why pay for it when you can get it free?

mom-from-missouri · #1 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 10:41 AM

I don't understand people. I listed my old washer on freecycle and free on craigslist. no interest at all.
then I listed it for $10 on craigslist, and got lots of emails...

Ads are identical except one says free and the other says $10.

I don't understand some people at all......

jIM_Ohio · #2 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 10:44 AM

That title made me think of something else. Inset comment about mind in the gutter.

noppenbd · #3 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 10:45 AM

The joke in my neighborhood is if you want to get rid of some junk, just put it out on the sidewalk with a "For Sale" sign. If you put a "Free" sign on it, no one will take it!

mom-from-missouri · #4 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio

That title made me think of something else. Inset comment about mind in the gutter.

And you were wondering what to do your last night without a baby in the house?????

sweeps · #5 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 10:54 AM

I thought it had to do with that old saying "Why pay for the cow when you're getting the milk for free?"

Anyway, people think something's junk if it's being given away. If you're being charging for it, it must be worth something, right?

jIM_Ohio · #6 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

And you were wondering what to do your last night without a baby in the house?????

My wife is recovering from a C section. Certain things are less comfortable right now.

sounderella · #7 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 11:25 AM

The only thing I can think of is that people may think about quality/reliabilty issues when it's free even if you say it runs great. Me, however, I love free stuff.

aida2003 · #8 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 12:15 PM

Last weekend our neighborhood had a yearly yard sale. We went out and bought a little bit of kids' stuff. Then we came across the street on which one family had a few things out with a "FREE" sign. For a few seconds I pondered to take some toys or not. I was saying to my DH "Hmm, should we take this and that or not? It's strange it's free. Well, maybe let's take them because it says free and nobody is around." The funny thing is that our DD plays with the toys that were FREE.

Oh, and later we saw a sign "FREE sale" at street intersection, but nobody turned on that street.

DebbieL · #9 (**permalink**) 05-22-2008, 03:48 PM

Hmm, I don't know. Whenever we've put an ad in for anything free it always seemed to be snapped up in a big hurry. My parents would give away things like washers/dryers/televisions/etc. if we got a new one. Dad would put the ad in, and it would be gone within the hour of people getting their paper (I'm dating myself here, lol). Then we would get phone calls all the rest of the day asking about it.

Maybe we are just cheap where I live! I was looking FOREVER for a free apartment sized washer/dryer ad, but I finally gave up. Oh well.

AmbitiousSaver · #10 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 05:08 PM

Our company actually did a price test study with our products... the cheaper the price, the less perceived value of the products and the less sales. For some reason people put a value on something just on the price tag of the item. So if you list it for free they think it must be worthless... but if you list it for $10 suddenly its a bargain. Go figure.

LuxLiving · #11 (**permalink**) 05-23-2008, 05:15 PM

AmbitiousSaver, I've noticed the same thing on ebay. 2 sellers, same item, one sells it for $3.89 and one sells for $29.95. The 29.95 one sells first and/or more often than the 3.89 item. It's crazy!!

asmom · #12 (**permalink**) 05-25-2008, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuxLiving

AmbitiousSaver, I've noticed the same thing on ebay. 2 sellers, same item, one sells it for $3.89 and one sells for $29.95. The 29.95 one sells first and/or more often than the 3.89 item. It's crazy!!

Yes I noticed that when I was selling books on Half. com. Whenever they would give that price range of what your type of book was selling for, I would always choose high middle and people would skip right over the books selling for $2 to pay $18 for mine. Go figure.

DebbieL · #13 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 01:15 PM

Maybe we really are cheap here, lol. I figure the cheaper I can get something the better. Free stuff is gone in a HEARTBEAT here. I would think someone was crazy to spend $20 for the exact same thing they could have gotten for $2.

aevans1206 · #14 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 03:59 PM

I recently saw a news segment about "freegans." Some people are eating all week for free shopping out of dumpsters.

I just think our country is addicted to the feeling of spending money.