Fastest Cash I've Ever Made.

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the power of Craigslist? Assuming, of course, that you're not looking for things you probably shouldn't be looking for in the first place, it is a pretty fantastic place.

I've had this mirror for years. It was a mirror left by previous tenants in the now infamous, bank foreclosed on my landlord and I had 30 days notice to evacuate the premises apartment disaster of 2007. And you better believe when I had a month to find a new place to live and deal with a landlord who vanished into thin air along with my security deposit? I was taking anything in that apartment that was not nailed down. Mirrors and all.

So this mirror, while perfectly lovely; was heavy, large, and not entirely suited to my taste in the first place. It had moved to two other apartments with me and a few weekends ago I finally decided I should just sell the darn thing. After all, one man's not favorite mirror is another's treasure, right? I cleaned it up, snapped a few photos of her in the best light possible, posted a quick description, listed my price on Craigslist and heard...exactly nothing. Seeing as I'm not exactly in the business of pricing mirrors I began to worry I was asking too much. But, I'd done a little homework before posting my listing - including a survey of what other mirrors on Craigslist where posted for - and decided to just wait it out. Just this morning I decided that I'd give it another week. If I still haven't had any offers by next weekend, I told myself, I'll reevaluate.

Well lo and behold, would you like to guess what I got emailed about this morning when I got into the office? Short, sweet, and to the point, the woman asked if the mirror was still available, she countered a slightly lower price than I had listed, (Which was fine because - savvy me - I'd priced it a tad higher than I actually wanted. God Bless the day we all learn about bargaining wiggle room.) and asked if she could come pick it up tonight.

Finding this all too good to be true, I hurried home from the gym to meet her, sure she'd tell me that she really just wanted to take a look and then that she'd think about it and then that maybe her husband would have to see it and then perhaps she'd want me to come down on the price more...but no. She walked upstairs, said "it'll be great," handed me some cold hard cash and was on her way. The entire transaction took three minutes.

Done and done.

Let's just hope I don't see her on an episode of Antique Roadshow anytime soon, talking about the steal she got from a girl who didn't know enough about mirrors. That'll kill me.