On Saturday, Martin and Rika sold all their stuff to the “Tealit vultures”. Within one day of posting an ad on Tealit, Martin got over 80 emails from people interested in buying the stuff he couldn’t take with him to Canada. It sounds great, but he didn’t call them “vultures” for nothing. Everything was on sale at ridiculously low prices, but people still tried to haggle. Unsatisfied with buying a four thousand dollar item for six hundred, they’d ask for five; unsatisfied with getting a nice leather couch for $700台幣, one guy actually asked him if he could get the couch shipped to him. I’m not sure what Martin said to him, but I know what he should have said:

Ship you a leather couch that I’ve already discounted to less than 10% of its value? Spend three times what you’re offering to pay me so that I can ship it to you? Sure! Of course I’ll spend my time shipping my things to you at a loss, because I live for you. Would you like it gift-wrapped, too?

I met up with him and a couple of Rika’s friends for dinner and then went over to his place to see the aftermath. Everything was picked and pawed over. The floor was a mess from people walking with their shoes on indoors. The bed was gone, sold to someone who haggled even though it was only selling for three US dollars. Those Tealit guys were scavengers!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.