The SO and I are relatively new to Freecycle (for those not familiar with it: it’s basically a bulletin-board type service where you give away stuff you don’t want anymore to interested parties in your area; great concept). We’ve given away 2 or 3 small items. Mostly odd-ball stuff; stuff no one would want unless they filled an exact niche (e.g., vacuum bags for specific model of vac)
Here’s what I don’t get: one post we had mentioned 2 totally unrelated, obscure, clutter-type items. One respondent wrote back right away and said “I’d like both items.” It was just a bit coincidental that she’d be “in the market”, so to speak, for both.
Another recent post was for an old Atari machine, missing some cables/cords. Pure junk, IMO. While a couple people responded and said “I’ll use it for parts”, we also received about 10 responses within an hour of posting, saying simply, “I’d like this item” or something equally generic. Among these responses was the same person who responded to the first post for the two things. Same person.
Questions:
Do some people just love grabbing free junky stuff even if they don’t want it, because they’re hoarders or whatever?
Is there some wacky auto-generate-response program out there with which one can respond to every post? Am I missing something here?
The combination of responses just seemed too weird to us; our spidey senses were tingling as we were reading through them, but I just don’t see how there’s any percentage in it for anyone.
Some people nab things for resale, either in flea markets or ebay. You’ll sometimes see listings with “No resellers, please!”, although I don’t think there’s really any way to prevent it. I think the resellers aren’t too picky about what they get, they may use some genuine junk to fill out bulk boxes o’ mystery stuff, or get $1 + shipping for something that cost them nothing.
Me? I don’t care. As long as my half-used bottle of shampoo is going to use somewhere, I don’t care if you’re washing your dog with it, selling the bottle as Britney Spears’ shampoo or donating it to an orphanage.
If you’re ever skeeved though, just don’t give it to them, pick someone else. Or arrange a neutral drop off/ pick up spot so they don’t know where you live.
Depending on the item, people really do use them for spare parts. I sold a 70 year old stove on Ebay and the dude said he only wanted it for parts. Seems he has his own business restoring antique stoves.
Not sure about the other off-the-wall stuff. Maybe they think it has garage sale value?
I’ve pretty much stopped using Freecycle entirely because of all the annoying “first-dibs” type people and the general flakiness. I just give stuff to thrift stores now.
For a while, I added an extra requirement, like “tell me your favorite knock-knock joke” or “In one sentence, tell me how the givaway might save your life.” I had fun, and the (greatly reduced number of) people who responded were willing to make enough of an effort that I figured they wanted it for their own use and might actually bother to show up and take the item.
Well, the re-selling/yard sale angle does make sense now that you mention it; just something I’d never really thought all the way through because it seems to be just more damn trouble than it’s worth from my perspective.
eta: walrus, nice touch! Like your suggestions.
Atari stuff is still popular among collectors, especially those who also repair them. (I’ve done both, though my own repairs were limited to fixing my own hardware. I’ve still got a small collection of Atari stuff, though I sold the bulk of my collection almost two years ago.) A lack of cables and stuff is no big deal; a standard 9v DC AC adapter with 3.5mm jack, an RCA cable with coax adapter or switchbox, and one or two old school 9-pin DIN joysticks (there are billions out there), and you’re good to go. I’m not surprised there was interest in that. It’s not worth much by itself unless by chance it was a “heavy sixer” (collector speak for the first generation releases of the Atari VCS with the thick, heavy, curved molding; manufactured for only the first 1977/78 production year, so they’re more valuable than subsequent versions.) but even then it doesn’t fetch a lot on eBay. Some people think it does though – you’d be surprised what some people think collectors are willing to pay for stuff like that.
For the rest – yeah, there are a lot of vultures that hang around Freecycle looking for crap to flip on eBay. Hey, it’s no skin off their noses – they pay gas to pick the stuff up. Anything else they make off eBay is gravy (after listing/feature/final value fees are extracted.)
Of course, some people might just be chronic packrats.
I once saw a Freecycle ad that was giving away half-used bottles of shampoo because they were moving and didn’t want to pack it. I’ll bet you someone picked it up. People in need…you just never know what they can use.
Heh. I’ve given away a half-used bottle of shampoo, and its matching conditioner. It was moderately expensive stuff - not salon stuff, but the “expensive” aisle at Target. But it made my hair all limp and nasty.
Had four takers in three hours; I chose the one who wrote in complete sentences.