Seminole Sunshine Waterfalls

My Favorite Hobby Is Buying and Selling Stuff on Craigslist

This topic is so juicy and sinister that it has been banned from my other blog in the Tallahassee Democrat. It is an interesting service that has virtually taken over my interest in eBay. It is called Craigslist.org. With that web page - you open up a new world of saving money and discovering hard to find items to purchase.

Unfortunately - if you do not live in a big city - Craigslist might have limited service for you. But if you live in a city like Tallahassee or Allentown - consider yourself lucky. 

Simply put - Criagslist.org is a very simple - text based - database. It is completely free - no sign up fees - no insertion fees - no sharing your sales profit with company.

In my case - my base page is - http://tallahassee.craigslist.org/. When you click on this page - you see several categories to select. 99% of the time I use the "for sale" category - but there are many others to choose. There are "subcategories" like - tools - cars - furniture - household - motorcycles - electronics - CDs.

Most of the time I am buying or selling personal items. I have purchased - cars - scooters - appliances - cellphones - cameras - furniture - tickets - computers - and car parts.  I have sold - cars - scooters - appliances - cellphones - cameras - furniture - tickets - computers - and car parts.

"Craig" lives in San Francisco. He started the list as a hobby. He does charge for real estate and job listings in San Francisco and New York. It has become a multi-million dollar company being run out of an old home in San Francisco. It has about 20 full-time employees - including Craig Newmark. He started it in 1995.

Here is an example of a simple sale. Suppose you want to sell a car. First your register to get a free account. They give you a logon and password. Then you select the category from the list - in this case "cars + trucks." Next you click "post" - and the layout page comes up on the screen. 

On the layout page - there is a box to write the title. There is also a box to put the price. Then you type the body of the advertisement in the large box. This is where you can get very creative. Writing good ad copy is a skill onto itself - but after a few ads - you're an expert. One the best features follows - the place to select your pictures. You can upload four pictures for free from your computer.

If you know how to use HTML to layout pages - you have an even broader choice of tools to tweak your ads. You can change the type fonts - type color - type size - and even access pictures you have stored elsewhere. These pictures can then be enlarged and the number you can use is unlimited in your ad.

Then with the press of one key - your ad is published - and it can be seen all over the world. You can have people contact you by email or telephone.

99% of the time - you meet the buyer in person - let them check out the merchandise - and pay you. If you a trusting person - you can accept a check - I accept cash. If the buyer wants a receipt - you  can type one on the computer.

All the rules of buying and selling are honored. You must be cautious - check out any purchased items thoroughly. "Let the buyer beware" is your motto. Whenever I am buying a large ticket item - I ask a lot of questions - and try to check out the seller by tracing warranties and I even call the dealer where the item was purchased. In my cases you can transfer the warranty to your name.

To get a good idea what the value of an item is - I often look it up on eBay or in Google. 

I have bought and sold over 100 items - and most of the sales are completed with both a satisfied buyer and seller. If at anytime you feel uncomfortable - just cancel the deal and walk away. Tell the customer you changed your mind. The only hint I have had of customers being unhappy was when they later found out  that I paid less for the product - cleaned it up - and sold it for more money. One fellow became very unhappy when I bought a motor home from him - drove it 40,000 miles - then cleaned it up and sold it for a few thousand more dollars than I paid for it. 

Like any other sale - you are allowed to bargain for a lower price. Some folks get insulted when you only offer them $200 for an item they purchased for $1000. Veteran sellers are not insulted - they usually like to bargain the price up a bit. Because of vanity - others would rather throw something away than sell it to you for a low low price. In those cases - I smile - hand them my card with a price on the back. In many cases they call me later - when no else offers them anything. Cash speaks volumes.

Many times I buy an item I just want to "try." After I had purchased an item - and realize I do not need it - I clean it up - take some nice pictures of it - and put it back on Craigslist. Some folks would say it is a waste of time - but this is what retired guys have a lot of. I used to get paid $50 an hour - but no one is paying anything for my time now.

One time I bought a Mercedes Diesel for $2000. We drove it for 6 months. We decided to sell it. I scrubbed it from top to bottom - took 20 pictures of that car - and put it back on Craigslist. I got calls for it from as far away as California. A man from Mississippi eventually bought it for $4000. We still email each other talking about that car. He even told me he fixed the turbocharger  on the car and it can cruise at over 100 miles per hour now and get 35 miles per gallon. Oh well - maybe that is one that got away from me. 

