Look before you Leap
The year I turned forty, my husband arranged to take me away for a little holiday. Some very kind relatives allowed us to us a pop-up trailer they had, and away we went. It was a wonderful time. We were relaxed and well-fed. We had a warm place to sleep. And best of all, we were self-contained and off the ground.
Fast forward to the next garage sale, where there were two pop-up trailers for sale. One was clearly out of our price range. And then there was this one. I thought back to the great holdiay we had enjoyed and mistakenly identified us as "Camper-Bobs". I began imagining all the wonderful weekends we would enjoy, if we only bought this pop-up. The kids would have a blast. We would be comfortable. I almost could taste the S'mores around the campfire. I hurried home to tell my husband about my find. The garage sale was now over, but I dragged him over to the house anyways. I knocked on the door. I had a feeling they might be up to a visit.
Long story short, we bought the trailer. We brought it home. And NEVER went camping. The only thing we used the trailer for, was an extra bedroom when company came. I don't want to say it was a complete waste of money, because the boys enjoyed using it for sleepovers with their friends. They would hook up the tv and the game consoles inside the garage and play video games til all hours. A couple of times, we set it up for weekend visitors. I even had the cushions recovered.
All that never changed the fact that it was a bad consumer decision. Eventually we decided to put it up for sale. We put it out at the corner and got a couple of interested parties. My husband dragged it back to the driveway to set it up. And then they looked at it and left -saying they'd be in touch. I think we all know what "we'll be in touch' means. RUNNNN!! Another man came by and offered us such a low ball price, we took his name and number and told him We'd be in touch.
When we moved, we brought the trailer over to The Pokeaway. Several times, I listed it for sale. Every time, the interested parties wanted to know 'what else was wrong with it?'. What else was wrong with it, was that I had followed an impulse without evaluting it long enough to know that since my husband didn't like campground camping, there wasn't a chance that we would ever use the pop up for anything more than an extra bedroom.
Much to our relief, this spring, the advertisement went better. Some folks came and looked at it, and told us that they could fix it up and use it to go and see their daughter who was having a hard go of life. We were happy with that, and made the transaction. Truthfully though, we held our breath through the whole thing, until they drove off the driveway (and didn't return). Lesson learned (hopefully)
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