Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Strange days and deals

I’m sitting here trying to compose my blog when the doorbell rings. A woman wants to buy the old truck sitting in my driveway. It’s beat to heck, complete with dents and huge swatches of bare metal instead of paint, doesn’t have any amenities like air conditioning (a necessity in Arizona!) or even a radio, and it doesn’t have a for-sale sign on it.

I explain to her that the truck is even more broken than it looks; something is wrong with the transmission and it won’t go higher than 2nd gear. It will cost at least a thousand dollars to fix it, and the truck wasn’t worth that much even when it ran. My plan was to donate it to charity (and they would sell it to a junkyard).

She begs me to sell it to her for $50. She says her nephew needs a work truck, her friends know some good mechanics, and she can afford a thousand dollars to fix the truck.

I tell her she could buy a running truck for two thousand or so from somebody else, and it would even look better. Also, there’s no guarantee of how well it will run after that kind of work.

She said she couldn’t afford two thousand. She really wants the truck, and she tried to drive it away right then and there.

I put her off by telling her I would have to talk to S.C. first (ah, the joys of having someone else to help make these decisions!). But as long as I’m blogging, I thought I would ask all of you.

See… I’m suspicious. Who just stops at a house at random and asks if they can buy a car? True, the truck looks it might not be driven too much (it’s dusty, and blocked into the driveway by my real car). But I swore many years ago to never make any kind of deal with people who come to my door and ask me. If I want to buy something, I’ll go find it. I won’t buy anything from strangers that come to my door.

And I love that old truck for sentimental reasons; it has been a steadfast and true companion for many years.

On the other hand… this woman doesn’t want to sell me anything. She wants to buy something from me. And how can it be a scam? Even if all she does is drive the truck to the junkyard and sell it for $250, so what? I still make $50 more than I was going to by donating it, and frankly, she deserves the profit for showing the initiative. That’s how people start businesses and make money. If she can make a profit off of my trash, who am I to complain?

She suggested writing a paper that made it clear I had told her about the transmission and she was taking the truck as-is. I’ll take my license plate off of it, so I can’t be held liable in any way for what happens to the truck. Legally, I’ll be in the clear.

And S.C. has been on me to get rid of the old thing. It’s been around longer than S.C., and there might be a little jealousy there. ;) Also there are the facts that it isn’t really driveable, never will be, and we’ve already bought a car to replace it.

So… why shouldn’t I sell it to this strangely impassioned truck aficionado? My gut says “No!” but my head can’t think of a single reason not to say “yes.” I’ve got a few hours before S.C. comes home. Maybe you all can give me some advice on what to do when really strange things happen.

Or at the very least, share your own experiences that made you go “hmm,” even when you couldn’t figure out why. Tell us what you did, and how it worked out.