One time a guy called me about a car - he didn't want to buy it. He just wanted to talk to the guy that wrote the ad. That was the ultimate compliment. We were on the phone for 20 minutes.

One time - my buddy Darrell bought a Saturn with a pushed in front end for $200. He pulled out the front end and drove it for a year. He asked me to sell it. He said I could keep everything over $1000 of the price. I scrubbed it up and marketed it. I got 40 calls for that car at $2495. The first guy drove it and bought it on the spot. He was so happy he beat all the other callers. While taking him for a test ride - I "got rubber in three gears." He turned on the CD player and out blasted some Buddy Holly tunes. He gave me a puzzled look. I said to him with a straight face, "Cracker music!" He flashed me the widest pearly white grin I ever saw. A year later the "cable guy" came to our house to service the Internet. He looked at me and smiled, "Remember me?" I didn't. It was the guy that bought the car. I asked him how it was doing. He said it was the best car he ever bought. He drove it a year and someone hit him broadside. He was okay - but the best part - the insurance company gave him $5000 for the car! That car just kept giving and giving.

I have lots of Craigslist stories including the one where I wrote a story about "Buying and Selling on Craigslist" for the Tallahassee Democrat. It appeared on their web site for an hour or so - then it mysteriously disappeared. I called the editor of the paper and asked him what happened. He said he would check into it. He called me back and said that no one erased the story. 

In the next breath he said, "You know Craigslist is a very sensitive subject around here." I never brought it up again - until now.

9 Inches to Go - Pool Temperature is 78 Degrees

Bottom of blue tile is the full level. 9 inches to go. It fills about
2 inches an hour.

Pool Filling at Two Inches an Hour

Shirley arrived exactly at 3:30 with martinis

Pool is Done - Water Starts at 3:30

Final coat

The Marcite Plasterers

Just got in Noles game

FSU lost this first game with Wichita State.

Saturday - FSU is winning the second game 12-3.

If there is a third game - it will be Sunday at noon.

The winner goes to the College World Series in Omaha.

The Trailing Spouse Considers: Cottage or Condo?

Four years ago - Lulu was offered a job at Florida State and we sold our little chalet in the hills and moved to the big city of Tallahassee. Although we had 8 months advance to look for a home - when a house came up on Seminole Drive - our friends sent us pictures of it and we would have bought it sight unseen except the realtor insisted that we see it. We were told about the house on a Friday - our friends toured it on Saturday and sent us pictures - Sunday we flew down - Monday we bought it. The "big bargainer" of all time settled for list price.

Since then - we build a workshop and a guest house. We made a carport into a garage. We added all new concrete driveways and sidewalks. We installed new appliances - had the place landscaped from stem to stern - and now we replaced a vinyl-lined pool with a concrete one with travertine and marble trim.

Although the house is really nice now - as I turn 60 I am tired of all the upkeep and am too tight to hire others to do it.

From birth - Lulu has been raised to believe success is an inground concrete tiled pool. If a couple of waterfalls are thrown in - she is in nirvana. Most of the time she just sits along side the pool and watches it. Yes - she swims 100 laps a day - but that only takes a half hour. So - now that she has the pool of her dreams - it is going to be very hard to move her.

Since I am much older than Lulu - my ideal home is a maintenance free condo. I have been watching The Plaza Tower being built for the last couple of years. It is within walking distance of FSU Campus and the Capitol. One can gun their car up Jefferson Street from campus and go right in the super secure parking garage.

After pestering the management of the Plaza Tower - they agreed to take my friends and I on a VIP tour of the condo - even though it is not near being completely. We got to ride in the rickety bird cage elevator and visited several condos - some for sale - but most of them purchased.

The condo is 23 floors tall. The penthouses on the top are two stories high. There are 10 penthouses - all sold for $700,000 plus. There are a few 2 bedroom unit on the 21st floor available for $400,000. The least expensive one left is a 1 bedroom unit on the 12th floor for $250,000.

Some units will be ready to occupy in December of this year. The condo is a "union shop" - so all dates are tentative.

Each condo comes with an owned parking space. Extra parking spots are $10,000 each.

One must pay property tax on their unit and also a maintenance fee decided by a condo committee. That fee is 34 cents a square foot a month.

