If I hear dueling banjos, we're outta here!

This is not a love story...

See this dresser?

It's been on Craigslist, along with three nightstands,

for months and month.

This is what the posting said:

THIS WAS MY GRANDMOTHERS FURNITURE. OVER 30 YRS. OLD. FRENCH ANTIQUE WHITE DRESSER, WITH TWO MIRRORS. IN GREAT CONDITION. THERE ARE 3 NIGHTSTANDS THAT GO WITH IT. ALL ARE OF SAME GOLD LEAF PATTERN. I WANT TO SELL THIS AS A SET.
PLEASE MAKE A REASONABLE OFFER. all offers will seriously be considered..
PLEASE REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR NAME, AND NUMBER AND YOUR OFFERING PRICE. PLEASE CALL xxx-xxx-xxxx.
ALT. # xxx-xxx-xxxx NO TEXTS. CANNOT RECIEVE TEXTS, AT THIS NUMBER.
THANK YOU.
I'm taking all offers. If interested, leave me an email, with your offering prices. please be close to asking price. no unreasonable offers. thank you. 

I don't think 30yrs makes it an antique,

but I'm not an antique dealer so what do I care, right?

I contacted the seller when they first listed it

How many times in this posting does it say they will consider all offers?

I think five. Five times they mention making an offer.

So I made an offer. A reasonable offer

$50 less than the asking price

They declined stating they were FIRM ON PRICE

 Huh? 

I guess I don't fully understand the concept of 

MAKE AN OFFER

ALL OFFERS CONSIDERED

LEAVE YOUR OFFER

 

It is located over an hour from home, so I decided to pass on it...

(partially due to the drive, partially on principle)

they couldn't tell me the maker or if it was all wood

and I didn't want to make the drive without having more info

Then, a few months later, the price dropped

what did it drop to, you ask?

My initial offer price

And of course, the listing still says the same as above...

All reasonable offers considered

so I contact them again, asking what's their best price

They are FIRM, they state again.

At this point, it's sort of a running joke...

Kenny: "Anything good on CL?

Me: "No, just the Make-an-Offer-Must-Sell-But-Price-is-Firm people"

I let it sit a few more weeks, 

actually wondering why on earth it's still around...

maybe it's a disaster, or smells bad

Soon, it's relisted yet again...this time without a price

(makes it hard to make an offer close to asking price, you know?)

So I decide to bite the bullet and just pay the asking price,

whatever it happened to be this month...

(truth be told, it was the drive, not the price, that was the issue)

I have Kenny call them, 

and the husband talks to him for awhile...

and agrees to a price (only $15 less than their second asking price)

Kenny explains we are FAR away

and seller assures us he's

"got nowhere to go"

Up until now, they've only spoken to me, via email...

so they have no idea it's the same people that made an offer 

LAST YEAR

Kenny tells him we'll be there in two hours

and leaves our phone numbers, just in case

We arrive, nearly two hours later...

down at the end of a dirt road in a rural area...

and guess who is 

NOT HOME!!

We call both contact numbers, with no response...

so we leave, after waiting about 20 minutes

(it was a little too "Deliverance" to hang out, if you know what I mean...)

 so yeah, that's pretty annoying :0(  

The reason I'm not totally pissed off?

Because on the way there, an hour from home, I eye-spied

what I thought was a French dresser sitting out front, amongst the junk

In fact, it WAS a French dresser!

And not just A French dresser...It's a WHITE FINE FURNITURE dresser

circa 1930's....you know, the era of two inch thick drawer faces and solid brass hardware...

and there, right behind it, the ornately hand carved mirror, in PERFECT condition

I can't tell you what I paid for it...but it was less than I pay for a haircut!

Oh, and if you are local and have this CL ad saved, 

thinking you might make the drive

don't waste your time!

Has this happened to you?

Have you ever made concrete plans to buy something

and have the seller TOTALLY flake on you?