We had come to a standstill.
Well, one of us wasn’t standing. He’d just fallen over.
In an odd bonding moment, four of us – Dan, my husband; Tom, the guy from whom we bought a secondhand desk; me, a superfluous bystander; and The Desk were stuck together in our basement stairwell like a blood clot. On the uphill end of the desk, Tom was holding up his end of the bargain. As part of the sale, Tom had agreed to help Dan move the desk from our truck to the basement, a decision he was probably regretting. As they lugged the monster downstairs, Dan slipped on the nylon sleeping bag someone put down to protect the wood stairs. (Forget the people, don’t nick the stairs!) The desk was now on top of Dan. I pictured my husband flattened like Wile E. Coyote beneath a boulder at the bottom of a cliff. I’d killed him!
A faint cry came from what sounded like the desk’s file drawer: “I could use a hand here.” I slid sideways between the stairwell wall and the desk, and hoisted it off of Dan’s leg. The rest of him lay headfirst downstairs.
He got up, brushed himself off with his remaining dignity, picked up the desk and limped with Tom into his office. All this for a good bargain.
Let me rewind. When not traveling, Dan works in his home office in the basement, which is newly finished, but, until now, unfurnished. My office is one floor up. Lately, when I venture down to his office looking for a lunch date, I notice he isn’t working but shopping on Craigslist for used office furniture.
“Hard at work, I see,” I’d joke.
“I’m working on working,” he’d say. “I can’t get anything done until I get some furniture.”
He was making do with three folding tables smothered in computer equipment, cords and mountains of paper. I’m a fan of neatness and productivity, so I decided to help him shop.
As usual, we had different furniture agendas. He wanted a U-shaped desk, with lots of cabinetry, for under $1,000. I wanted a traditional, old world style desk to go with the room’s coffered ceiling. He shopped Craigslist because you can zero in on local sellers. (For the three of you who don’t know, Craigslist is the world’s biggest virtual garage sale.) I was leery, but Dan insisted it’s a great way to find furniture. This from a man who suggests we buy our daughter’s continuation dress from Wal-Mart.
Postings ranged from hideous to hilarious. Weeks passed. We’d find a desk, and it was sold in three hours. We resolved to pull the trigger faster next time.
Then a desk that seemed perfect appeared: cherry, U-shaped, with a hutch, excellent condition for $1,000 and just 20 minutes away. A quick online search revealed that the same desk costs $3,000 new. We were there within the hour.
After a brief negotiation, Tom lowered his price to $850, and threw in the black leather office chair. Score!
We wanted a record of the business expense, so we had hoped to pay with a check. Understandably, Tom wanted cash. We agreed to drive him to our bank, where he could cash our check, and, because we’d be near our house, he could help us unload. He looked as if he could move the desk alone with his jaws. This is how the four of us got in the stairwell jam.
Later that night, we surveyed Dan’s injuries: cuts on his elbow, two goose-egg bruises on his leg and a welt on his back the size of a crow’s wing. “Are you sure this was worth it?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Marni Jameson is a nationally syndicated columnist living in the Denver area. Contact her through
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How to buy, sell on Craigslist
Apparently, my husband, Dan, isn’t the only one who thinks buying furniture on Craigslist makes sense. The San Francisco-based company has 450 websites in 50 countries and all 50 U.S. states; 20 million visitors stop by each month to shop for everything from mates to houses. In the furniture section, Craigslist gets 1 million for-sale ads each month, up 100 percent from last year, according to Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist president and CEO. I called Buckmaster recently to ask what was behind the site’s success. Here’s what he said:
Immediacy and convenience: “Craigslist is well set up for buying and selling secondhand furniture because it’s organized around small regions. Furniture is not usually something you want to buy sight unseen. Most people would rather look at it and haul it away on the spot.”
Low price: “Most sellers aren’t trying to get the maximum price. They’re trying to shift an item they no longer need. There’s even a section on the site offering stuff for free.”
Fun adventure: “The experience often leads to meeting people in your area, who may be interesting to you in other ways.”
Caution: “Deal only with local people you can meet. Follow this rule and eliminate 99 percent of scam risk. People get in trouble when they fixate on a price that’s a fraction of what it should be, and ignore common sense. They don’t meet the person, end up wiring money and get caught in a scam.”
