Last night, late, when I was typing this up, I just knew I was way too wordy, included too much blah blah blah, and left nothing for anyone else to add. Reading this today told me how very wrong I was! (Well, I may still have been wordy and blahed out everybody but at least there were a bunch of things still to be covered.) I'm going to disagree with the comment about 'flakes'. Any kind of commentary in an ad that attributes bad motives, bad attitude, or total lack of trust in one's fellow man, no matter how well-deserved, turns me off. I like dealing with nice people and until I prove not to be so nice myself, I have to hope that others will think the best of me. Some people do very well with email addresses only. And if you are one of them, then, so be it. You can certainly put a deal together via email, we do it on Ebay all the time. Even arrangements to meet can be done that way, although speaking on the phone once you are at that stage, can help to alleviate stress and work out the kinks. I do hate all the phone calls attached to people who don't show up. But its kind of a necessary part of doing things this way. Here's how I handle it when there are multiple persons interested in same item. In December I put a set of drapes on CL with several pictures and my price. I got multiple emails and responded to each one with verification that I still had the drapes and included my phone number and told them to call if they wanted to view. Then, the calls started. People wanted them. One lady wanted to do a Paypal payment right then, so she would be sure of getting them. Now, Paypal would work for me. I use it for Ebay all the time and it means you got paid. But for someone local, I still don't really like the idea of someone paying before they see the item in person. Anyway, I arranged with her for her husband to come the next morning, but told her he needed to call first in case they were sold. I had Lady #2 call and tell me she absolutely wanted them, was 45 minutes away, and would I hold them for her? If she had said she was on her way, I would have done it. Once someone has arranged to come right away, I will at least give them the benefit of the doubt. But she wanted to come the next night. Again, I said, that's fine, but before you come you need to call to make sure they aren't sold. Then, Lady #3 called me 4 times in 15 minutes to arrange to drive the 7 or 8 minutes it would take for her to get to my house. Her children were yelling in the background and she had to keep hanging up to deal with it. She finally called back a little bit later and said it was just too hard and she might come the next day. So, now I have 3 definites, but no one is actually en route. I get more emails and I reply that drapes are still available, answer the questions, and tell them to call if they want to come. Next morning, I get one phone call from the lady who wanted to Paypal. Her husband is on his way down the hill and will be at my house in 30 minutes if they are still there. I tell her I will wait for him. He comes, he sees, he pays, we're good. Lady #3 never calls back. Lady #2 who begged me to save them, never calls back. I put Sold in the ad. I continue getting phone calls for 2 days and emails for about 2 weeks. I could have probably sold this set of drapes 3 times over. And I don't know why. I think it was timing. I had Craigslisted them 6 weeks earlier and got absolutely no interest. And so many people were very disappointed to have missed them. But again, unless someone tells me they are leaving right away to head for my house, I am not promising to save them for anyone. Red

Here's the thing I don't understand. I can see why people say 'rod iron' or 'chester drawers'. That's how they hear the word, and so they mistakenly think that is the spelling. Good enough. But why do people say 'must sale'. I realize in some areas of the country, 'must sell' and 'must sale' sound the same. But they do not sound the same in my area of the country. This is the type of thing that perplexes me.

All I got was: *This posting has been deleted by its author.* *(The title on the listings page will be removed in just a few minutes.)* Is it something that can be posted and shared? (Was it the "Hooker Bedroom Furniture" that I saw recently on CL in my area? What were they thinking? Sure Hooker is a furniture brand name to brag about, but I think they could have worded it differently.)

Wow, I haven't seen a This End Up piece in a long time! We used to have one of those because we figured it would be sturdy for our two little boys...until we realized they might also get a concussion if they stumbled into one of those arms!