eBay small ads - the struggle is real :-)

Hi, Y'all

As you probably noticed, we are in the midst of packing our bags to leave Germany for good, and we took the opportunity to declutter thoroughly. And we didn't stop there - due to the fact that in Malta (and in various other countries) properties are rented with furniture, we had to get rid of all our shelves, beds, cupboards - you name it. 

Therefore, we started early in Summer to list everything on eBay small ads (a service like craigslist or Facebook marketplace) in order to have it sold by the time we're leaving. And believe me, I could write books about it! Here are some real life stories... 

But first something else real life - only for entertaining purposes, and I hope it melts your heart!

But back to topic: First I listed glasses and china tableware, and as it is heavy and fragile by nature, I listed it as "pickup only". Guess what happened first: "Could you mail it to me?" Well, the tea light holders from IKEA might be worth less than the shipping costs, therefore "no, I can't". Now, hubbie's oldest child is happy for her new wedding decoration, and here is where the circle closes, because a decade ago I bought them just for the exact purpose. 

A girl from the Frankfurt area was as charming as she was adamant about my china, and thus I actually packed two large boxes with all the upholstery material I could find in my basement. And miracles happen - a shoutout to DHL who managed to ship a fine bone china tableware set for six safe and sound to Frankfurt! 

Some time in August I listed a small flatscreen tv for 25 Euro of which the remote control got lost or never existed, I can't remember. A guy contacted me very politely (salutation, kind regards, might it be possible, etc.) He lived on welfare and minimum wage, but as he had a very old tube tv with high energy consumption he would like to buy my tv. But it might take some time to save up to gather the 25 Euros - would it be possible to reserve the item for the time being? I was deeply touched by his honesty and decided to give it to him for free. He came with a package of coffee and we had a nice little chat. Very nice experience for both of us!

After we went through our alcohol stash we didn't need our wine shelf any longer. It could hold 54 bottles, was made out of solid wood, and came at a decent price of 20 Euros. Nevertheless I was contacted by someone first questioning the construction of the shelf and then offering to pay 10 Euros. Let's get real: If you can afford 54 bottles of wine, champagne or some other good stuff, you should be able to afford 20 bucks for a shelf, right? We decided to take the shelf with us, as we learned that the Maltese make some good wine, too!

I won't mention all the people contacting me with only one word, for example when I listed something for 50 Euros, they just sent "40", no hello, no currency, no thank you, no greetings or salutations. Or the classic: "last price?" Don't get me wrong, I know that many of the people answering small ads are no native speakers and I don't care if they spell something wrong or. But you realise if somebody has a natural politeness regardless how broken the German they use. And there are these special candidates who never had good manners regardless where they were raised. 

We were very lucky because we only had two or three potential buyers who had exaggerated ideas of the offered items (That's weird - the silver coloured chandelier isn't as golden as I thought...) or simply didn't appear to pick up the goods. I think this is very rude, and in that case I wasn't afraid to recognise them to the eBay system, so they might get banned or so. In my opinion you should invest the minimum amount of time and send an email stating that you're no longer interested, that's the smallest act of politeness.

A few times potential buyers backed out but informed us. I guess, such things happen. But twice it was when selling our kitchen - that was a bummer, I have to admit, because we were under pressure time wise. Our landlord didn't want to take it (I already talked about that), there is no renter after us and the landlord didn't want us to look for a new renter, thus we were solely in charge of selling the kitchen. And what you have to keep in mind: We listed it not at a bargain, but for a reasonable price, and it was an American sized kitchen! Which means tons of storage space, an extra cabinet for cleaning supplies and old school vacuum and such, a breakfast bar AND an island. Surely you would need adequate space to place all these kitchen cabinets; it's not comparable to a normal sized German kitchen. Therefore, it wasn't that easy, but in the end a very nice lady contacted me who wanted to buy it as a wedding gift for her daughter. All for of them (which means her, her pregnant daughter, soon to be son in law and her husband) came to look at the kitchen and were very appreciative about the design and quality of the kitchen and the electric appliances (I thought, mum would have liked the kitchen for herself) and were so excited, that they even bought our laundry dryer! I liked the idea of the wedding gift, and the fact that they didn't even try to lower the price :-)

