Exercise: Stress from being a Salesman.
Keyboard Practice: Full live 37 bar sonata.

I have a better reputation for doing deals than Donald Trump. OK, it doesn’t take much to be better at doing deals than the current President of the United States, but I still believe it to be true in my case.

Yesterday I started talking about Facebook and that was because it would seem that on Facebook, as far as they are concerned, I have a good reputation, which is a good thing to have, I would assume.

So how did I get this reputation. By selling stuff at a reasonable price while providing excellent value for the price paid in a low-stress (no hard sell) environment (with a willingness to haggle a little).

I always used to sell stuff on CriagsList, which used to be an excellent resource. However the seem to have totally lost it in the small-ads for sale arena. I have sold some stuff on NextDoor to my local neighbors, but where I have really scored for the sale of a two laptops, several iPads, AppleWatches and numerous iPhones, speakers & Bread Maker has been Facebook MarketPlace.

For all of Facebooks faults, when it comes to a second-hand marketplace for goods they are the clear winners. The person buying sees who you are, and you them - just the basic profile, but enough to know that they are real and have a good reputation.

Yesterday I listed Karen’s 2011 Mini Cooper S for sale on FaceBook, NextDoor and Craigslist. 20-30 enquiries later and three test drives it was sold. In less than 24 hours. Sure I got lots of people trying to offer me 60-80% of my asking price, with the person who did buy it coming prepared with cash and only asking for a small discount on the price to close the deal.

What puzzles me is that if you see a car listing for $5,250., why bother offering $3K, or $4K. Do people really inflate the price of their good by 20-30% just so that they can knock the price down. It’s stupid and not a game I’m willing to play.

Which, I feel, is a good part of why I have a good reputation. People always go away getting more from the sale than they expect compared to others sellers - the ones trying to rip them off.

I feel good, they feel good, everybody wins.

Unlike doing a deal with Donald Trump.