U
Bryceʼs
ink bator
Notes from the Publisher ... Fostering ideas , conversations and arguments .
My wife has been Swedish Death Cleaning the house . If you don ’ t know what that is , it ’ s a book and now also a TV series about purging all of your unused crap so you ’ re not a burden on others when you die . But mostly , it ’ s just about decluttering your house . But in the process last week , she also replaced her home office furniture upstairs , which was a hodgepodge of pieces from antique to modern , with a cohesive 4-piece collection of IKEA furniture that looks great .
But now during week two , more IKEA pieces arrived to replace our nightstands in the bedroom , and now I ’ m convinced that this whole Swedish Death Cleaning thing is just a big Swedish brainwashing scam to get us all to buy a lot of IKEA furniture … which is also Swedish . I ’ m onto you Sweden . And amidst all of this … not one meatball to be seen anywhere . Shouldn ’ t there be something in this for me ?
I also did a little purging of my own . I sold my motorcycle last week . It was almost a knee jerk thing . As it was almost July , and I had not ever taken the bike out of storage in the shed yet , and having ridden it a whopping handful of times last year ( though cancer surgery didn ’ t help that ), I realized I was just hanging onto it because I liked having a motorcycle . I might go for one or two rides over 10 miles twice a summer . That ’ s how pathetic it was . When I got the bike , I was riding it to work everyday . It was so convenient , cheap to drive , and easy to park . But then two months later , we got a dog who went to work with me daily , and I started riding a lot less . That was about seven years ago . It just got worse every year . And in that time , I only ever bought two batteries for it . It still works perfectly and is in stellar condition .
So , I did what one does and put it up for sale on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist . Oh man , what a cesspool Craigslist has become . In the days right after I posted the bike , I was contacted by at least three scammers trying to pull their financial scam on me . Each scam was unique . And for some of these , you have to go a bit down the rabbit hole to figure it out .
The classic scam is the offer to send you a cashier ’ s check and say they are sending someone to pick up the item . Then , if you say yes , they amend it by offering to send you the price of the bike and the price to ship it and have you pay the shipper for them . Step three is the “ shipper ” taking your credit card payment . Soon after , you find out the cashier ’ s check was fake and it gets rejected . So they don ’ t get their money , but that was never the intent . The scammer was also the shipper who got the smaller amount of money for the shipping fee you now lost . And who knows , if you ’ re really gullible , they may have your credit card info now . At least Craigslist warns you never to take cashiers checks .
The second scam was a guy wanting to come pay cash for the bike , but first he wanted me to send him a vehicle history on the bike . I said it was all on the title . But he wanted a history and sent a link to a website that will provide a vehicle history . I don ’ t remember the site , but it looked quite professional and legit , but you have to pay for the history report and give them your credit card info , so right away I was out . But I decided to look into the site a bit . Sure enough , the URL for the site was less than three months old . Total scam . And I let him know what I thought about him and people like him . Shockingly , he didn ’ t ever reply again .
The only real contacts I ever got were from Facebook Marketplace . The first was a guy who wanted the bike and set up a time to come look at it . The next day , he backed out but was actually very nicely apologetic about wasting my time . And finally , the young guy who actually bought it . I actually knew his family which sure helped a lot , and he came right over with a stack of hundred dollar bills . THAT ’ S how you buy stuff on Marketplace . But man , overall , I would just not recommend it at all , at least and especially Craigslist . It was essentially all criminals looking to hoodwink you .
So as we keep Swedish Death Cleaning , AKA “ The IKEA Scam ,” everything we ’ re purging I ’ m just giving away on Facebook to friends . Furniture , electronics , decor , whatever . It ’ s good stuff with value . But I ’ m not broke , and I ’ d rather have people I know and like simply just have the things I once enjoyed but no longer need than for some stranger , possibly and probably a crook , to offer to buy it from me for real or fake money . I just don ’ t have time for that .
And finally , can I just point out in the greater scheme of life , that we sit here in the strongest economy in the world and the best economy America has seen in decades , with a stock market that ’ s doubled in value in four years , food costs coming down , violent crime decreasing , and unemployment and historic lows . An old , feeble-looking , scratchy-voiced shell of a still-great man made that growth happen for our country . He did so surrounded by wise and honest support staff . He has never been convicted or even accused of a felony , let alone dozens , never been found guilty of sexual assault , never been banned from operating a business in the State of New York , and never tried to defraud the nation and incite an insurrection of the American government . He doesn ’ t speak in loud , constant , and easily disprovable lies , and he doesn ’ t face more pending criminal trials ahead . He ’ s just “ old .” I ’ m good with “ old .” Considering the alternative , I ’ ve freakin ’ overjoyed with “ old .” I don ’ t understand why this is even a conversation we have to have ? •
4 365INK MAGAZINE July 18 – July 31 , 2024 Issue # 465 DUBUQUE365 . COM