The Polite Truth

Do you prefer the polite answer or the truth? I know, you want a polite and truthful answer. People sometimes mix these up. They feel that they will hurt the person's feelings with the truth so they politely tell them something they think the person would rather hear. Well I say just tell the truth (and yes, you can be polite...no need to be rude about it). I deal with a lot of people in sales, not just because of my craigslist adventure but because of my job - and people...just tell me the truth! If you don't want to buy it...say so. I won't be offended. So to all you craiglisters out there, I say this, "Don't waste my time deferring a negative answer. If you don't want it, say so. I'll love you all the more for it."

WEEK 4: God Speed to Haitian Adoptions

So this is week 4 of my little game of buying or selling something on craigslist each week for 52 weeks. Since I sold 2 items last week I get to carry one over for this week! So this week's item is a snowboard that I sold to a guy in his 30's who pulled up in a champaign Mercedes! What's with the cars? The guy I sold the clown head to pulled up in a black Porsche! Can't wait to see next week's Jag or Bentley!

So the money from this weeks item is charity bound as the board was actually donated as a silent auction item to my charity a few years back but it never sold so I had to take the matter to Craig and Craig never lets me down!

For those of you who don't know, my husband and I co-founded a charity in 2002 called Orphan's Hope Kids to Canada. We give financial grants of up to $10,000 to people adopting children from overseas who can't afford it. To date, we have raised over 1 million dollars and have offered grants to over 100 families adopting children from close to 20 different countries. We are the first charity of it's kind in Canada so the demand is overwhelming.

In my home office, I have dozens of pictures of orphans that we have helped adopt over the years. Last week, in the wake of the Haiti catastrophe, I looked at the wall focusing on all the Haitian children we have helped adopt over the years. My eyes settled on a picture of 3 siblings. There are actually 2 pictures of them. In the first, they are standing outside of their orphanage looking quite depressed. In the second, they have huge smiles on their faces as they had just found out that they were all being adopted together into one Canadian family!

Well, it turns out that I was too hasty in putting that picture on the wall as they are yet to be adopted! I called the adoptive parents last week and after much worrying, they had just found out that the kids were okay. They are now anxiously awaiting word for when they can get their kids home to Canada! My thoughts and prayers are with them and a few other families from our charity who wait with bated breath for word on when they can adopt their Haitian children. God speed.

www.orphanshope.ca

SALE: $120
CATEGORY: SPORTING

Banking Items

I knew this would happen eventually. I sold 2 things this week. So, what to do? Since it's my game and I make up the rules I'm going add a 'banking' rule. Here it is...if I sell more than 1 item a week I can bank the extra items for weeks where i don't sell anything. I think that's fair..it helps for when I'll be away too!

More Cakes

I said I would post a picture of the pizza cake I made on the week-end if it turned out. It's definitely not one of my fav's but here it is. Since I don't like it that much, I'm posting the skateboard cake I made last year. Maybe down the road I'll have to do a cake posting on craigslist!

WEEK 3: What to do With the Twig in your Mouth

So, week 3 is a short and sweet scenerio. I sold an IPOD charger to a guy who is training to run a triathalon in October. Now he can use his Shuffle when he's training to amuse his mind during the tedious running. It's his first triathalon. I asked him why at this point in his life he decided to do a triathalon and he told me that he wanted to get it done before he started having kids. I commented, "Ya, 'cuz we all know life stops after kids." (eye roll)

So why do people think that life stops after kids? Many peeps I know dropped all their extra curricular activities when they had kids. I think you need to pare down but I don't think giving them all up is the solution. You need to continue to have an outlet just for yourself, otherwise, when the chicks leave the nest you'll be left wondering what to do with the twig in your mouth.

SALE: $10

CATEGORY: ELECTRONICS

Beer and Fudge

Okay, I know I just did a posting about 10 minutes ago but then I started reading a blog of a friend of mine and she starts off by saying that you can't look for friends. Immediately my summer of '88 popped into my head contradicting her so I thought I would share.

The summer of '88 was basically the best summer of my life. My best friend and I flew out west to work for the summer. We were between years in University. We didn't have a job waiting for us. We just went out there with a hope, a wish and a prayer! The first day we trudged up the main street of Banff kindly asking the hotels to hire us. By the end of the day we were begging them!

Long story short...we ended up getting a job at the Chateau Lake Louise where we proceeded to have the best time of our lives...dancing every night, hiking, mountain climbing, lots of parties!

