How not to sell your car

We've had several cars, most of them we've bought used, and then sold really used. You can get more money selling yourself, but what a hassle. Or, what an experience. Rose colored glasses and all that.

We had a real clunker, a tiny red Datsun sitting in front of our house. FOR SALE, $550. Reverse Gestalt. The sum of its parts were more than the whole. A gentleman knocked on my door, his son in tow. He was interested in the car. He knew his wife would just love this car! It was perfect for her! She will be so surprised! Surprised wasn't the word that came to my mind. It probably had a list of 150 things wrong with it. But, one mans trash....... Could he take it for a test drive? Sure, I said, handing him the keys, hoping he'd just steal it. It smoked so much that when you stopped at a traffic light other people would open their car doors to see what was wrong with their car.

He left and several hours went by....did it break down......hoping against hope, did he actually make off with my car? But, I looked outside at the car he left behind-a huge Cadillac with a ladder strapped on top. He was a handyman who worked in our area. Heck, now I have a Cadillac....with a ladder. The ladder was probably worth more than that Datsun.

Knock, knock. He's back with his son and several fast food meals in hand, proceeding to tell me all of things that were wrong with it noticing many of them but leaving out the 95 others. My heart sank. Then, "Would you take $500. My wife is gonna love this car". Deal.

I never saw him again. But, I did see the car about 3 weeks later, parked at the fast food place....with a ladder strapped to the top. I guess his wife wasn't that crazy about the car. Go figure.