Chair for Sale

The comfortable gliding chair we bought at a yard sale several weeks ago is today up on the auction block, so to speak, if my pickup’s tailgate parked along the street counts.

We should have known not to buy it in the first place, since the lady selling it lit up right in front of us, but it was only $20, and, out in her yard, the cushions’ smoky aura really didn’t seem that bad. And we should have known not to buy it because we’ve done this sort of thing–claimed as our own cheap or free used furniture–before.

For example, the free couch I received for helping a cat lover move really had looked like it could be cleaned up and left to freshen in the summer sun, but I ended up putting it out along the road with a big “free” sign on it.

The same thing happened when we brought home a nice-looking swivel chair that someone gave us. The soon apparent smell, we eventually figured out, came from the gobs of cat hair under the cushion. Vacuuming it all up didn’t help either, except to spread the bad smells all over the house whenever we vacuumed. A “free” sign worked again, for that.

Today is a little bit different, however, since the sign I pinned to the chair says “$25.” A little profiteering won’t hurt us, will it?

Except for the fact that so far, the chair is still ours.

But wait–just now some other neighbors have returned from their camping trip, and I’m excited to know that they have a teenage son who just might want the chair for his room…

UPDATE five hours later: A man rang our doorbell half an hour ago, introduced himself, and said he’d like to buy the chair–and handed me five fives. I saw a friend of the neighbors’ teenage son help him load it up, and return a bit later, presumably after helping the man unload it, too. I’m guessing the buyer is the friend’s dad.

The funniest part? The man lives on the very street where I bought the chair in the first place.