Fast forward 2 months down the road...a friend we met in Lake Louise decided she was going to Whistler to find work so we decided to join her and ended up getting waitressing jobs. However, the joy and friendships we had in Lake Louise weren't present in Whistler. The set up just wasn't the same. We actually had to hitch hike back and forth to work everyday which kept us removed from a lot of the action in the village (our hitch hiking stories is fodder for a blog of it's own).

So, getting to the finding friends part. One day we decided to look for a couple of cool guys to hang out with around where we lived. There were a row of townhouses there so we decided to just knock on the doors looking for cool guys. Guess what? It worked!! The first door we knocked on there were 2 guys living there. They were drinking beer and eating frozen fudge. We pretended we were looking for someone else and when they said that guy didn't live there we just kept talking to them anyway. Soon we were sitting at their kitchen table eating fudge and drinking with them! We actually hung out with them for a good portion of the summer.

Now, that was many years ago and I was just a university student and didn't think much about what my girlfriend and I actually did. But now I'm thinking about it from the guys point of view. They're just sitting there by themselves minding their own business and 2 university chicks unexpectantly knock at their door. Five minutes later their sharing a drink with them! I wonder how they tell their version of this story?

Okay, I'll be more active blogging (thanks Jay)

Okay, I have to admit that I'm new to blogging. I was planning on posting once a week when I made a sale but a friend told me I have to do it more often than that. So, just a short note to say I'll try to post 3 times a week. That's it people. I can't do any more than that.

I do have to tell you that although I only did the one transaction this week, I had a lot of action with Craig last night! I had a lot of people interested in things so hopefully next week won't be so difficult because I was swamped this week. Not only was I having my affair with Craig but my son's birthday party was Wednesday night, my husband's is this Saturday and my mom's is soon. I make special birthday cakes for the kids so that usually takes a few days to pull off after I first come up with a plan. So this week I'm making a pizza cake. If it turns out well, I'll post a picture of it next week. Here are 2 pictures of cakes I've made in the past.

WEEK 2: This is Not EBAY!

Okay, I'm only into my 2nd week here and I'm not so sure I like what I've gotten myself into! In some ways it's really interesting and fun but in other ways I'm wondering what I set myself up for! This is not easy! Why were the things I sold in the past so easy to sell and now it's so hard?! I'm chalking it up to being January and people just don't want to spend money right now. That's what I'm going with anyway. The thing is, I'm not even doing this for the money...I'm doing it for the challenge...just to see if I can do it!

Anyway, I did make my second sale of the year. It's a growth chart. I actually had a lady from the States contact me to see if I would ship it to her. I told her that the reason I'm on Craigslist and not EBAY is because I don't want to ship anything to anyone! So I was showing the craigslist posting to a couple of colleagues I work with and one said to the other, "You should buy that for your daughter." So she did :) Thanks colleagues! So there you have it. My second sale.

SALE: $10

CATEGORY: BABY AND KID STUFF

WEEK 1: My Giant Clown Head

So this is my first week and I've made my first sale! This clown's head has been in my family for over 50 years. It's from the Eaton's Santa Clause Parade and a friend of my mom's bought it for her when my mom was in her 20's. Can you believe that I used to have this in my bedroom as a child!

I had a great experience with this sale making me realize that it might be the stories told to me from the buyers that will be the best part of this game. The buyer had been in the Santa Clause Parade with his friend for about 20 years. In June, the friend will be turning 50. The buyer purchased the clown's head as a gift for his friend and is really excited about giving it to him.

So I met the buyer on a busy corner in downtown Toronto. He pulled up in his black Porsche. I told him that I would be easy to spot as I'd be the one holding the clown's head and he told me that he would only buy it from me if I stood on the corner wearing it! So I did. He said I was a good sport. What he didn't know was that 5 floors up a group of my work colleagues were squished up against 2 windows looking down at the transaction as it happened. I really wanted to turn around and wave at them but I didn't want to scare off the buyer!

Needless to say...a great transaction today! The clown's head went to a great home!

SALE: $25
CATEGORY: ANTIQUES

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!

Okay, this is week one of my little Craigslist game of trying to buy or sell something each week for 52 weeks. I have one thing to say right now...WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!! So I've posted a few items so far and nary a bite...well, one nibble but the guy hasn't contacted me back yet. To top it all off, I've just realized that my 'weeks' to sell from Jan-Mar are really only 5 days instead of 7 because I go away every week-end. That leaves me just 4 days left in order to sell something! Please people... BITE!