Afterwards we realised, that we know the daughter, we only didn't recognise her due to her face mask. We met her once with her puppy "Erna" and talked to her for a bit. In the meantime, puppy Erna had her first birthday, but that was a nice coincidence. Tuesday, 10 days ago, father of the bride came with some buddy, and the two of them demounted all of the cabinets. The next day, they came accompanied by three other guys and a truck and removed the whole kitchen. Very nice people, and it was nice talking with them while they were busy working on the kitchen. What I liked most: They were very organised, but at the same time pretty calm, and without any hectic they took apart everything and labeled it carefully. Very nice! For about a week our kitchen without kitchen looked like this: 

But as I got to know these people and found them sympathetic, I am at peace with giving away my dream kitchen. I know it will be in good hands and good use for the next 20 years. 

Are there any lessons learned? Yes! Never offer items with a high demand (washing machine for example) when you still need them! Even if you mention: no pickup before this and that date, people tend to ignore that. When I listed said washer, I had a double-digit list of possible buyers in no time! Next time, I know better.

And I learned another lesson: Never list anything on "Quoka", their security system is practically non-existent. We listed a bike there, three people wanted to buy it, and all of them were scam. First time was a classic: Someone agrees to buy the bike, asked for our PayPal account and sends a faked payment confirmation from Paypal with a significant higher amount than agreed. The difference is supposed for the transport of the bike and we should send the money directly to the shipment company. We informed PayPal and Quoka about the scammer and could avoid any harm. But when the next two candidates send an almost identical text to buy the bike, I deleted the ad, and the significant other of our youngest now has a new bike :-) So please be careful, even (or especially when) someone wants to shower you with money! 

Stay safe and sane if dealing with Craigslist and others!!!

There's something going on...

Hi, Y'all!

It's been a looooong time... For those of you with a good memory: I am the one who wanted to post quite regularly :-D

And then life got in the way - once again. Hubby and I are working on a huge project with lots of prep work, thus I had tons to do. On the other hand, I didn't want to spill the beans until everything was safe. And at this stage it felt weird to blog about recipes and sewing projects when I was occupied with something completely different. 

Well, I won't be beating around the bush any longer, and some of you we told already in person: we are moving. Yes, once again - you know the drill. But this time is different, because we will move to beautiful Malta! The smallest of the small European dwarf states with its two official languages English and Maltese caught our interest, and at the end of October we are diving headfirst into our next adventure!!!

Few educational facts: Malta has a square footage of appr. 316 km² and is thus smaller than the German city of Bremen. With its 520.000 inhabitants its ranked in between the German cities Nuremberg and Hanover. Manageable, but nevertheless there is hustle and bustle: firstly because of the limited space on an island and secondly because with its 300 days of sun per year it attracts a lot of tourists. But apart from the main island, there are another two islands belonging to Malta: the relatively quiet Gozo and the tiny Comino - with only two constant inhabitants. 

Fun fact: Malta was backdrop for numerous hollywood blockbusters - among others Troy (starring Brad Pitt) and Gladiator (starring Russell Crowe) were filmed on Malta, and lastly Game of Thrones, of course. Besides, Popeye was filmed here sometime during the seventies or eighties, and the scenery never was destroyed - moreover, the Maltese use it as an amusement park nowadays. An enterprising bunch are these Maltese people :-) 

Well, and what will we do, once we're relocated? The following picture might speak for itself, and no, this is no Apple advert! 

In case you are wondering: For sure Heinrich is coming with us, and because of him we are planning a little roadtrip of 2400 km... Because we feared that he wouldn't be allowed to boarding a plane. Due to the risks that brachycephalic dogs as Heinrich bear, some airlines as Lufthansa for example put these breeds on their no-flight-list in 2020. So now he will get dewormed at the end of the month (he is already vaccinated and microchipped), and then he and his European Pet Passport will accompany us in the car to Malta - our furry little globetrotter. 

And until then we are organizing our butts off, because in Malta rentals are usually completely furnished, and therefore we have to get rid of all our furniture. Especially selling our dream kitchen is a pain in the neck: two potential buyers already backed out, our landlord won't buy it, and there are no new renters in sight - at least there were neither any realtors nor any potential tenants in our apartment. And there was no feedback to our suggestion to find new tenants ourselves. Honi soit qui mal y pense...

But to avoid any hard feelings please take a look at these gorgeous pictures - and from now on I will keep you posted on a regular basis, I promise! 

Stay safe!!!