Goodbye Desk

A couple of months ago we bought a new, larger desk at IKEA to use in the home office since the desk I had been using for work was kind of small for my needs. And since we had to move the office to the basement to keep Max away from the computer, it was a good time to do it. Since then, the plan has been to change the upstairs office into a toy room for the kids. Today that happened because I finally got around to getting rid of the desk. We did not need the desk anymore, but I kind of hated to see it go. That desk came from the music store my parents ran when I was a kid, and was in our house after the music store closed. It is nice having the desk gone though. It frees up some space, and I wouldn't want to have to move it again.

To get rid of the desk I resorted to listing it on Craigslist. Deciding it would be easier to unload on someone if it were free, I decided not to ask any money for it. Within an hour of listing the desk, I had already received four emails from people inquiring about the desk.

Now I am not completely clear about the proper etiquette regarding Craigslist, but I was taken aback by some of the emails I received. The very first one simply contained the text "address and zip i will map." Excuse me? Is that really a proper way to respond to an advertisement? Yes, it is short and to the point, but my time isn't too valuable that I can't take the time to read a complete sentence or two. The next email asked for my address and said he could pick it up today. Another email was fairly similar in its content.

As I really wanted to take care of this today, I responded to the second email I received letting him know the desk was still available and I gave information needed for him to get the desk. The fourth email came after I sent my reply. This one was someone who took the time to actually write a response to my ad in complete sentences, asking if the desk was still available and asking for other details about the desk. If I hadn't already replied to the email I replied to, I would have offered it to the final emailer.

Things worked out, and the person to whom I replied picked up the desk this afternoon. I will be using Craigslist to get rid of a couple more things we don't need as this seems to be an efficient way to use. Perhaps if I am not giving things away for free, but instead charging for them, the replies will be a little less curt, and more polite. On the other hand, maybe I just expect too much civility from people on the Internet.