I Hate Buying Used from Parents

We have acquired many things used since this journey began.  When I started buying for Lily, I was a single mom counting every penny.  And, used is akin to recycled, so there's less waste when we reuse an item someone else bought.  I've had great luck with used items.  A few friends just gave me their used baby clothes.  I've hit up many garage sales and consignment sales.  I love a good consignment or thrift store. Here are a few things I've picked up on my own:

• Pottery Barn $250 crib set for $25
• Stroller for $40
• Spring/summer/fall wardrobe (30+ outfits) from 12mo to 2T for $100
• $40 in cabinet locks for $2
• Boba carrier ($120) for $60
• Bag of 12 mo clothes (10+ outfits) for $30
• $400 glider and ottoman for $80

However, I hate buying from parents who post on these mailing lists and Craigslist.  OMG.  Sometimes, it just take up too much time to be worth it.  It's parents (with half brains) selling to other parents (with half brains, usually with younger kids), which means it's like a mine field.

BOMB #1 - Mom-seller doesn't show up at her own house!  Seller in NW DC has a bag of clothes that would fill one of our holes for $30.  I tell her that I'll take them.  She tells me when to be there.  I show up early, so I park the car 3 blocks away and we get coffee.  Arrive 5 minutes early.  The seller is not at home.  Wait 20 minutes while emailing seller that I'm at the house.  Nothing.  We walk back to the car.  Finally, 25 minutes after we arrived, the seller emailed me to tell me that she got held up helping a friend and that she'd be back at the house in 5 minutes.  I am nursing in the car at this point.  I tell her that we'll finish up and be over.  This despite my desire to run as fast as I can.  We get there 10 minutes later to find that the seller is still not home.  I email her telling her we just left when we found she still wasn't there.  She says that they had another engagement to get to and that she can run home and leave the clothes out for me.  WTF.  No way.  You set the time.  You had 45 minutes to be home.  I don't respond.  She emails me again to tell me she went home and the clothes are now on the porch and that I can leave the money under the mat.  NO FUCKING WAY am I going back at this point.  No way.  So, I get stuck in hella DC weekend construction traffic on our way out of town.  Drove 30 minutes this way and an hour that way for nothing.

BOMB #2 - Seller takes 4 days to get back to us. Seller posts a walker activity toy for $10 on Craigslist.  It is seriously 1/2 mile from my place, so I really hoped it was still available.  I don't want to spend another $25 for something she's going to use for a couple of weeks and I swore I wasn't going to buy to begin with, but we'd really use right this moment.  I accidentally emailed this person 2 times in 3 days about the same walker (mommy brain + Craigslist app = funny emails).  At 10pm on the third day, I get an email asking if I wanted to come get it the next day.  I said, "Sure, what time would you like me to be there?"  Some 17 hours later, I write and ask if they still wanted me to come by today, and then offered that if they just left it on the porch that I could leave an envelope with money in the door.  No response. 

In baby time, four days is forever.  Seriously.  I'm walking around with this little baby, and everything 30 seconds for four days, I'm thinking "Man, we just need a walker.  Man, we just need a walker.  I need to get us a walker.  Should I just spend the $25 on a walker?  I need to get us a walker."  All of the other used walkers are in Germantown and Rockville (forget it!).  I just needed to skip the waiting and buy it new.  But, every other month, we get to this point where we are like f&#@, we need new toys NOW!  So, I'd rather buy used when I can.

This is why I love our local community.  I sent out an email asking the local moms if anyone would pass along a walker to us.  In fact, around here, just about every house has a porch, so you just put your stuff out for porch pick up and it's gone just like that! BAM!  I didn't do that in the first place, because I have a long list of things we'd like to acquire.  No need bothering them every ten minutes.  And, that poor bomb seller #2 could be on the email list wondering what the heck I was doing.  I don't know what I'm doing.  That's half of parenting!

Score!  Walker.  Lily loves it.  It was passed to us by a family down the street who had it passed to them by a family around the corner!  It has local history!

And so, in thanks for some of the amazing pieces we've been gifted, when I cleaned out Lily's stuff this week, we offered to pass them along to the local moms.  In 24 hours, I watched almost everything disappear, and all we had to do was put it out on the porch!