I SOLD MY TRUCK

I’m not good at selling things online [or anywhere else]! Troy thinks I gave it away!

Like most guys, I loved my truck! Almost every day, Gabe and I would hop in and take a ride on the country roads around Enon Valley and East Palestine.

Oop! I heard you asking.

It was a 2008 Ford F-250. White with a fair amount of rust in the typical Ford spots. I went to have it inspected and as our mechanic started listing all the work it would need to meet the standard, my brain was going ‘Cha-ching! Cha ching! Cha-ching!’  I told the mechanic that it sounded like we were around $4,000; he suggested that my estimate is probably low. That was the moment that the decision was made. 

When I listed it on Marketplace, I was typically [for me] totally honest. As soon as the ad was listed – MY PHONE EXPLODED!  That was probably the first hint that I’d under listed it. Three or four guys told me that they’d give me more when I reported that I had a woman [from Cleveland] coming to look at it. After holding off the wolves till the next morning, she called and said that she couldn’t come! 🙄🙄 Ah, the joys of selling things online!

Trying to do things right, I went to the next prospective buyer as I removed ‘Pending’ from the ad. My phone exploded again! I held off several very aggressive guys that emphasized that they had the ‘cash in hand’.

Mike showed up and liked the truck after idling it for a bit and looking it over. He asked me to review the things that I knew were wrong with it. He mentioned a mechanic friend who helped him and told me he had another friend who ran an inspection shop. He offered me some money down and the rest on the next day. I took it and wrote him a receipt. No haggling [another hint that I had low-balled the price]!  I got what I asked.

We met the next day at a notary and processed the sale. He gave me the rest of the money. I drove him to our place and within minutes he was driving away in his new truck! I watched him disappear around the bend and felt the sadness.

Because we’re inundated with hospital and medical bills currently, I can’t immediately buy another truck. We’re a one-vehicle couple again.

But the biggest problem is that I’m still raking leaves and have no way of pulling my trailer to the Heron Woods dump site!

I’m expecting a delivery from Amazon today including twelve 60 gallon, heavy duty garbage bags! I have a garden tractor and small yard wagon. It looks like I’ll be making a bunch of trips to the dump today and tomorrow!

The money is in the bank. Hopefully – before too long – I’ll be able to buy another truck that’s in nicer shape and gets better gas mileage!  Gabe and I don’t take rides anymore. When we go outside around 9:30 AM, he runs straight to where the truck used to sit, but he doesn’t seem too disappointed when he realizes that we’re just going to walk around the village. We have just as good a time, and maybe I’ll lose a little more weight?