Getting even with Craigslister "taking bids".

[Carmine]

Ever wish you could get even with some tool using Craigslist to stir up a bidding war? This type of seller basically wastes your time, quizzing you to get a handle on an item's value?

Our story begins with a Zenith roundie listed in the Detroit area under the heading "1950s Zenith color TV". I click on the ad, with dreams of a 15" prototype in my head, and from the pictures I ascertain the following information:

1) It probably a 1st-gen 29JC20 chassis because the back appears to have even-more-than usual venting, made of metal, in the high-voltage (right) side of the chassis.

2) It's at least a power-tuning model, probably Space-Command because there are no VHF tuning knobs, only buttons.

3) It does have UHF.

4) Has dual speakers.

5) It's in a very unusual BLONDE cabinet, which probably gave the lunkhead seller the idea it came from the early/mid 50s.

6) It looks like it's in EXCELLENT cosmetic condition.

His asking price is $99. On the downside, he's located on the very western outskirts of metro Detroit, about 40 miles from me. However, I'd go much further than that for such a set. His phone number is in the ad, so I wait until a decent hour last Thursday and give him a call in the morning.

I tell him that I'd like to buy the set, and his pictures were so good that I'm sure of the purchase. When could he see me? He says the same day is busy, and Friday would be tough. That's fine I say, because I actually have business on that end of town Saturday afternoon. I propose that if he holds the set, I'll pay him an extra $25. (I didn't want to go crazy with extra cash because I could already tell he was testing how much I'd pay.) I said look at it this way... If I show on Saturday, you get an extra $25. If I don't, you're still in the same spot you are now, and you can put it right back on Craigslist. I also had the strong feeling he'd try to raise the price if I jumped too quickly. (What do you think this set is worth? I have another old set... What is that one worth, etc.) He gladly agrees to my offer of additional cash.

Late on Thursday afternoon he sends this email:

I've attached some photo's of another T V I have for sale. This T V was purchased in Oct. 1950, I have the original bill of sale. It's a Black and White.

Unfortunately I had someone out to the storage unit to look at something else and they saw the Zenith T V and offered me $200 on the spot. I've sold enough stuff to know that a bird in the hand is worth more than 10 in the bush. Sorry I sold it but I couldn't pass up the deal. If you think you might be interested in this one please let me know. Thanks again for calling!

Well thanks a lot you SOB, you're quite a man of your word. I've already made arrangements to borrow a friend's SUV (I have a truck, but we were expecting rain and a 1-ton truck suspension wouldn't do that TV many favors.) Thanks again for wasting my time.

But even more than that, you've got the balls to still try and peddle your common-as-dirt 50s B&W set to me? What to do... Naturally, the thing to do is buy the B&W set, right? So I ask him for a price in the remaining set, and this is the response:

Looking on E-bay at similar items, not the same I'm thinking I'd like to get around $175. I'm not firm on that though. I think I'll put it on Craigs list and see what kind of response I get. If you think your interested I can hold off on the Craigs list thing???????????

Not wanting to be too obvious, I send this email in reply on Friday morning:

I think $100 is probably more fair for an untested set. If the set produces light on the screen (even just a narrow horizontal line), it validates the picture tube and will increase the value dramatically. Try to take a photo at this stage. Turning the brightness up all the way might help widen the picture.

Remember that the old vacuum tubes will take quite a while to re-awaken, so it might take 10-20 minutes to restart them after decades of disuse. Don't be too concerned with anything that smells/smokes... The dust often burns off the hot vacuum tubes and smells like a furnace in the fall.

Let me know the results and perhaps we can still make a deal on Saturday.

I pretty much blow it off at this stage, but on Saturday morning I get a phone call... When was I coming out? So I ask when he's available. He says how about 4 PM? Hmmm.... Sorry, that's too late. The best I could do is 2 PM.

Then he grumbles a bit about having to stop cleaning out his mother's house (which is where I'm sure this stuff is coming from), but he'll "go out of his way" and be there at 2 PM.

Two-o'clock comes and my phone rings. Where am I? I make some excuses about confusing the address, but I just need to turn around... Could he go in front of the storage place and flag me down? I'm driving a minivan.

Now I get the mental image of this jackass waving at every minivan he sees, and tons of people thinking, "Who is this nutjob?"

After about 10 minutes, I figure he's suffered enough. So I call him back and say, "I think I changed my mind... I don't want an old TV anymore." He is stunned, and says, "You drove all the way out here and changed your mind!?"

Then in my most maniacal laugh, I say "buddy, I never left my house" and hang-up.