Ok, so I have a good reason for not posting for quite a long time: I’m lazy.  I’m not sure about the other guys.  I’m pretty sure they’re slightly less lazy than me (at the moment I’m in one of those prolonged multi-year laziness funks).

Anyway, I’m out in Wisconsin now embracing the glory that is the Midwest.  It’s nice here right now and compared to DC, it’s amazingly pleasant here (we’ll see how I feel come winter).   I’ve spent the past couple weeks trying to settle in, a task made more difficult by my complete lack of furniture, my need to continue working full-time, and a hectic social schedule.

Things are starting to settle down though and hopefully I’m getting stuff to a good place.  I’ve already found the local YMCA and will probably be joining it shortly, even though I’m tempted to join the Madison version of GloboGym (Princeton Club – oh, sweet 24 hour gym!) .  Also, in recognition of my arrival, Apple opened its first Apple Store here last weekend causing me to seriously jones for an iPhone–a sweet, sweet iPhone.

I’m also in the process of trying to locate a new television that might possibly be easier to move.  Right now I’m leaning towards a 57″ Mitsubishi DLP because it’s 4″ shorter, 6″ thinner and about 10″ less wide.  These are traits that I may think are required for just getting it INTO my apartment since it’s not the most accessible entry.

I spent all last weekend looking at furniture so this weekend I’ll probably be making a final decision on the couch I want to purchase and possibly going to an art fair here to try to find some local gifts.  I still need to find a birthday gift for my brother since I think he is getting a little old to get Transforrmers (you’re never too old for Gobots though).

Anyway, I’ve seen approximately 8 million movies the past couple weeks (Transformers, Die Hard 4, Harry Potter) and will probably keep it up for the rest of the summer. Of course, tonight will most likely be the Under Siege marathon, and trust me that watching 2 Under Siege’s in a row definitely qualifies as a marathon.

Hopefully the other jokers on the site will post occasionally (even if they are out in the ‘wilderness’ camping because they’re too cheap to pay for ‘beds’) and I’m sorry for the lull.

This week I’ve been craigslisting a bunch of stuff. And as I noted in my earlier efforts in craigslisting my old TV craigslisting can be hard work. Tons of emails but no one comes by. If they do, then they then try to haggle you down to $10 for it. It can be infuriating.

This week, I’ve been listing basically everything I own though and even though I’ve gotten the usual number of emails about it, I’ve had two people actually come and buy stuff and both times they’ve come when they said they would and just handed me the cash right away AND DIDN’T EVEN HAGGLE.

Thank you kind and considerate people who don’t try to screw me out of even more money while I’m trying to give you a good deal. You are cool and I wish there were more of you. I even offer to help you load things into your cars when you do that.

Now if I could just find some more of these no haggle suckers for my other stuff, I’ll be rolling in the cash.

[UPDATE]

Well, I sold two more things but these guys both wanted $10 discounts. I can deal with that though. It’s better than getting nothing for it (which is what probably would have happened were it not for the beauty of craigslist).

If I can just sell 1 or 2 more things though, I’d be really happy.

[UPDATE x2]

Well, I suppose typical craigslist ended up winning in the end.  I had a guy who was supposed to buy some stuff from me get lost and not have my phone number (he ended up going to house number 206 vs. 306 on my street).  I had another woman who was interested in buying a rug and it took 3 nights of trying to schedule her to pick it until her father actually came over while I was at work.

I had another guy who called me twice about the mattress and said he’d come by Wednesday evening.  I told him if he didn’t come over before Thursday that I wouldn’t have it anymore because I was moving.  He called me back Friday asking about it.

Another woman who was going to buy some Ikea stands I had ended up sending her daughter over.  She wasn’t sure if they were the right color so they wanted to buy one, see if it matched, and if it did come back and buy the rest.

Of course there were still the random 15 people who all emailed me and expressed interest and never replied when I emailed them back.  So yeah, good job craigslist you win again!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m in the final stages of trying to relocate to Madison, WI. And in that process, I was evaluating how to best move my stuff out there. My first thought was to go with a small U-Haul. After seeing that even the smallest truck would cost me $680 + $340 trailer for car + gas I started looking at other options.

The best option seemed to be ABF Freight which for $850 would leave a trailer parked in front of my apartment which I could load stuff into and then 4 days later would show up at my new apartment. Unfortunately, it was still going to cost me at least $890 to move my stuff (if you need more than 5 feet of space in the trailer, you pay $34 per foot).

