Last Friday I emailed a few people offering the low ball amount of $60 for their Apple tvs that they were advertising on Craigslist. Most of them were asking between $70 and $80. I figured if I got one person to bite I would go for it, otherwise I would wait. My main purpose in getting the Apple tv was so that I could stream baseball games from mlb.tv and to stream video from Netflix and Hulu plus. I was very excited about these possibilities as I have been watching baseball on my computer monitor and netflix through the Wii, which is not HD and not a great picture. I finally got a bite on Friday afternoon, but the girl said that she would be out of town until Sunday. She said I could pick it up then. On Sunday, I had family in town and we went to dinner. I asked her if I could pick it up on Monday instead and she said that was fine. I took Jana to her tutoring job on Monday and patiently waited by the phone for the Apple tv. I got the call at 3:50 and headed out the door around 4 to go pick it up. I set the navigation and headed to Oakton, VA which did not look to be very far on the navigation. It said it would take about 20 minutes. I had to pick up Jana at 5 so I figured I would have plenty of time to pick it up and then pick her up. Then I got into the middle of the worst traffic in the country. I sat on the 50 forever. It took me over an hour to get to this girl's house and by the time I got there I was hot and frustrated as I had a very tired Clara in the back seat complaining about every single song on the radio. When the girl opened the door I could see that it probably was not the Apple tv that I wanted. I had wanted the 2nd generation which is small and black. The one she handed me was large and white. I was frustrated, but I told myself the only difference was the size and color so I took it anyway. At this point it was 5:15 and Jana had been off work for 15 minutes. I had texted her and asked her to walk down the street to the Wendy's and wait for me there. I knew she would be upset with me for making her wait and it made me mad that I had let her down. I was also worried because she was not in the best part of town. I rushed back and luckily this time I was going the opposite direction of traffic. It was nearly 6 when I finally picked her up. On the drive to pick up Jana, Clara decided to complain about being hungry and thirsty along with music selection. I couldn't help her out. I hadn't planned on being gone so long so I didn't bring any snacks or drinks. I went in and grabbed Clara some nuggets at Wendy's and asked Jana about her day. She was in a very good mood considering how long she had to wait for me. I told her that I think I may have bought the wrong one and her mood turned slightly sour (as it should have), but she was very understanding and loving which I greatly appreciated as frustrated as I was.
When we got home (after a stop at Chipotle because no one was in the mood to cook dinner) I tested out my new toy. It did lots of cool things. It synced up with my computer and my iTouch. It had access to youtube. It was in HD. It did not, however, have netflix or mlb.tv or Hulu plus. I decided I had better try to sell it on Craigslist. So I created an ad that night offering it for $60 and explaining what it was and why I was selling it.
The next day I got an email from someone asking me how low I would go. I told her to make me an offer. She offered $40. After some thought, I decided I would be willing to take $50 and take a $10 loss to get rid of my mistake. She accepted my counteroffer. She asked me to deliver it to her in Vienna which is almost as far from my house as Oakton was. I told her that I did not have a car for a few days (Jana had gone on a trip to see her sister), but that I could meet her at the Vienna train station. She asked me if we could meet the next day. I said that was fine. The next day she told me that she would be working and asked if I could meet her at her work. I looked it up and determined I could take two buses to get to her work that would take me about an hour. I thought that would be ok as I needed the time to study. At 3:06 I get an email from her that says:
"Never mind. I had someone write back to me about a 2nd generation and I would rather do that one. So thanks but no thanks."We had agreed on a price and a meeting place and exchanged about 8 or 9 emails. I spent most of my lunch mapping out the bus route to her work. Needless to say I was pretty upset.
I have bought and sold many things on Craigslist and for the most part have had very good luck. The last few days dealing with this crap makes me wish I would have just bought a brand new Apple tv 2nd generation for the price of $100. If you can put a price on time I'm pretty sure I've spent at least that much money on my 1st generation Apple tv especially if you add in the gas from the car trip from hell last Monday. I am still going to sell things on Craigslist, but in the future it's going to be more on my terms and I'm going to have a better idea of what I'm buying.
