So I need some cash and to clear some space as the “landlady” is complaining about why I need 3 bicycles when I only ride one at a time.
Fair, I suppose. One hasnt been ridden in years. It was the result of another bike’s frame snapping after some pillock rear-ended me at slow speed, pinning the frame down and popping the guy’s bumper right off. Kona refused to honour their lifetime warranty over it, so I bought a rival firms frame and had the other parts transferred over.
The other bike was a gazelle-like superfast racing bike. Arse in the air, head down affair. Used to ride the 5 miles from work in about 20 minutes on that. The constant battering from the roads like moon craters and bastards who’d throw glass in the cycle lanes took their toll on the “shred proof” tyres and splitting the wheels at the rims. I had that repaired with cheaper rims but rarely rode it like before.
Then the past 2 years I’ve had health issues and cant get out as much. I went from 3-4000 miles a year down to a couple of hundred at most. I may be a little depressed at that, but that is life.
So. I put listings on Gumtree (a UK freeads site) and Facebook marketplace. Both bikes were about £1000 to have made up, probably a lot more now I think. I listed each for a fair £200 given their age.
“Can’t I give you £50?”
“I dont have cash right now, can I pay you later?”
Or the worst “Do you still have the bike?” I reply yes within minutes, and then I’m ghosted.
20 messages of each. Infuriating. Tempted to send the bikes to a local charity instead. They’ll be the most blinged out charity bikes you’ve seen. Charity would probably get their money’s worth. I now love the thought of someone who couldn’t afford a racer with open pros and hope hubs riding it about.
Facebook marketplace gets a ton of these “are they still available” posts. It’s a combination of idiots who accidentally click the button (which automatically posts this) and mostly bots that are inquiring about ads because it’s an easy way to appear like the account is "active"and a real person
I did wonder at the time if they were bots, but some seemed engaged in posts about local subjects so I assumed they were real people.
I had a thing thing on with a bookcase and told them I was sick of haggling; they could have it for free, it’s at the end of the driveway.
My buddy picked me up to do something right after and helped me take it down to the end of the driveway. He said if it’s there when we get back I’ll take it (he drives a van for his business).
He dropped me off hours later, 3 hours after the guys said they would come and the bookcase was still there, it was going to rain, so we loaded it into his van.
As we’re doing this the brodogs show up in a car way too small to handle this item and acting like they would fight us over this transgression. Lol.
Had a workmate with a situation like that. Tried to get rid of the child’s bed as it was too small. Stated no car but still had people with “cant you deliver??!”