The main reason I was against paying $850 to move my current apartment’s contents is that all my stuff I have now is either from college, Ikea, or a hand me down, so I doubt it’s even worth $850. Plus, there is a bunch of stuff that I don’t really even want: like this crappy desk/chair combo I’ve had since the 4th grade, my $300 full size bed that is only comfortable in relation to the floor I was sleeping on before I got it, or the free Ikea couch/day bed thing I got from my friend that is not comfortable as either a couch or a bed. Finally getting rid of these things and forcing myself to buy new stuff that didn’t suck would be like an albatross of my back.

So, the next step was to figure out what exactly I wanted to keep. The list ended up pretty short. Basically the only thing that seemed like I would have a hard time parting with would be my recently acquired massive TV. The best option in this case then, would be to attach a trailer to my car and tow my stuff that way. Trailers are cheap enough ($150 for 4 days and unlimited miles) that it’s theoretically economically viable.

Still, as I did some more number crunching, even if the trailer rental is only $150, I’d need to acquire a new trailer ball and tongue for the hitch ($30), the wiring harness for hooking up the trailer break lights ($50), and spend supposedly twice as much on gas due to the towing of the trailer. Considering that my car regularly gets about mid 20′s MPG when driving I’d assume that with a trailer I’d maybe get 13MPG max with the trailer. Since the trip is about 850 miles, the difference in cost between 25MPG and 13MPG (assuming $3 gas) is over $110. So the total for renting a trailer would actually be $340. Plus, I’m pretty sure you get tolled higher if you’re pulling a trailer (I thought you got tolled per axel) so maybe I’d have another $10-15 in tolls.

Add in the fact that the max recommended speed in my car for pulling a trailer is 55MPH and that I’d be driving the very hilly PA Turnpike for some time, I thought the additional time it would take me (assuming I do go faster than recommended at say 62MPH vs. my regular 75-80MPH highway speed) would take at least an extra 2 hours. Plus, my car says that the max towing weight is actually 1000 lbs and the trailer itself weighs 850 lbs. The TV weighs 100 lbs and that would leave me with a scant 50 lbs for other uses. Plus, I’m not sure they’re considering that the rest of my car would be laden with stuff as well so who knows how bad my gas mileage would really be or how slow my car would actually go (it ony has a 190 HP engine)

Considering all of these things, I decided that my best option would be to actually just sell my glorious dream TV for $300-400 less than I paid for it and just buy it again after I move.

So with those choices, here’s the breakdown in cost:

	Uhaul	ABF	Trailer	Nothing
Value of Moved Goods	$ 2,975	$ 2,975	$ 2,200	$ -
Value of Sold Goods	$ -	$ -	$ 240	$ 2,040
Cost of Rental	$ 680	$ 890	$ 150	$ -
MPG	8	25	13	25
Cost Total Gas (mpg x dist x gas$)	$ 319	$ 102	$ 196	$ 102
Cost Tolls	$ 40	$ 25	$ 40	$ 25
(Value – Cost) TOTAL	$ 1,636	$ 1,983	$ 2,014	$ 1,938

As you can see, there is a slight benefit to driving with a trailer in total value of goods moved, but I have to deal with the hassle of driving a trailer halfway across the country. The ABF is pretty good as well, by eliminating the need to tow anything, it would probably be the best bet if I wanted to keep my stuff.

Basically though, I kind of decided that now was the time to start fresh. Get rid of all that old stuff that gave me an excuse not to upgrade because I’m cheap.

Yesterday then, I listed my precious on craigslist (I’d listed a number of other things as well … but so far the only thing that has sold has been my Dreamcast for a sweet $60). You can see the craigslist entry here. That morning after I posted the entry, I walked into work and started accosting my coworkers and asking them if they were interested in buying a TV. Strangely, one of them said yes.

After pressuring her to firmly commit 100% yes or no she’s now decided she wants it and we’re just trying to figure out how to get the TV over to her apartment. It’s too big to fit in the back of a smaller SUV so it’s an interesting challenge.

Still, her husband has been out of the country for while and now that he’s coming back, they were just going to start trying to find a decent TV to buy. Now I’ve saved them the trouble and even given them a good discount. And I’ll get to go through the joy of buying a TV all over again. Excellent.