live long and prosper

I still think of it as "Mom's car". The car I've had since 2014, when my parents gifted it to me. This was probably a couple of years after Mom should not have been driving, but whatcha gonna do? By then, Mom's remaining days on earth were few, she'd finally given in.

 So I'd had Mom's 2000 Toyota for the last 10 years, and now it was time to rehome it.

I figured I'd sell it myself as the dealership where we just got our new funmobile likely wouldn't offer much in trade. I looked on Marketplace for comparable offerings, but really found none. Oh, there were plenty of old cars, all with around 200,000 miles. My car was old, but had less than 31,000. Nothing to compare it to!

So I winged it. I took a few glamour shots of her in the driveway, sure to include a real odometer reading, and put her out there.

As happens, there are weirdos out there. I figured I could weed out the scammers well enough. But the post went absolutely bananas. I'd done an online Carmax quote, then set my price at a few hundred dollars more. Cash only.

I've lost count of the number of inquiries I fielded in just the first hour. A few I knew were NOT scammers because they countered with shamefully low amounts. They were easy to slough off. Others were more persistent. 

One guy in particular sent me a photo of a grid of 100-dollar-bills laid out (on a bed?) - totalling the full amount I was asking. 

Sheesh, I thought. I wonder if this is what internet dating is like. D*ck pic analogy, anyone?

Finally, I marked it as "sale pending", just to slow the flow of inquiries. See, I wanted to screen potential buyers a bit. Many of them looked to be flippers who would just turn around and try to sell it for more. And that's FINE - in fact that's the Carmax business model - but I wanted to hold out for the just right. I took a moment and asked the universe (and Mom) for guidance. 

By late afternoon, I was ready to remove the listing and screw it, take it to Carmax. Just as I had that thought, my messenger pinged. It was one of the earlier, more promising inquiries. Here he was offering a few  hundred over what I was asking. 

Mom's little-old-lady car started an online bidding war?

In my exhaustion, I messaged back. "I just got home from work, I can meet anytime if you want to come look"

And he was on like Donkey Kong.

He lived about an hour away, and was out hiking just then. He said he'd head over once he got back to his car at the trailhead, make a quick stop at the ATM, and gather up all his cash.

And that's how the weird car sale day ended. We met him and his girlfriend (who lent him the last few hundred) at a nearby parking lot. They showed up in their hiking gear and bought Mom's car - about 10 hours after I'd posted it. He said he has a lifted SUV, great for the mountains, but has been struggling to find a good used economy beater car for getting around town.

Sold. 

Mr. hundred-dollar-bills pic expressed his sadness. It wasn't in the stars for him this time.

Right, Mom?