A heartwarming story about a garage sale shows that manners really matter

We all know that politeness can be the oil that keeps the engine of society running and we tend to notice its absence more than its presence. One story, shared by someone called gjrunner5 on Reddit, shows that it can also be the difference between getting a good deal and getting no deal at all – Dominic Raab, take note.

This is how the anecdote unfolded.

I took my 70-year old mother who has been paralyzed for more than 20 years to a neighborhood garage sale at the local wealthy gated community, which only does one garage sale for one day every year. (The paralyzed thing doesn’t matter, except to provide an accurate picture of the situation).

After going around the entire area, which treats it almost like a huge neighborhood barbecue and block party, we end up at a house that has a dryer for sale. We overhear the owner of the dryer, who is selling it for $150 explaining that his daughter bought it, but got it home and realized it was gas and she and her new husband had electric. It was originally $600 or so, but they never got around to returning it and asked her dad to just unload it.

It still had the cellophane protecting the easily scratched bits, and when I looked inside, it had the cellophane across the drum with the manual still in in plastic wrapping. This thing had never even been plugged in.

There is a man trying to argue the seller down to $25. Initially he walks up to the guy and says something along the lines of “You’ll never get rid of this, no one buys dryers used.” He is really loud and persistent about it too “This dryer is over a year old. No one is going to give you anything for a used dryer. You’re going to have to pay to have it hauled away,” etc. I don’t know how to express this well, but the guy is really being a jerk about it.

My mom checks out the dryer, with no real intent to buy, money was really tight and shes not a jerk who is going to offer a ridiculous low-ball offer like the other guy. I have about $50 on me, and she has about $20. I’m waiting until the other guy leaves to ask if I can buy it, but bring money back the next day. My parents’ dryer of 35 years had finally broken down and my dad had been driving the clothes from the washer to the local laundromat and drying them a few times a week. They really need the dryer.

The seller looks over and sees my mom sadly looking at the dryer, and with the jerk still on her heels asks her if she’s interested. She says, “Thank you, but I only have $20. Its a really nice dryer though.” The Seller says “SOLD!” and shakes her hand. He says he is happy to deliver it, because he has a flat-trailer and its no big deal. Hell, he’ll even hook it up for her!

The jerk is furious, he ups his bid to $75. The man looks him dead in eye and says, “I sold it to this nice lady here.” My mom is trying really, really hard not to burst into tears.

My mom gives the man her address, and he indeed delivers it and hooks it up for her. My dad is thrilled, he asks how much for the dryer? The man says: “one hug.” He gives my mom a big hug and refuses her money, and my dad’s, and mine.

I have the feeling that if they jerk had just politely offered any amount of money, the seller would have accepted it. He really just wanted to get rid of a dryer that was taking up valuable real estate in his garage. Sometimes it really does pay to be nice 😀

The post, shared in a forum called ChoosingBeggars, devoted to outing people who try to get something for less than its worth, received a lot of delighted comments.

Some Redditors had similar stories, like this one about a very successful barter deal.

If we take away anything from this story, it should be the rule this person was taught by their wise grandma.

“There’s always time to be a dick later.”

H/T boredpanda

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Breaking! Monster Halloween Spider Pranks Londoners

Londoners were given the Halloween heebie-jeebies today as a terrifying giant creepy crawly was spotted prowling the streets of the capital.

Sponsored Post