Freeload uhh I mean Freecycle

I’m waiting for some guy to pick up a toddler bed I posted on the local Freecycle site. (we are drowning in beds here, most of which go unoccupied…i even slapped a sweet king size bed on the credit card just before the twins were born, thinking it would be a big hippy happy snooze nest…Crazy – party of one; your table is ready) E’s niece gave us her daughter’s retired toddler bed a year or so ago, and it’s just been collecting dust and chipmunk dander in the crawlspace below the house. Knowing someone out there might actually need and use the bed, I decided to offer it up.

I love the concept of Freecycle – donating items you no longer use in efforts to lighten the landfill load. It has a barter system feel to the whole process. I give away mostly Gavin’s outgrown clothes, soccer gear, baby stuff. In return, I snagged a nice wooden boogie board for our next trip to the beach. I’ve tried to get my hands on a piano when they pop up on the site, but I’m never quick enough with my request.

See, this is my beef with our particular Freecycle group (i’m sure it probably happens elsewhere, too). We have one troll who LIVES on the site. Every time I’ve posted an item for donation, no matter what it is (it could be a crate of used maxi pads or collection of extracted nose hairs), this troll is ALWAYS the first responder. And, this is her typical response (i’m pulling the actual email from her sent this past saturday immediately after i posted the toddler bed)

i would like to have them i could really use it i can pick-up
thanks

You would like to have them? Them the bed?

My first donation was this past August. I offered a hodgepodge of soccer socks, shinguards, shoes.

i would like them
thanks

Oh, wow! My first responder. And so fast. I’m totally giving these to her. She deserves the loot for being so darn quick.

I emailed her back and arranged a time for her to pick up the goods.

She never showed.

A couple of weeks later I posted a crickety old twin stroller my dad had picked up at a flea market. Again, I figured someone might want it.

Immediate response.

i would like it i have my one yrold and my brother one yr old and could really use
thanks

I remember you, miss all lowercase letters run-on fragment no show queen.

Many people wanted to give the stroller a home. I eenie-meenie-minie-moed a recipient, omitting the lowercase queen.

A month or so later, I posted a box of random baby foods not on Gab’s two item menu.

Quick Draw McGraw:

i would like to have these i can pick-up
thanks

You’ve got to be kidding me. How is this person always the first to respond? Does she sit at the computer hitting Refresh constantly? And, if so, how the hell does she manage that what with the small child/children she claims to have?

I gift the items, once again, to someone else.

I notice most other people donate their items to the first responder. I’m sure this woman, if she’s always my first responder, is everyone’s first responder. And, yeh, I should probably get a life and not care about this, but it irks me beyond belief.

Early November, I offer random toys and crappy VHS tapes. Guess what?

would could really all i can pick-up tuesday
thinks

Would could really all? Me thinks someone was typing at a feverish pace to be first. I had it. Snap went my little twig of a brain.

I emailed the group’s moderator, telling her all about miss lowercase always first responder. I waxed on about how I thought this woman was everyone’s first responder and most likely receiving all of the tri-county area’s freecycled goods. It just didn’t seem fair.

I got a doozy of a response back from the moderator letting me know I wasn’t the first to lodge a complaint and miss lowercase had been warned several times already about hoarding all of the freecycle loot. miss lowercase will turn around and post an offer of ‘box full of random things at the end of my driveway not sure what all is in there.’ Or ‘box full of baby stuff at the end of my driveway.’ Or ‘box full of clothes mens womens baby kids at the end of my driveway.’ This person gets all of the freecycled goods, sifts through everything picking out what she wants, and then re-offers the rest. She also has several aliases she uses. But, the lowercase run-ons give her away.

I almost blew a gasket when miss lowercase zapped in the first response for the toddler bed this past weekend.

And, you want to know an interesting bit of knowledge?

Early last week, she offered a toddler bed on Freecycle. Guess it wasn’t what she was looking for.

Keep on shopping.