Jeez, sometimes these trades happen fast.
It’d been weeks since I traded the power drill for the iPad Mini, and I wasn’t seeing a lot of interest. Not only was I not receiving many emails about the iPad, but Facebook began showing the number of views again for Marketplace items, and…
Recently I haven’t been quite as active in making offers as I had been earlier on in the project. I was letting offers come to me, and that slowed things quite a bit. It started to make me question whether this had been a good trade at all.
But, I started reaching out again, offering the iPad in exchange for music gear, or iPhones, or mini bikes (seriously, I’d love to have a mini bike to trade!). Yesterday around 3:30pm, as my work day was winding down, I messaged a guy on Facebook who was selling an iMac that looked to be in great shape. We went back and forth a little, and it took a little convincing (nothing improper — he wasn’t sure the iPad was worth the trade, and I reminded him of the cases that were included, which I suppose he found convincing), but around 4pm he agreed.
“I’m home now, but at 5pm I leave.” He was in Point Richmond, and I made it there with 15 minutes to spare. We were masked up and made the trade, and I plugged it in and booted it up as soon as I got home. (It’s always a risk when you can’t check an item’s working condition on-site, but there’s no way I’m going inside anyone else’s house for a damn trade right now, or maybe ever.)
So, lesson learned. This project moves a lot more quickly when I’m out there actively making offers, including on listings in which the seller makes no mention of being open to trades. I’ve had offers turned down dozens of times by now, but sometimes they say yes.
Here’s hoping this one moves quickly.
Historic movie theater seats trading line:
Original item value: $110
Number of trades to date: 4
Latest trade: iPad Mini 2 ($225) for 2009 iMac ($300)
Total line value dollar increase: $190
Total line value percent increase: 173%
#traded 