For Sale

Now that we have the new pool up and running, we want to get rid of the quick set pool we were using before. Of course the first thing we thought to do was to put an ad on craigslist. I know it's getting late in the season for a pool, but we're finally getting some hot weather and I thought there might be someone interested in it. The pool is in excellent shape and comes with some extras we purchased separately so it's more than complete. I decided to price it at about a third of what we paid for it. I placed the ad and sat back and waited for responses.

For the first few day, no one seemed interested, but as soon as the temperature went up, the emails started rolling in. Out of fairness, I contacted the responders in order to make arrangements for pick up.

Responder number one was excited to come and get it and would get right back to me for my address. I waited and waited, sent a few emails to her, and waited some more. Finally, I told her I would need to contact the next person on the list if I didn't hear back from her within a certain amount of time. When I didn't hear from her, I contacted person number two. An hour later person number one said she was still interested and would come and get it right away. Too late, I've already contacted someone else. Before I could tell her that, she sent an email rescinding her offer.

I received an email right away from person number two. She wanted to come and get it that evening. I sent her my address and waited. She never showed. The next day she said she would definitely come some time that evening. I asked her to let me know when to expect her. She never responded and never showed. This pattern continued until I had gone through every responder on the list. I finally stopped checking my email every hour and contemplated removing the ad from craigslist.

Yesterday, though, I got another email from a woman who would like the pool for her kids. It's larger than the one she has, but she doesn't want to pay what I'm asking. In fact, she wants to pay about half. I'll think about it.

This morning, I found another person interested in the pool, but his email is the best so far. He wants to know if I have some sort of guarantee policy (huh?, I'm not a store) that the pool does not leak. If I can provide said guarantee, he may be able to send someone out this week to take a look at it because they want to use it for jello wrestling at their fraternity. Nice.

Now I remember why I stopped placing ads on craigslist.