27 Apr

The Indignity Of Searching for Used Crap – Bike Snob NYC

Identify me Fred.

I’m about 80% of the easiest way by the use of “Moby Dick” now (technically “Moby-Dick” whenever you’re a Literary Fred) and so immersed am I in it that I see Dick everywhere I’m going. And like tempestuous Ahab pacing the deck of the Pequod upon his whalebone peg-leg, I too am laid low with my very personal white whale, that being a pair of Spinergys:

[It is said that a full-grown Cipollini can produce more oil than a mature sperm whale.]

It started as soon as I used to be plying the seas of Craigslist and seen this submit:

As a semi-professional blogger at current engaged in an in depth analysis of a basic carbon-and-titanium racing bike, I figured these wheels may very well be useful for every scientific and novelty capabilities. So, on a whim, I proffered a modest present, and as I beforehand related I was soundly rebuffed:

I figured that was that, nonetheless then an anonymous benefactor offered to subsidize the acquisition. So I despatched one different message to the seller agreeing to pay the overall amount, assured that the wheels would now be mine:

Oddly, no reply was forthcoming, and since the wheels drifted extra and extra away, my need for them solely elevated. “Perhaps they’ve already been purchased,” I assumed to myself, nonetheless as soon as I appeared for the submit the next morning, not solely was it nonetheless up, nonetheless the seller had lowered his price to $150:

Solely a madman would ignore or refuse a suggestion for his full asking price solely to cut back it by 25% the very subsequent day, and so I figured the one logical rationalization was that he had not seen my second e-mail the least bit. And so, undaunted, I despatched a model new one:

The reply acquired right here immediately:

I did as instructed. The wheels had been now tantalizingly shut–so shut I’ll take into consideration myself thumbing a pair of tires onto them. Nonetheless out of the clear sky acquired right here a sudden squall that blew them violently out to sea:

I should degree out that these screenshots comprise the entire thing of his messages, and that his curt replies had been at no degree embellished with phrases equal to “please” or “thanks” or one other kind of nicely mannered discourse. Furthermore, the ZIP code he signifies is inside the neighborhood of Ithaca, NY, which is properly over 200 miles away from New York Metropolis. So whereas I endeavor to current every human the advantage of the doubt, I admit I uncover it every puzzling and vexing that someone would act irritated and put-upon by one other particular person offering to current him money for one factor he’s listed available on the market on a public dialogue board. Furthermore, I uncover it doubly puzzling and vexing that no matter being nowhere near New York Metropolis he’d compose the submit in such a method that it reveals the wheels mere steps from the subway line I expertise not lower than twice each week:

With regard to this latter degree, I figured I should convey this to his consideration, if solely on account of I didn’t want him to suppose I was the kind of schmuck who replies to classifieds itemizing in Ithaca and presents to decide on up the merchandise in Manhattan. So I despatched the subsequent message, full with screenshot exhibiting the map:

And however as I form this the submit continues to be reside, with no indication in any method of the seller’s location apart from a map of Manhattan with a pin in it correct inside the neighborhood of 14th Highway and seventh Avenue::

Look at his comportment with that of, say, this vendor, to decide on one type of at random:

Not solely is he clear about his location, nonetheless he clearly understands that buying and selling requires a certain quantity of communication, even when it does require one to work along with the occasional looky-loo. Certain, invariably he’ll get the odd e-mail like, “Will this work on my fixie?,” and “I’ll give you $75, will you ship these to Poughkeepsie?” Nonetheless finally an celebration will happen upon them, they’ll shoot a few emails forwards and backwards, they’ll change money for objects, and the wheels of commerce will proceed to roll straight and true.

In truth, by this degree a sane explicit particular person would stop the hunt. (Really, a sane explicit particular person would have given it up after his preliminary present was refused–or, most sanely, certainly not made a suggestion inside the first place.) Nonetheless, I’m a semi-professional bike blogger, not educated sane explicit particular person, and so I hereby nail my doubloon the mast and declare that if any of you dozens of readers available on the market happen to reside inside the Ithaca area and want to purchase these wheels for me I’ll happily reimburse you for the $150 and the supply to New York Metropolis, plus a little bit of beer money to your troubles. And naturally I’d implore you to cope with the seller respectfully and by no means in any method disclose that you just simply’re in cahoots with that schmuck in New York Metropolis who saved emailing him. I don’t want vindication and I don’t want to violate his privateness in any method; all I would like is the wheels.

Inside the meantime, like Ahab pacing on a prosthetic limb produced from the bone of the very species that torments him, I’ll merely sit proper right here and stare at my Spinergy clock: