Friday, September 3, 2010

On the cheap... because I'm cheap

Topeka people kill me. I mean really. If you have kids, you know how expensive just about everything is. And if you're not a parent yet, be forewarned. Becuase of this, I am an avid garage saler and craigslister. Now before you go thinking how yucky that might be, I'm not talking about used clothes or shoes or things like that. Mainly I go for the big toys that if you're lucky you can get at about a quarter of the actual retail price and it's practically brand new. I have found many a great deal in KC including an excersaucer which retail for almost over $100, for $20 that literally looked like it had never been touched. But back to the original point of this post, Topeka people try to sell there crap for basically the retail price and hope no one notices. And this irritates me to no end.

There's a cluster of about 3 houses that has a garage sale all the time, and generally sell nice stuff but at ridiculous prices, last year we bought Gracen an outdoor little tikes slide from there and they were wanting $50 for (which hello it retails for like $70 and you're at a GARAGE SALE) anyways it took me 3 days to talk him down to I think $20 and I still thought that was kind of a lot. Well this morning I learned why they ridiculously price things. I talked to one lady and she said that the other 2 houses both the men, will buy crap from each other as cheap as they can and then try to sell it for more than they bought it for. SERIOUSLY?? You are grown men and you live across the street from each other!! At least try to sell it on craigslist where the other guy can't see you selling it in front of his face. For example Man A acquired this cube climbing slide thing from someone's trash (generally these retail for over $100). He than sold it to man B across the street for $30. Then today man B is trying to sell if for $75! Granted they are expensive brand new but I was only going to offer him $20, and that was pushing it.

Luckily we got a really nice little tikes picnic table today for only $15 and it seats 6 kids. Which is way nice and I thought pretty affordable since Gracen has about a billion cousins and most of the tables brand new that seat only 4 kids are at least $50.

Now on to Craigslist. It seems to be the same thing. People here are selling JUNK and trying to make tons of money off it and it drives me crazy! I seriously wish there was a comment button on it so I could let these scammers know they're trying to get more money for it then I could buy it new! Generally I've had good experiences with CL but yesterday I had my first poor experience.

I found a play kitchen on CL in T-town for $30, it's around $110 new, and this one was super nice. So the cheapo in me asked if she'd take $20. She said yes, SCORE! Well finally she gives me her address and I google it and all that comes up is that a man there was arrested for rape less than a month ago. Creeped me out, and sort of turned me off to CL. Now it might not have been that guy (it was an apt. complex) but still. Maybe this dude lured women there with the promise of cheap nice toys and I can't even let my mind go there. But I mean I would've had my kids with me and it still just gives me the heeby jeebys.

Anyhoo. That's my rant for the day! Happy Friday!!! Can't wait for the KSU game tomorrow! GO CATS!!

1 comment:

Jenny said...

Oh the joys of Topeka living. I'm not a parent but I see nothing wrong with getting the things you get from garage sales and Craigslist. Then you can sell it when you're finished! You're Craigslist story is a bit creepy though, at least you googled it first!