Friday, April 19, 2013

The Great Jettison: Part 8

The Asian Guy at the Liquor Store


I seriously doubt the person mentioned in this story was a member of the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), but if he is, I have a long list of questions for him.

The aforementioned Asian Guy at the Liquor Store was merely a pawn in the great game we all play on Craigslist every day.  See the following excerpt from my personal journal...




3/6/13

Later that day...


Sold the Garmin, got my 50 bucks!  Here is the text from the email I got about it:


If you are willing to take it to the gas station it is corridor convenience in NL. He is an Asian guy normally working on the liqueur side of the store.  He know our arrangement and has the cash for you.

...So that’s what happened.  We went to NL to the gas station, gave the GPS to the Asian guy and off we went with 50 smackers!



That is only part of what was a really busy and great day in my journal, but that's another post. First, let's examine the Garmin product.

Garmin GPS unit new in box before being sold on Craigslist

Just your regular run-of-the-mill GPS units. We obtained it from a family member new in the box, as seen above. We were known by then in the family as Craigslist Killers (not in the human killing way, just as in 'killing it' on Craigslist, don't get any ideas, gosh!) We listed it on Craigslist for $75, with the hopes of getting something for it.  

Most of the responses we got at first had one question: Does it have free lifetime updates? Not knowing much about these products, I looked into it. Not to complain too much, but I found out that many of these products do NOT have free or automatic updates. What a total rip-off! If I can get Google Maps to update for free (at the cost of some on-screen ads) why can't these turkeys figure it out?

Anyway, on an already busy day, I got an email offering $50 for the unit. When I accepted and asked about the exchange, he bounced back with the offer to send the cash with his friend who worked in a city about halfway between our two towns. When I showed the above message to Sara, she immediately responded, "Sounds legit..."

We took the gamble, and it paid off! We found the gas station that night. After a careful look around the parking lot (...are they really going to lie in wait to mug us for a two-year-old GPS unit...?) we went inside. We saw a gentleman who looked like he might have fit the previous description and showed him the unit questioningly. He smiled and produced the cash!

To celebrate, we bought some gummi worms in the C-store before driving home. This story sticks with us for some reason. The combination of trusting internet strangers and the hilarity of the exchange circumstances give this story a unique flavor that I suspect won't be tasted by us again. Looking back, I can't remember which was sweeter; the cash, the worms, or the thought of the worms bought with the cash.

2 comments:

  1. Cory you are lucky to have survived this exchange. The man in the photo above has been known to kill people 5 times before they hit the ground!!

    -Cousin Billy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The poison fists of the Pacific Rim! It makes for a cute story, anyway.

      Delete

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