The penthouses are a sight to behold. the views of campus - stadium - downtown - Capitol - are wonderful. The loft bedroom space offers a new dimension.

The condos will be primes painted and the floors will be smooth concrete. Each owner may choose floors and colors. Units went from roughly 900 square feet to 1500 square feet.


Since we travel so much - my idea of peace of mind - is to lock one door and not have to worry about hurricanes - crooks - freezing pipes. Lulu will need more inducement than that - namely a place to swim and a furniture stipend.
So - it looks like I am convinced - but Lulu is going to be a hard sell.

Tales from Trailing Spouse - Wayne and Shirley Get Uncorked in Italy

Note - Wayne and Shirley - our two buddies down the street are also trailing spice (plural of trailing spouse). They just came home from two weeks in Italy. Here is Shirley's story from the trip.

Picture 1 - Shirley and Wayne at TLH Airport.

Picture 2 - Salvador is third from left - his wife in on the far left - on the right is Wayne and Shirley. 

Best Wine-Tasting in Italy!

Shirley Wiegand can be reached at jtjb@mac.com.

My husband and I recently spent several weeks in Italy, staying in a Tuscan villa most of the time. During the day we visited small towns in the area, sampling local cuisine and tasting local wines. One day we happened upon Panzano, a one-street village on a hilltop. We stopped to poke around. Over a small shop we noticed a sign, “Accademia del Buon Gusto” – academy of good taste. We’re both professors, so we were intrigued. We stopped, peeked in, and then my husband headed up the hill for the lovely old church at the end of the street. I ventured a few more steps in. There I was met by an enthusiastic store owner, Salvadore.

“Come in!” he said in English with a strong Italian accent. “Buon Giorno!” Before I could say anything, he asked, “Will you taste wine?” He grabbed lovely crystal wine glasses off a shelf, pinging them together to show me he wasn’t kidding around. This was serious crystal. He insisted I pull my husband back into the store – hmmmmm, this would be a job, since his drink of choice is beer, not wine. But Salvadore had a most charming way of convincing me that he had wine we’d both like; after all, he showed me, he had already pulled three glasses off the shelf: one for me, one for my husband, and, of course, one for Salvadore!

So my husband reluctantly ambled down the hill and into the store – and then stayed an hour or more. Salvadore knows wine; and he loves to teach; and, as he says jovially, “I’m Crazy!! Crazy about wine!” He let us taste anything we wanted. He asked what we liked and found a wine to suit us. We tasted red. We tasted white. And when we couldn’t drink any more wine, he had us taste olive oils – he knows a heck of a lot about those, too, and taught me the best way to truly taste the differences. And then we moved on to limoncino – and grappa. And along the way we noticed some lovely small paintings in the shop, cartoons really, featuring wine. They’re painted by a friend of his, and they’re for sale.

All the while Salvadore amused us with his stories and jokes mixed with years of wine knowledge and experience. End result: we learned way more than we had the entire trip, all in this one small shop. And we supplied our villa with great wine, olive oil and limoncino.

And this impressed us most: Though we used our credit card for the liquid purchases, Salvadore could accept only cash for the four paintings we bought. We didn’t have enough with us. So what did Salvadore do? He had his wife, the store cashier, wrap up the paintings and send them home with us. We had mentioned we’d bring our friends back the following week, so he said, “You can pay then.” Amazed???? We were. We had about $150 worth of paintings and he trusted us to pay him the following week.

Salvadore is undoubtedly one of the most charming people you’ll ever meet, and, wow, does he know wine. When we returned the following week with friends, they considered it the highlight of their trip. If you’re in Tuscany, please stop in Panzano and give Salvadore and his wife a big Italian hug for us! Arrivederchi!

Pool Progress - Almost Done

Tuesday - June 3rd - 6 PM - I just took these pictures. The tile is
almost all done. Tomorrow - they grout the coping and tile cracks.
They also will put a rough skim coat on the whole pool.

Thursday - the marcite plaster team comes in and puts the final
plaster coat on the pool. It will be light blue - and the color goes
through the whole 3/4 inch layer.

Friday - we put water in it. Then Saturday we turn on the filter.

The waterfalls come out of an opening just under the top cap of the
pedestals. The waterfalls will be two feet wide and they will fall in
toward the steps. They can be turned off completely and adjusted
individually with a value on the backside of the pedestal. You can
have the water just run down the tile or have two gushing wide
fountains shooting outward.