Just had a really strange Craigslist encounter (1 Viewer)

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Yeah, sounds like he cares about you as a person. What a *********. Seriously though, I find your friend's questions to be more earnest than troubling. On one hand, The Concerned Craigslist Seller was asking weird questions about something, realistically speaking, he should no longer care about. Unless he personally crafted those tables, why does he care what happens to them next if he's been fairly compensated for them? The friend, on the other hand, most likely has a genuine interest in your wellbeing and your day to day life.

My best friend now lives in Minnesota. We both have families and jobs so we don't talk as frequently as we did in the past. If I call him out of the blue, and he says, "Hey, what's up! I was just on my way to Target". I know I'd probably respond, "Oh yeah? What's at Target?" Is this an intrusion on his life? Am I overstepping boundaries? It depends on how he responds. It's part of a conversation where we both get opportunities to drive the direction of it. I don't care what he's getting from Target, but I care that he cares about it so I'm asking. Like your friend, I'd move on if his response pushed the conversation away from that topic. I don't see anything wrong with asking friends open ended questions about their life. Maybe you guys aren't as close as friends as your "friend" thinks. If a friend asked me the questions your friend asks, I'd see it as normal. If it were just some acquaintance, I guess it could be different. I mean, you did go out of your way to say, and I'm paraphrasing, "we cool and all, but not Taco Tuesday cool."

God, I'm bored.

With my friend (who I agree is nowhere near the weirdo that this Craigslist guy appeared to be)........I was merely showing another example of having to set boundaries sometimes. After a while you can start to pinpoint patterns with people. As you alluded to, when he first would ask stuff like that, I assumed it was conversation starter / general interest type of stuff. But after a while, I got more of a "I want to see if what you were doing that day was more important than having lunch" vibe from the whole thing......particularly when he's asking about previous days in which l had said lunch wouldn't work.

Taco Tuesday sounds like a plan though. Let's do it.

 

[SharonT]

Like none of y'all have your little quirks.

It sounds like he's fixated on keeping things whole or together or as intended (separating into parts or worse - drilling holes is a point of no return and equal to destroying.) It's possible this guy is somewhere on the autism spectrum and this is just his thing. It's okay.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

He placed parts of his (now) dead parents in those coffee tables.

Plot twist, they were both TV executives

 

[Greenchillewhodat]

sounds like the tables are stolen, and he didn't feel comfortable selling them to you because he didn't know if you were undercover with that strange plan you have in store. ..You could be looking at some hard time for buying stolen merch..

 

[superchuck500]

Maybe he's got a lawyer somewhere in the family and is worried about incurring product liability.

That's actually the kind of crap that people dream up when they don't have a lawyer in the family.

 

[superchuck500]

Like none of y'all have your little quirks.

It sounds like he's fixated on keeping things whole or together or as intended (separating into parts or worse - drilling holes is a point of no return and equal to destroying.) It's possible this guy is somewhere on the autism spectrum and this is just his thing. It's okay.

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Galbreath34]

That's actually the kind of crap that people dream up when they <strike>don't have a</strike> are not the lawyer in the family.

ftfy

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

sounds like the tables are stolen, and he didn't feel comfortable selling them to you because he didn't know if you were undercover with that strange plan you have in store. ..You could be looking at some hard time for buying stolen merch..

no it's both subtle and brilliant - the seller creates this weird scenario to throw OP off the scent - so instead of a thread about "fell off the truck" it's about this crazy encounter
classic

 

[Galbreath34]

For Ikea wouldn't it be "fell off the Volkswagen"?

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[Semper]

I miss the old days where you just put the new tv on top of the old one. Heckbour old tv had a stereo in it, a turn table and an 8 track.

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[t_rav_82]

I think this experience...........which was odd and definitely not the "norm" .......is still a by-product of a mindset we've fostered in today's society. People almost feel entitled to know every aspect of other people's business, if they see fit. The rise in social media has certainly not helped this......because people are already putting way too much info out there just by themselves.



Also, somewhere along the way, people started feeling like they had to give reasons for every little thing they did, or weren't able to do........so as a result, others started expecting you to STATE those reasons why you did this, or were unable to do that. In this example, the guy asking "so what are you gonna do with the coffee tables?", on the surface, was probably viewed as more of a conversation piece than anything. After receiving the answer......I'm sure most folks would have just been like "oh that's cool, I've never really heard anyone else doing that" and move on. However, once he got weird and started pressing the issue further...........obviously that's when the boundary of "I handed you this money, now I'm leaving with these tables" needed to be set...........which more or less sounds like what ultimately happened here. However, I could see others feeling the need to explain themselves 100 times and trying to bring this guy around to their way of thinking............and, in turn, wasting a bunch of time "negotiating" with someone after a clear purchase was made.



I have a friend who used to be the king of follow-up questions........I don't think it was intentional or deliberate, it was just his nature. He and I have lunch occasionally because we don't work terribly far away from each other. By "occasionally", I mean probably about once a month, if that.......so it's definitely not some "every such and such day of the week we meet" tradition. And it usually originates with a text of "hey wanna grab a bite one day this week?" and goes from there.



Anyway, sometimes one of us will text the other on weeks that aren't good for lunch, obviously. When he tells me "yeah this week is out" or whatever, I would never question it further. However, if I were the one to give that type of response, there'd usually then be follow-up texts. "things hectic at work? gonna be out of town?" Early on I'd answer those questions..........but then there came an instance where he had texted about a lunch possibility...suggesting a Tuesday, and I countered with "can we do Thursday instead?".....he's all "sounds good". So then that Thursday rolls around and we're at lunch, and he's all "so did you have a lot going on the other day or somethin ????" At that point, whether justified in doing so or not, I went from viewing that as "small talk" to "he's feeling like he needs to know why I wasn't available on Tuesday". I just answered with "not anymore than usual". The end. I remember him pausing for a few seconds as if he was waiting for a followup reason for why I wasn't available on Tuesday, but it never came. It was a teaching moment to show him that it didn't really matter what I had going on that Tuesday, because the end result is that I didn't want to do lunch that particular day......especially since it hadn't been previously set or something. Now, if I'd had to cancel a previously scheduled deal, I'd absolutely give my reasoning, as a general courtesy. To his credit, I think he learned from that...because he got far less inquisitive about that sort of thing as time went on.

So why couldn't you do lunch on Tuesday?


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[soupcan dan]

invite him over for a movie or a ufc night once its set up........least you could do.

 

[saintmdterps]

Please post pictures of your finished set up. I'm also worried it's going to fall down.

BHM will be right over to build a scaffold which will ensure they don't fall down until proper bracing can be erected

 

[bigdaddysaints]

IKEA spice racks hacked to children's bookshelves.

dude, I have at least 15 of those exact ones from ikea around my house, they are universal for all kinds of things. except spices, none in my house are used for spices.. ironic? or is that just coincidence?

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[GeauxWhoDats]