Craigslist Fail

So, I'm woefully behind on the bartering assignment.  The brew kit swap never materialized, and my (mostly) passive approach on Craigslist has basically equated el suck-o.

I'm determined to get all 10 trades, so I'm taking a more direct approach.  Here's my current plan:

1. Ask my friends to introduce me to friends of theirs whom I have never met before who would be willing to trade.
2. A co-worker introduced me to the Garage Sale section of Craigslist.  If the friend-of-a-friend route doesn't work, then I'll directly target items from various online garage sales around Chicago.

My goal is to get mostly caught up this weekend, so I need 4 trades.  5 or 6 would be ideal.  Will post an update on Monday.

Trade Three - Great Odin's Raven!

Now we're rolling...  I was able to secure a trade for the Anchorman DVD for a home beer brewing kit.  I'm going out of town starting tomorrow through Thursday, and I wasn't able to meet up with my confirmed trading partner in time for my trip, but I will conduct the swap next week when I return.  Based on a quick Google search, I'm looking at a value for the brew kit for anywhere between $20 and $60.  Not bad for a $5 DVD!

I am going to be under the gun to perform Trade Four next weekend so I can stay caught up with the class, but I have a feeling it's going to be a bit easier from here on out.

Is Craigslist a cop out?  I don't think so... You still need to find a way to articulate value for the product you're trying to sell.  I used pity to offload the DVD, but I'll need to be more creative next time.  Before the end of the assignment, I would like to be able to perform the trade without actually sharing that I'm doing it for a class.  Hopefully my sales "skills" will have elevated by that point.

Trade Three - Craigslist to the Rescue?

Let's see if this works...

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/wan/4561611766.html

Just posted.  No takers, yet.  Some of the responses should be interesting...  I fully expect it to be like Christmas morning with my email inbox.  Probably like "Bad Santa" Christmas, but Christmas nonetheless.

Update:
Craigslist disabled my add, but I may have gotten a taker (and a good one!) before they shut me down.  Not sure why they did.  Fairly PG posting.

Update 2:
Dave M offered me a slightly used jogging stroller, but it would have been quite a hike to get it.  I re-posted the add under the appropriate section, so we'll see if I get any takers closer to the city.  Sorry, Dave!  Thanks for the offer.

Trade Two - Working for It

So, I had had this KitKat in my bag for about a week.  Every so often, I would unzip the compartment in my backpack to see if it had melted.  During the couple really warm days we had, I left it at home on my desk.

I procrastinated during the week because I had targeted (what I thought was) the perfect opportunity to trade up from my KitKat.  The wife, kid and I were planning to attend a friend's party on July 4.  While I did know the people throwing the party, there were a lot of people there whom I didn't know.  A lot of family members and neighbors of the hosts were there, none of which I had ever met before.  Surely they would be sympathetic and enthusiastic to assist in my plight, right?  Piece of cake, right?  Yeah... not so much.  Honestly, I was relieved to leave the house with anything.

Trade 2

When: Friday. July 4, between about 4:00pm and 9:30pm
Where: Friend's Independence Day party
Who: Eventually... the host's neighbor Rob
What: $1 KitKat for $5 Anchorman DVD

My wife, son, and I got to the party at about 3pm.  There were already a handful of people hanging out on the patio.  The wife and I each grabbed some food/drink and we sat the muchkin in the kiddie pool while we made introductions and joined the conversation.  In a normal social setting like this, I would totally be carefree, but in my head I'm crafting the bartering pitch, stressing out that I'm going to freak out my friend's family and neighbors.

I waited until more people arrived and a few more beers were imbibed.  During a break in the conversation, I actually stood up from out of my chair and told everyone the whole story.  I told them about the ES course, the assignment, and how I made my first trade.  I then offered my KitKat to anyone interested in bartering with me.

I think waiting for more beers to be consumed was probably not the best idea.  Either that or I didn't do a great job explaining the point of the assignment.  Or people were just screwing with me.  The following are the items that I turned down (sometimes more than once) from people at the party over the course of a few hours.  I continued to take more and more grief as the evening went on.

1. A 4th of July pinwheel (from one of the neighbor kids)
2. A can of pinto beans (from the host's brother)
3. A cold bottle of Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (from the host's mom)
4. A small rolling pin-like back massager (from the host's father)

After turning down these items over the course of the evening, someone mentioned a hat that was purchased the night before at Ravinia during the Earth, Wind, and Fire concert.  Unfortunately, the host of the party (my friend) was the one who purchased it.  She wanted to give it to me, but I had to decline due to the rules.  Too bad... it was a cool sequined hat.

It was nearing the end of the evening, and I hadn't yet successfully bartered the KitKat.  Honestly, I didn't really push the issue much after turning down the back massager three times, as I didn't want to be killjoy.  I was fairly certain that I would be heading home without a trade when luck struck.  After spending about 4 hours in the kiddie pool, my son had run out of diapers and... was in desperate need of some new drawers.  Our friend's neighbor was kind enough to head over to their house and grab a spare diaper for us.  When he came back, he surprised me by tossing a DVD of Anchorman in my lap (unopened!  $5!)  Relieved, gladly exchanged my (slightly mushy) $1 KitKat for the DVD.

What I learned here is that saying 'no' can be difficult.  In an open forum, it can also be discouraging to the rest of the people within earshot, even if it is a friendly crowd.  I did nearly swap for the beer and the back massager just to actually make a trade and not continue to potentially hurt feelings, but I felt like I would be much worse off that if I just held on to the KitKat.  Also, never take a situation for granted.  Be prepared with a story, even if you think an interaction is going to be easy.  Who knows if a better story would have changed the outcome of the initial offers for me, but I consider myself lucky.  Until next week.  Stay classy, Chicago.