I think that rules about reselling would be difficult to monitor and enforce. I mean does that mean that when I'm done with an item, I can't put it on a garage sale. What if I offer it back to freecycle first and no one takes it?

I've asked for a non-needed item once. My husband had just had to go on disability and I bought him a small cross-stitch kit and he loved it, so I asked on freecycle if anyone had cross-stitch supplies to give away. I did stress that it was a want, not a need.

I don't mind when I see someone ask for items that are completely frivolous, but that someone really might be likely to throw away. What sometimes gets me shaking my head is people asking for things that I can't imagine anyone throwing away, or when they add a bunch of conditions (must be in excellent condition, must be delivered to me, etc .... I mean you're getting it for free. Putting demands on the gifter is terribly rude).

I mean recently I saw a person requesting a computer and monitor that "must be fewer than 3 years old," and specific software that the computer had to have, and the minimimum size of the monitor - I mean GEEZ why not ask for a brand new computer still in the box?

I also hate when I see someone ask for items that might be valuable, but the owner of the item may not know it. Such as when people ask for obscure collectibles (not long ago a person requested "pie birds" and another requested an "old" spinning wheel). I don't know that the people making the requests knew that what they were asking for realized the value of what they were asking for - and I definitely didn't know if anyone having the items would know what they were worth.

Our local group has a separate Freecycle Discussion group (as no discussion is allowed on the freecycle board) and I brought it up there, but basically everyone decided that it was inappropriate to judge or criticize specific requests on the forum. That we could email requestors or gifters with our information at our own discretion. Since my concern was mainly for requestors, I dropped the issue, because my concern was with people asking for items they NEW were valuable. Emailing such a person privately wouldn't do any good, because they weren't worried about scamming anyone.

I guess "buyer beware" applies even when money isn't changing hands.

I have used freecycle both ways, I have given away items I don't need and have picked up things I do need. I have never seen the other persons .
Items are left on the porch or patio, etc. Much better than having a total stranger in your home.

My group has rules against reselling....I've had someone reply to everything I posted in a day & she wanted it all. It was various items like baby items, pet items, boy toys, etc so instead of giving them all to her I told her she could have the first couple of things she responded to and then told her the rest were already spoken for. I lied but I was right about my suspicion....she was reselling the items on ebay & when caught was banned from the group.

You are free to choose someone else to get the stuff if you want.

It'd be one thing if she desperately needed to sell the items but it sounds like her business ethics are horrible. Being sneaky like that (sending a courier) should be proof enough.

Well, in any event, I'd never heard of FreeCycle, so something new to check out

I use Freecycle all the time, and love it. There are great people that use it, and also some really greedy creeps.

One thing to remember is that you get to decide who you give your items to. If you don't like the sound of someone, just say the items are spoken for, or you can ignore them. You don't have to give them to the first person to reply, or to the pushiest person, you can chose to give them to whichever responder you like the sound of.

My favourite weirdo was a woman that got terribly upset at me and threatened to call the cops because I gave away a VCR to another member instead of her. I told her to go ahead

One thing I have learned to do, is to add a line or two on each offering or each private reply stating that certain conditions apply, such as a time limit for responses, a no show policy, limited quantities etc... Once I had about 50 old computer games and I didn't want a dealer taking them and reselling them - I wanted people to play them. So I put a limit of 5 games per person. Another time I had a broken computer that was really only good for a dealer to strip and reuse the good bits, so I indicated that it was best for dealers or people that could repair it. Some people gave me a hard time about these restrictions, but I ignored them (why do some people think being rude to me will make me give them something ?!?).

In general, I ignore people that are not polite in their initial contact, or people that give me odd vibes. But my Freecycle group has 12 000 members, so there are always a ton of people replying to any post and so it's easy to find someone I like the sound of

BP

I quit using free cycle because of the greedy people. I had one lady who wanted everything I posted, I finally started ignoring her e-mails and gave the items to someone else. I gave away something else and found it on Craigslist the next day and they were trying to sell it for $200!! I already tried to sell it and couldn't so gave it away. The group in our area was shut down for a while do to greedy wants and dishonest people. I give to local charity now if I have clothes ect... that I need gone.