# What's the most unusual thing you've seen offered on Freecycle? (or their ilk)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-thing-youve-seen-offered-on-freecycle-or-their-ilk/789231>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 17, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-thing-youve-seen-offered-on-freecycle-or-their-ilk/789231 "2017-06-17T18:58:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-thing-youve-seen-offered-on-freecycle-or-their-ilk/789231/1 "2017-06-17T18:58:51Z")

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Back when I was decluttering tons of stuff we’d accumulated/inherited, I signed up to the local Freecycle mailing list. I haven’t had reason to use it for many years now, but I’ve never unsubbed – I find it weirdly fascinating what things people are trying to pass on.

Or have the nerve to ask for. Like someone recently wanted a queen bedroom set, specifying the number of pieces, the wood it should be made of, and “no scratches!” Uh, you want them to deliver it, too?

Anyway, the strangest thing I’ve seen offered was a eighteen foot tall cupola complete with windows and weathervane – ‘some repairs need’ though. Dang!

Can you top that?

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**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-thing-youve-seen-offered-on-freecycle-or-their-ilk/789231/2 "2017-06-18T01:42:43Z")

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We just gave a unicycle to the Salvation Army store. Does that count?

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**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-thing-youve-seen-offered-on-freecycle-or-their-ilk/789231/3 "2017-06-18T01:56:25Z")

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A few years ago, we redid the plumbing going to the upstairs bathroom. All the water lines in the house had been replaced except for them–they were still the old cast iron and full of rust, literally. The available space for water to go through was about the diameter of a pencil. Anyway, we tore out most of the pipes. It wasn’t pretty. I put the ad for the pieces for free on Craigslist and I swear to Og, someone came and got them within the day.

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-thing-youve-seen-offered-on-freecycle-or-their-ilk/789231/4 "2017-06-18T02:24:52Z")

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> [@phall0106](#):
>
> A few years ago, we redid the plumbing going to the upstairs bathroom. All the water lines in the house had been replaced except for them–they were still the old cast iron and full of rust, literally. The available space for water to go through was about the diameter of a pencil. Anyway, we tore out most of the pipes. It wasn’t pretty. I put the ad for the pieces for free on Craigslist and I swear to Og, someone came and got them within the day.

Maybe they were going to sell them for scrap.

I gave up on Freecycle because most of the responders were no call/no shows. I heard of some groups that banned people after, say, 3 of these, but ours wasn’t moderated this way.

I did use it before I moved in 2011, with varying degrees of success. There was a woman who regularly requested items like a 55-inch TV (like anyone’s going to just give her one of those! :smack: ) and another woman who was constantly requesting A-Beka books (a Christian-oriented homeschooling curriculum) and wrote in textese. :rolleyes: I wouldn’t want her homeschooling either, believe me.

Oh, yeah. The woman who wanted the 55-inch TV? I had an item one time that she was requesting, and guess what? No call, no show. Don’t recall what the item was, but it wasn’t something small.
