The art of the deal
My husband has always been an excellent bargain shopper and a skilled salesman. It used to be that he’d buy the weekly papers that were filled with advertisements and could use them to buy and sell whatever he needed or had. I think in olden days he’d have been known as a huckster, and because he is not only skilled, but also fair, he’d have made a good living.
While I’m not sure if those ad papers still exist, he has discovered new means to perform both tasks. Yes, friends, he has discovered both Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
He can navigate both sites with a decent level of prowess, at least as far as seeing the items in which he has interest. If there is a phone number listed in the ad, he can complete the entire transaction on his own. If an email is required, he asks for my help.
This is for two reasons. First, he has no email address or Facebook page, and second, he is an incredibly slow typist. I have no problem helping him. The timing when he asks for assistance is not always convenient for me, but that’s another story.
I send the emails he requests, being sure to instruct the recipient to call him back as opposed to emailing me. I assure them I will have no information for them. Usually they follow my advice.
For Facebook Marketplace, we have a slightly different system. He can handle sending the initial message to the seller, as there is a button he simply has to click that asks if the item is still available. Then they respond, which sends a notification to my phone. If it is available, I ask for a phone number so my husband can call them directly.
Recently, there have been a few occasions when I have discovered that we are looking for different items only when I receive the phone notification. Out for dinner with my girlfriends the other night was one of those occasions.
During our dinner conversation, my phone pinged. I glanced at it and saw that apparently, my husband is looking for a car part that was still available for purchase. Because it only takes a second, I sent my customary reply. Within a minute, the man had sent his phone number.
Thinking I would give the number to my husband when I got home, I put it out of my mind. However, the seller was not finished messaging me. A half an hour later, my phone pinged again, and when I glanced down, I saw that he had sent me a picture. This was an odd occurrence, but not as odd as the picture itself.
It was a meme with a caption about an old car that showed a chicken smoking a cigarette. Its random nature made it as amusing as the content itself. I opted to still not respond, waiting instead to give the phone number to my husband as planned. I figured he could sort out whether it was a good deal and whether the seller was legitimate. I had fulfilled my end of the deal.