My adventures selling snare drum on Facebook Marketplace

The worst "bargain" I was offered recently was a neighbor's metal scaffold. It was on the floor of their basement under about 500 pounds of rusty steel angle iron. They wanted me to first pay them for the scaffold and then carry all the angle iron up a narrow, twisting staircase and into the garage. I passed.

About 6 months later, they asked if I could cut down some 40-60' tall trees on their property (free, of course). I gave them the number to a local tree service.

FB Marketplace is full of wackos. I have yet to sell anything there but will be listing some things at some point. But as a buyer I have found it to be very beneficial. My best purchase was a 5 piece Yamaha Stage Custom kit in Sapphire Blue circa 2000 but never used. In fact they were never unpacked from the boxes. All original packing was intact. Boxes were in perfect condition. No water stains. No damage at all. Looked like they have been stored in a closet inside the house. Paid $400. I’ve also bought a Pearl Sensitone for $50, a Pearl brass piccolo snare, a Gretsch Brooklyn 6.5” brass snare and a DW 5000 bass drum pedal.

Amongst my hobbies is astronomy. Recently I bought an (older) Japanese equatorial mount for 200GBP. It just so happened to have an electronic GOTO system with it that was made just down the road from me. The whole lot new would have been well over 1,500GBP twenty years ago. It's all high-end gear. Many used markets are absolutely in favour of the buyers at the moment.

Last summer I bought some used drums from a guy I saw on FB marketplace. He was in Connecticut and I in Vermont. I asked if we could meet about 1/2 way - ironically in the parking lot of a Guitar Center outside of Springfield, MA. We exchanged pleasantries, I gave him the cash and got the drums. He helped me load them in my car.

When I shook his hand and said so long, he said "Hey, thanks for not being a jerk!" I laughed.

We then had a several minute convo about all of the weird people and situations we've run into buying and selling gear. Definition of a good day is when things go the way you hope. That day was a good day!