Trade #8

This is Ron.  Ron's a happy guy with his cardboard box full of XBox stuff.  You would be too if a friend gave you a stack of games and then you got the system & all those accessories for stuff laying around your house that you don't use anymore.  That's what Ron did.  I'm happy for him, and I hope he enjoys the XBox and kicks his online friends' butts. 

So what stuff did Ron not use anymore?  It's a collection of 4 smaller items.  None are as good as the XBox, but collectively I think I'm still the winner.  (Of course, Ron probably thinks the same thing). 

Once I got the XBox, I had many offers through Craigslist, but I quickly saw how frustrating it was compared to the ease of trading with studetns I saw every day.  There were no less than 3 deals I thought I was about to make which fell through last minute.  Additionally, some people were very poor communicators.  They said they'd email me later that day but I wouldn't hear from them for 3 days.  Or they wouldn't answer a direct question I'd asked.  Or they'd ask questions I'd clearly put the answers to in my Craigslist post.  I'm going to quietly refrain from elaborating on the grammatical abilities of these people... and I'm not talking about what used to be called AOL-Speech... that text-driven shorthand (I'm actually ok with most of that, though I choose not to participate in it myself).  I'm talking about such blatant errors that I literally couldn't understand what the guy was talking about.  Again, no elaboration, I'm just saying it was a bit shocking. 

Nevertheless, I was generally happy with my first Craigslist experience.  Lots of people wanted my item, and while most were what is apparently called "Low-Ballers" (they offer something worth far less than what I was offering), I don't generally hold any animosity for even these people.  A simple "No thanks" in respsonse was all it took.  I also learned that I got much farther in making my own searches and offering my XBox than by posting and just waiting for a gold mine to drop into my lap.  Perhaps it's because of all those low-ballers out there. 

In any case, I had to think a little about this trade because splitting to multiple lesser items means it'll be a lot harder to do my next trade for a big-ticket item.  This is a bit of a risk, but I think it's still a good move.  That's because the other perspective is the one I'm going with: I now have 4 trades going at once, and any one of them can be their own venue for furthering my progress.  I could probably trade any 2 for another comparable XBox, for instance, which means I'm back where I was a few weeks ago, only with 2 more items in hand.  Additionally, having 4 trades going at once means a lot less drag time in between trades.  It was quite frustrating waiting around to trade the XBox and I'd much prefer to make multiple small trades simply based on the fact that I bore easily.  Probably the same reason that I'd prefer to drive an extra ten miles the long way around than to sit in slow-moving traffic.  That's the pits. 

Here's another consideration: selling my new items for cash.  I know many of you will complain that this is not exactly in the spirit of the paperclip trade concept, but hear me out.  First of all, what is cash?  It's a symbolic version of value.  Nothing more than paper and ink, we only believe it's valuable because the government tells us it is.  Trust me... if the big asteroid/ volcano/ nuclear war ever does hit, cash will instantly be valuless and plain old bread and clean water will be the most valuable thing around.  Secondly, if I do sell for cash, I'm making a promise here and now that I will not keep the cash and pay my bills.  The only thing I'll allow myself to do with it is buy some other item which I'd then put up for trade. 

Hmmm... I'm still hearing some grumblings from some of you out there.  I'm ok with that.  I was much like you at the beginning of this, but experience has changed me.  I was actually inches away from trading the XBox for one item I really wanted (a running dirt bike) but the guy ended up selling it to someone else.  Meanwhile, a different person offered me the exact same $ for the XBox.  If I'd been on top of things, I could have sold the XBox and purchased the dirt bike.  As it stands, I don't have it, and I'm realizing that pre-catastrophy cash is very valuable.  You can trade it for anything you want.

So... on to Ron's 4 items.  Right now all 4 items are all listed on Craigslist (Allentown) for either trade or sale.  Who knows what I'll get.  Ideally I want somebody to offer me that running dirt bike or something equally cool for all 4, but I might end up selling 2, trading the others, or even selling all 4 and then buying the bike.  Don't know.  I might also end up trading all 4 and having 4 continuous trades going, which means you'll be getting a lot more posts on this blog.  Only time will tell.

So, here's what Ron gave me.  Go on and post a comment.  Let me know how you think I did...
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Item 1) IPOD CLASSIC
-6th Generation (the best of the "classic" series)
-80 gig
-silver color
-estimated 30-hour battery life on audio play & 5-hour battery life on video play
-includes usb cord (also charges unit from your computer)
-includes wall outlet adapter for other charging option
-already downloaded onto it are 6,682 songs (most are hip-hop, R&B, rap, metal, & rock but with that many songs you must understand there is a huge mix of all kinds of other music too)
-already downloaded onto it are 5 movies: "Crank 2", ext. ver.: "Drillbit Taylor", "Funny People", "Half Baked", "Knowing"
-used storage is only 42 GB... still has 32.2 GB free (you can kinda see this in the bar graph on the pic)
-has the minor scratches you'd expect from a used device but screen is relatively unaffected and no scratches anywhere are bad/problematic
-device functions perfectly... other than scratches & all those files already downloaded onto it, you'd never know it's used at all
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Item 2) PAINTBALL GUN
-Tippman "98 Custom" model
-pristine condition... used only once!
-includes 9 oz. gas cylinder with some gas still in it!
-includes helmet
-includes box of orange paintballs... full it held 1,000 & this is a little more than half full, so I'd guess there are approximately 600 left


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Item 3) GAMING CHAIR

-Pyramat model PM420W

-for those who don't know... "gaming chair" = extremely comfortable floor chair w/ dual speakers beside head rest that hook up to whatever it is you are watching/ listening to. Ideal for playing video games, but is also cool for watching movies or just listening to your ipod, etc.

-this one is in pristine condition.... no rips, scratches, stains, or breaks in framework

-folds in half for smaller storage

-includes power cord

-includes standard headphone audio wire for your ipod or similar headphone-jack device
-includes yellow-red audio wires for any typical TV or gaming system
-includes wireless transmitter with up to 8 'channels' for use on up to 8 different devices

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Item 4) SONY ACID PRO 6

-for those who don't know, this is a professional-grade digital audio workstation software program

-version 7 of this same program is the newest version sells for $250

That's it, and that's all.  Feel free to comment.  And make sure you check out my wife's cakes.