co” was always followed by, “.uk”. Like so, in an e-mail address: [user]@[domain].co.uk
I assumed the guy had made a typo, so I added an “m” to the end: .com. That came back as undeliverable. So I e-mailed him back again and left off the “m”, and that seems to have gone through.
But neither of these people has gotten back to me.
My post was only half serious, but there are successful rock bands that are only bass, drums, vocals. And there are plenty of successful individual musicians making a living playing shows all over the place, most probably unheard of here. But why think of anything like that.
I’ve never pawned anything. How does this work? Can you buy it back in a certain amount of time/how much? Didn’t you say it was a $800-900 bass?
Its okay
Yeah but dude needs money today, not theoretical money at some future date. Also, he’s right, the live music market has been battered by karaoke and DJs.
And I love the Specialized road bike, they are such wonderful machines
Maybe physically or mentally getting out of the “bunghole” might turn things around for you.
It is hard to thrive when you live in a bunghole.
I’ve always worked with the same pawnshop, so the owners know me. The way it works is, I ask for $75, they loan me the $75, and I leave my item with them as collateral. It’s basically a 90-day secured loan. At the 90-day mark, I can pay back the loan + interest and get my item back, or I can pay the interest and renew the loan for another 90 days. If I don’t repay the loan, or pay the interest and renew, they’re free to put my collateral up for sale.
I keep the loan amount relatively small, following the advice my dad gave me when I was younger: never pawn something for more than you’re willing/able to pay to get it back.
It’s a really great bike, and so lightweight. My youngest niece was 6 years old when I bought it, and she picked it up and lifted it over her head 
Indeed. My youngest sister lived in Seattle for a while, and now lives in California, and all these years she has kept telling me to come live where she does. Except when I ask her, “can I crash at your place until I get a job and get my own place?”, she always answers with, “LOL, no, I live in an all-girl place.” Gee, thanks. My sister, the nun.
LOL, okay, now I know people are trying to scam me on Craigslist. Just got another “bite”:
“Hey,
Am available today & tomorrow after closing time. Will that work for you? I work until 7pm so it would have to be around 7:30pm. Is that ok? where do you want us to meet to see the item and pay you in person then pick it up immediately?. Let me know asap and you reach me back at [e-mail].com or send me your number to call you Thanks!”
More of same.
I’m kind of glad to hear you pawned the bass. Be careful, and don’t spend more than the instrument is worth perpetuating the loan (ugh, I know that from experience), but you can get it back if you’re in a position to later.
I hope you can get it back (I get attached to instruments), but at least your current poverty isn’t a vow you’ve taken as a matter of principle!
This pawnshop is also currently holding my 1968 Gibson acoustic guitar, and has been since … August? I recently renewed that loan, and will need to renew it again in February, or redeem it. God, that is one instrument that I will not allow to escape me. My grandfather gave it to me back in 1980, when I was 14 years old and first learning to play (he was drunk).
This gets better and better: I just got a reply from not the guy I replied to:
"Thanks for your prompt response. My name is Dave I just got called from
work this morning that i need to work , actually I am sorry that I could
not longer come to pick it in person as planned. I actually just had a
change in my work schedule but I believe am ok with the condition as seen
on the advert as well as the price stated. I am ready to make instant
purchase with my mode of payment would being a Certified Bank Check via
Postal service Express mail or UPS overnight delivery.
I’ll arrange for a local pick up as soon as you receive check, cashed it
and have your money in hand, I promise you everything will go smoothly as I
would like to have it before the my wedding anniversary which comes in a
week.
Kindly get back to me with your Full Name,Full mailing Address,Cell Phone
Number and Agreed price to sell. As soon as this is provided, payment will
be overnight to you and I will let you know once mailed out with tracking
number sent to you. I will also add an additional $30 for in order you to
hold it for me till the Check gets you.
Thanks and I hope we handle this in good faith while waiting to hear from
you. Merry Christmas to you."
(The guy I replied to called himself “Jeff”)
This is actually kinda fun watching myself get scammed.
Should I keep egging them on?
Top-level .co is for Colombia, as I understand it. So yes, that’s odd.
Ugh, that was embarrassing. It’s February, my financial situation has not improved, and … I had to send my 71-year-old mom a desperate message on Facebook, begging her to send me $35 to pay the interest on my Gibson. It was her father who gave me that guitar, so naturally she sent the money. So my Gibson is safe for another 90 days. But Mom was pretty upset that I’d pawned it. All I could say was, “Sorry, Mom. I’ve been basically living in poverty the last few months.”
God, I can’t wait for March to get here, when I will finally have more work than I know what to do with. I got through January, after swallowing my pride and asking my church for help with my rent. They gave me $300 from the benevolence fund to cover my shortfall, and then another $100 to pay my car/renter’s insurance and electric bill. I fortunately earned enough in January to cover my February rent myself, but I may need to ask for help again with the insurance/electric.
On another note, in an odd twist of fate, I suddenly find myself with a girlfriend for the first time in 13 years. Right in the middle of the worst financial poverty of my life. And in her words, I’m “the best thing to ever happen to [her]”. I think I’ll keep her
Sorry you have had these challenges - it sounds like you are moving in the right direction!
It’s been frustrating, that’s for sure. I genuinely expected to have a lot more work in December, based on having worked in this place for seven and a half years prior to my two-year hiatus. Lots and lots of company/organization Christmas parties to cater.
I work at the city convention center, but my employer is the hotel next door, and that hotel has had the contract to staff the convention center for more than 30 years. Shortly before I left in 2013, the city decided to take a more “active” role in running the convention center, and the contract was renegotiated. The hotel still staffs the place, but the renegotiation resulted in some sort of competition between the two entities, and it appears that the hotel lured away a good number of the smaller companies/organizations who used to hold their holiday parties at the convention center; now they have those parties in the hotel’s restaurant, resulting in less work for those of us who work at the center.
Had I been aware of this situation back in October, I would have sought out at least a part-time job elsewhere to supplement my income. But, at this point, I don’t feel right taking a job that I’m just going to bail on in March, when the convention business really takes off. I just need to make it to March.