freecycle

[HOGGY952]

I signed up to freecycle a while ago as I had stuff to give away, i.e. a single bed and Ebay was not the place for it. I was amazed at the stuff that people put on there, Xboxes and BTvision boxes some of the stuff is rubbish but some people can make things out of rubbish but I used a bit of lateral thinking the other day when I knew I needed a replacement hard drive and being unemployed I could not afford. I spotted a BTvision box which you cannot give away on Ebay ATM and thought yes, get in there.....and sure enough I got a reply come and collect. Not only did it have a nice 160GB hard drive in it, the box came with two Comtrend Powerline adaptors. So I am posting this using my newly acquired drive after a quick install of XP Pro and I could actually flog these adaptors for about £30.00 to £40.00 on Ebay if I find I have no use for them.I have tested them and they work ok too.

I have used freecycle 4 times now both offering and wanting and it is a very good idea to reduce the amount theat goes into landfill sites.

So received a Btvision box + powerline adaptors

offered a single bed Taken for 5 year old boy
offered Hamster cage + plastic tunnels Taken for family with 3 Gerbils
Offered two man tent Taken by a girl guide leader

 

[Shytalkz]

You swopped a bed for a five year old boy???

 

[HOGGY952]

You swopped a bed for a five year old boy???

no the bed was for a five year old boy whose parents came and took the bed away.

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

Taken by a girl guide leader

I can only dream of such things, you are indeed a lucky man, bearing in mind you can buy a tent for about £20.............

Did she wear the uniform

 

[LastMagicBean]

Did she wear the uniform

Yes ....she said thankyou for the lend ...and she'll give it back to you in the morning.....

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I have used freecycle 4 times now

I bought one for 50 quid only used it twice, I need a crash helmet and some googles for the midges

 

[ColJack]

what's a girl guide leader need with a 2 man tent..
it's for men.. says so in the name..
they need 2 girl tents..

 

[conny]

what's a girl guide leader need with a 2 man tent..

2 Men?

 

[wotan]

I need a crash helmet and some googles for the midges

You found some goggles small enough for midges?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You found some goggles small enough for midges?

That must be a tiny crash helmet too!

 

[HOGGY952]

I do not like the ambiguity of replies and then when you do decide to offer the item to one of the replies you never hear from them again.

 

[Nige F]

I do not like the ambiguity of replies and then when you do decide to offer the item to one of the replies you never hear from them again.

Well ,I might want something for nothing but you mustn`t live too far away and I`ll need to be able to sell it on Fleabay and I might not bovver anyway . Unless it`s a Decent Hi-Fi. and I`ve got me old mum watching 24/7 for them to come up.

 

[Nige F]

You found some goggles small enough for midges?

That must be a tiny crash helmet too!

was it purple

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I need a crash helmet and some googles for the midges

You found some goggles small enough for midges?

 

[mattylad]

Freecycle has some good members & some bad members.

I have met some wonderful people who have given away.
Quite often you get certain people from certain areas giving away really good stuff.

A lot of people really cannot be bothered trying to find someone to buy some bedroom furniture etc & would rather that someone just came & took it away for nowt.

I have seen things like conservatories, caravans, cars, laptops, flat screen TV's, PS2's, expensive furniture and much much more given away.
Personally I have not had to buy a TV for years & I got a 28" widescreen one for my daughter & a HIFI for the wife yesterday. I have had a caravan, tools, bedroom furniture etc from there as well as given away all sorts.
(Oh - I got loads of unused reels of 2.5mm red/black T/E cables too.)

As I use Gmail & have a massive space for mail, I have not deleted one since 2005 so can trace any email from a Freecycle member since then. This really helps to see if someone has given away stuff or just posted continual wanteds for high value stuff, helping me decide who to give to & not to give to.
(Being a mod on there really helped too as I saw a lot more than the emails everyone else saw).

WHen picking someone to receive my stuff I go off how well they have replied to my offer, if they are nice/say please, if they can collect at my convenience rather than the "I'll take it - call my mobile on nnnnnnnn etc" type replies.
(They want it - they can damn well make the phone calls).

There are the bad elements that ruin it, the traders who blatantly lie & obtain stuff by deception to resell (as nothing should be taken to resell unless the giver is told this will happen to the item), those that reply to every single offer with autoreplies then never respond when they are offerd or those that never turn up for an agreed collection, or those that join every group in the area hoovering stuff up etc.

Quite often people join thinking that Freecycle is there to help the needy & provide them with everything they need for free - posting long wanted lists like it is Argos online. Pretty soon the members see them for being greedy & ignore their please.

It works best when people actually read the rules, post using the correct/defined format & both post offers & wanteds in a balanced way.

Freecycle itself is a global organisation with a total @r$e at the top and there has been a lot of ructions in the organisation over the past few years with many moderators & group owners leaving in disgust or being kicked out for little reason. But there are always trouble at the top in big organisations, down at the bottom though things are fine & people continue to find it a very useful site.

IMO the Freecycle sites run on freecycle.org are blooming awful, its a very clunky site - Yahoo is IMO much better although does have its own problems too.

If anyone on here is having problems understanding how to use Freecycle then by all means ask away & I can see if I can help you.

An alternative to Freecycle is Realcycle which is a similar organisation (but a lot smaller) that has been setup by UK moderators that left Freecycle for various reasons (usually because they did not like the way things were going).