Maybe Should’ve Scrolled Past This One

Bigotry, Bizarre, Canada, home, Strangers, Vancouver | Working | May 8, 2020


I’ve been wanting a scroll saw for a bit and I find one on Facebook Marketplace. I message the seller and, once I confirm it is available, I ask to bring the price down from $190 to $140; I am ready to go to $150, but the seller agrees to my initial offer. We make some basic plans to meet the next day and then he messages me halfway through that next day with his phone number asking me to call.

Seller: “Hello?”

Me: “Hi. It’s [My Name] calling about the scroll saw.”

Five solid seconds pass.

Seller: “I… I thought you were a man.”

Me: “Yeah, I figured.”

He’d called me “buddy” a few times in the messages the day before.

Seller: “It’s… It’s a man’s tool.”

Me: “Okay. Well, I have a band saw now and need a scroll saw for some more delicate work.”

This seems to be good enough for him and we settle on a time and place. As we finalize our plans, he says softly:

Seller: “It’s too much…”

Me: “Sorry? What was that?”

Seller: “What price did we agree on?”

Me: “$140.”

Seller: “It’s too much.”

Me: “I don’t understand.”

Seller: “Maybe 120.”

Me: “What’s 120?”

Seller: “120.”

Me: “Okay…”

For reasons beyond me, when I arrived to pick up the machine, he asked me again how much we agreed on and I said $140. He shook his head and said that it was $120. Weirdest online buy/sell I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve experienced a lot of weirdness buying and selling on these sites.