This is actually a tactic Antoine-Augustin Parmentier used to popularize potatoes in France. He couldn’t get people to accept potatoes, so he placed armed guards to protect the plants, and withdrew them at a certain point in the day so that people could steal them.
Even if you intend to give it away for free, still price it. Once it’s free it will attract a lot of… shady characters. In my experience at least. Even asking a very cheap price will almost eliminate all the weirdos and odd requests. It’s like they only search for stuff that’s free.
When it came to my kid’s old toys I ended giving it away for free when they came to pick it up with cash in hand.
Yep! This has worked really well for me! If I list things as free, I tend to get people with tons of questions and excuses, and lots of flakes or scammers. If I post things with a pretty low price, people are usually much more pleasant to deal with.
My experience with the toys has been that’s it’s usually single parents with not much money wanting to get something for their kid(s). But your option is also a great idea.
Or, better yet, just give the stuff you don’t need to the people interested in getting it, and participate in mutual exchange.
Crush capitalism!
Free table - sits out for days
Put an 100 dollar sign on the table - stolen in 5 minutes
This is actually a tactic Antoine-Augustin Parmentier used to popularize potatoes in France. He couldn’t get people to accept potatoes, so he placed armed guards to protect the plants, and withdrew them at a certain point in the day so that people could steal them.
Even if you intend to give it away for free, still price it. Once it’s free it will attract a lot of… shady characters. In my experience at least. Even asking a very cheap price will almost eliminate all the weirdos and odd requests. It’s like they only search for stuff that’s free. When it came to my kid’s old toys I ended giving it away for free when they came to pick it up with cash in hand.
Yep! This has worked really well for me! If I list things as free, I tend to get people with tons of questions and excuses, and lots of flakes or scammers. If I post things with a pretty low price, people are usually much more pleasant to deal with.
Even better to donate to a toy library, to make sure it isn’t going to someone who is just going to flip it.
My experience with the toys has been that’s it’s usually single parents with not much money wanting to get something for their kid(s). But your option is also a great idea.
Off Topic: But its the same reason why there are adoption fees on pets. Otherwise there are weirdos trying to hurt kittens.
put item on sidewalk with sign that says “free!”
Item sits there for months
Remove sign that says free, and replace with one that says “$100 OBO”
Item is gone by morning
“Unfortunately, no. I currently don’t have resources to deliver stuff, but I’ll be happy to see you at my place!”
But yeah, classic on your end :D
That’s when you make them pay the shipping + a bit of extra charge for your time since they did asked for price before.