The Craigslist Deadbeat After-Hours Sales Spectacular

Sunday night around ten o’clock, I received a call from a guy who is interested in buying our used Ford. He wanted to come see it that night –an idea I wasn’t too enthusiastic about. I had class early the following morning and was hoping to be in bed before midnight.

“I’ll be free to show it anytime tomorrow after two,” I told him. Despite my offer, he wanted to see the car immediately. Ten o’clock at night meant nothing to him because he worked nights and would much rather see the car now than in the daytime.

I contemplated my options. The first rule in buying a used car is to never look at it at night–it’s a no-brainer in my book. When the sun’s down it’s a lot harder to see and you might miss something that would otherwise be obvious during the daytime. If this guy wanted to look at the car three hours after sunset, that’s his business. If anything, he would make life easier for me because I wouldn’t hafta wash it.

“I can be there 20 minutes,” he assured me.

Against my better judgment, I relented. I knew I shouldn’t be picky because I desperately wanted to get rid of the car (we have three cars and two parking spots). My logic reached the conclusion that he was a serious buyer because if someone wanted to see a car at 10:30 at night, he must be a serious buyer. And like I previously mentioned, if he came at night I wouldn’t hafta go through the trouble of washing the car.

“Okay,” I said. “If you can get here in 20 minutes I suppose it wouldn’t be that bad.”

I got off the phone and realized how ill-prepared I was to sell the vehicle. I rummaged through The Wife’s paperwork and franticly looked for the pink slip. I quickly downloaded a bill of sales from the DMV. I went from peacefully watching TV to sprinting around the house like the Tasmanian Devil.

When the clock stuck 10:30 I started to worry. When it hit 10:40, I started to think he might not show. At ten ’til eleven, I started to get angry at him. At 11:00, I turned off my phone, stripped down to my jammies, and went to bed. No phone call. No buyer. Just me wasting an hour of my time on something I knew I probably shouldn’t have. I think I’m done with Craigslist. I’m gonna give it another week simply because I don’t have the time to deal with anything else. I wanted to sell this car simply and quickly, but the Craigslist deadbeats are starting to wear me down.