Friday, December 13, 2013

Dear Fellow Freecyclers,

The giver in a Freecycle transaction, that is the person who has posted the OFFER, has tremendous freedom in choosing who the taker, that is the person who picks up the OFFERed item, will be. Givers can request that interested people send them jokes and then they'll choose someone based on the joke they liked the most. Givers can request that interested people pick a number between 1 and 100 and whoever got the closest to the number they were thinking gets to be the taker. There are any number of relevant, irrelevant, sensible, or silly ways to choose a taker.

I make use of the 3-Day Courtesy Rule, a day that allows both the giver and the taker three days to sort out a convenient pick-up time, by requesting that interesting people send me times that are convenient for them to pick-up during a three day span (a time frame for each day). I disregard responses that neglect to include that information. I also give some time to allow for digest freecyclers to see the post and respond. I never respond to "Is this still available?" because, if it weren't, a TAKEN post would be distributed and the OFFER would no longer exist. Having these time frames is valuable to me when I have a No Show because I can choose a back-up quickly based on the times already provided. I know who is available that evening or the next morning.

When a loved one passed away, we inherited a collection of items that were popular during the 1980's but are worth nothing now. My husband is choosing one to keep for memory but we have no use for the full collection. Still, despite being worthless, based on their '80's fame these items can be found on eBay listed anywhere from $100 to $1500. No bids, mind you. These poor souls list and re-list these worthless things until someone foolishly buys them thinking they can turn around and sell them for profit. In truth, not even the scrap yards will take them to melt down the bronze. They are worth only the aesthetic for those who enjoy what they are.

So, when I posted the OFFER, I was cautious of the reason people may want them. I knew there would be people who wanted to make money based on a shallow Google search. A gift for an elderly father is the best possible scenario for a new home for these things and so I chose the taker accordingly.

I have received some very desperate and pushy multiple requests for pick-up from individuals who reply to every OFFER and I know are only trying to make money. They would have made none. In fact, the ones who have repeatedly messaged me to push their desire for the items, in a tone that suggested I was doing them wrong by not responding, go on my list of people I will never allow to take an OFFER.

Remember, Fellow Freecyclers. No one is entitled to anything.

As Always,
Me.