What an adventure it turned out to be!
I surmised that selling my dear old companion would require finding the right person. Road biking is not everyone's cup of tea, with so many liking the flexibility to take on local gravel and hard packed trails that are not road bike friendly, but I figured that I would give it a shot. I had used her for spinning in the basement/garage during the winter so a thorough cleaning was in order, and she definitely showed her age with a few clear coat chips and a little surface rust on the callipers and derailleur. I decided that since my Dark Matter was so radically different, I could also throw in a few extras to "sweeten the deal" since I wouldn't need them anyway. In the end, all was accomplished, photos were taken, and I posted it on my FB page, FB Marketplace, and Kijiji. Silly me, I figured if I included a comprehensive data list, good photos and a decent asking price, that people would understand what they were inquiring about.
Ahhhhh Steve, you're a silly boy.
Second Phase: The sell
Mere minutes after "going live", I had people inquiring and offering a wide variety of amounts, most of which were significant low-balls even when the ad warned people that I would not entertain them. Despite the first line of the ad being the requested price, more than a few of the inquiries wanted to know what the price was. Call me naive, but I actually thought people would read first. A few of the messaging folk were somewhat serious, and the day was spent managing conversations on my phone. I wanted to be fair to everyone inquiring, so I took steps to make sure that all serious askers knew where they were in the queue, and that I would keep them up to speed on the progress. Some dropped out right away, some decided to wait and see, some started on the attack ... they were quickly deleted, BTW.
By the end of the day, there was one very interested potential buyer, but the glitch was that he was in Mississauga and was obviously looking for me to meet him somewhere along the 400 to reduce to distance. After some texting negotiations, he agreed to give me some gas money as incentive, so we arranged to meet in a carpool lot more or less halfway. The negotiations had finally settled on what I thought was a fair deal and I was very hopeful that this was a fete accompli. The messages he sent were full of short forms, so I had formed an opinion that this was likely a younger person, but he definitely knew a lot about bicycles. When we finally met face to face, he was a little older than I thought, but he immediately set to the task of thoroughly inspecting the bike. After a bunch of Hmmm's and Huuuuh's, he sheepishly informed me that he was going to "take a pass" because he thought the bike would be newer. The second line of the ad listed the make, model and year, so I'm not at all sure why he didn't catch that, but who was I to argue. His expectant look told me that although we had agreed on a fair price, this was a bit of a play at enticing some wiggle room, but I had already arrived at my bottom level so we agreed to bury the deal. He was very apologetic about making me "jump through hoops" but he felt he had to walk away.
Third Phase: The re-sell
Once we arrived home, I contacted the others that had indicated they would like to wait. I also updated the ad so that potential new inquiries might be possible. Before long, the familiar Old Spice whistle signalled the arrival of a new text message inquiring about the availability, and the haggling began again. I got the sense that this person was interested but also reasonable. After a flurry of messages, agreeing on a price, and arranging to meet to potentially complete the deal, it was revealed that this potential buyer was in Oakville! I explained the previous day's adventures, using it to demonstrate my nervousness about travelling down the highway, and to my surprise, the response was an offer of a non-refundable deposit as a sign of good faith and to help cover the gas cost. It was significantly more than the previous day's offer so that was appreciated and acceptable!
Geographically, the halfway point would be in the Orangeville area, so a location was agreed upon and a late afternoon time was set. Unfortunately for Joyce and I, it meant that we wouldn't get up to anything fun because we would need to leave Barrie mid afternoon, what with the drive being about an hour for us. We were barely out of town when the text came in asking if we could bump it back 30 minutes, bringing with it an uneasy sense of Deja Vu. I really wanted to sell the Ridley so we agreed and figured we could grab something from Tim Horton's to pass some time. Foreshadowing a potential glitch, the drive there was way too smooth, arriving in significantly less time than planned, so we resigned ourselves to a healthy wait and began to enjoy our Ice Cap. Our serenity was disturbed by a phone call from the buyer explaining that he was caught behind an accident and would be delayed, prompting exasperation and frustration from the both of us, but the difference now was that we could hear the sincerity in his voice for the trouble he was causing. He offered to pay additional monies toward gas if we would drive further south in an effort to reduce the time, a request that we carefully considered, debated, and then agreed to since it was a situation beyond his control.
The dirty deal was complete and my Ridley had found a new home!
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