Flutterby™! : I love Petaluma Freecycle

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I love Petaluma Freecycle

2015-01-07 01:10:50.714063+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

I love Petaluma Freecycle, but the 'exchange several mails about pickup and then "Oh, BTW, I'm in Cloverdale"' thing...

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: I love Petaluma Freecycle made: 2015-01-07 11:21:55.118371+00 by: stevesh [edit history]

Around here, Freecycle has degenerated into a core group of scammers who grab everything of value and sell it on eBay or Graigslist or at garage sales. There are those who tell me I shouldn't care because I'm giving the stuff away anyway, but geez ...

#Comment Re: I love Petaluma Freecycle made: 2015-01-07 13:55:42.615385+00 by: battjt

I really prefer our process here in rural Indiana. I leave crap by the road. If no one takes it within a week, I take it to the dump. No negotiation (unlike craigslist).

I've successfully gotten rid of a rocking chair, a couple of large mirrors, a wood stove and a chicken coop. Our curbside recycling works the same way. If it has enough value, a scrapper will grab it. The wood stove had me on the edge, because it has value as a stove for someone in need or as recycling into cash for my (or a scrapper's) pocket, but with the interest I was seeing, I'm going to assume that it ended up operational. I know that the chicken coop did.

I have picked up a mower or two that way.

#Comment Re: I love Petaluma Freecycle made: 2015-01-07 17:10:12.763945+00 by: Dan Lyke

I'm fine with people taking stuff and reselling it, making sure it gets re-used is why I put it on Freecycle. As long as they freakin' pick-up on time.

Yesterday's wasn't too bad, I picked up a spare window from a guy in Santa Rosa to use as glass etching practice substrate, which is okay because I work in Santa Rosa, but the place was 20 miles from my house, not exactly the "Petaluma" part of Petaluma Freecycle.

And in the past, when I've said "I'll happily drop it off in Petaluma", I've gotten "I'd love it, I'm in Healdsburg" (32 miles away) "when can you drop it off?" or Cloverdale (50 miles away). Why are you wasting my time?

We've also done the leave it by the road for some things, but we do live in a pretty dense neighborhood...