Sold to the man with the.....

......cash in his pocket! I don't know about you but I just hate putting things up for sale and waiting for them to get sold. Patience is not one of my virtues.

We recently found a used car for my oldest son to purchase. Prior to buying it we took it to a mechanic whom we trusted to check it out for any unseen problems. After all, the car was 11 years old and it has 120k on it. Although the car did need some substantial repairs our mechanic assured us that it would be a worth-while car if we had them made. The body had no rust and the overall look of the car was pretty good. And it was a convertible. We talked it over with our son and decided to make the purchase and he would follow through and get the repairs made.

Well, as it turns out, our son didn't really want the used car and opted for other transportation that he financed himself. After finding out that he didnt trade the car in we offered to buy it from him and get it repaired ourselves. Our youngest son was without a car and we thought for sure that he'd want to buy it once it was fixed up. Well...that didn't turn out to be true either. I'm not sure how at 18 you can be so picky about what you drive but I guess you can.

Lori and I floundered for a week on whether we wanted to sink the repair money into the convertible and just have it as a weekend car. We do a lot of running on the weekends and thought it would save miles on our vehicles. But the more I pondered and prayed about it I just wasn't feeling comfortable that this was the right thing to do. I felt kind of greedy.

I asked our youngest son one more time if he was at all interested in this car and his reply was still "no." I talked it over with Lori and decided that we should put it in the paper for sale, hoping to get at least what we paid for it originally. The thing that I was concerned about is that I knew what was wrong with it and I wondered if we'd get anyone to even be interested once I told them. But I wasn't about to "Gild the Lily," for those of you Brady Bunch fans, just to get rid of it.

All this time the car has been sitting at the mechanics garage while we were vasilating on what to do with it. The ad went in the paper Thursday and Saturday morning I got a call from a prospective buyer. Unfortunately the car was not still at that mechanics garage. I made arrangements for the caller to see the car Monday night. So Monday morning, I got Josh, our youngest up early to go with me to pick up the car so that it would be home that evening for the first, and what I hoped would be, the last showing.

Josh drove the car home. Once in the house he started asking questions about it and wanted to know again how much the repairs were going to be and what we would sell it to him for. I could see the wheels turning in his head. I just had this feeling that once he drove it he was going to start to wonder whether he should buy it or not.

Monday evening came and the prospective buyer didnt show. We sat around and sat around and finally (remember I said I have no patience) I scrolled through my cell phone trying to figure out which number it was that called Saturday morning so I could call him back and find out the story. I finally found the number and reached the person who called. He said he got off late from work and wanted to come the next night. I said ok. Well, he called the next night and said that he wasnt coming at all. Arrrrgggghhhhhh!

Thursday I get a call from another prospective buyer. I lay it on the line with this guy as I had with the previous prospect about what I knew to be wrong with the car but he said he was still interested. He had had a convertible like this once before and really liked it and wanted another. We agreed that he would come to see it Friday night and see it he did.

Friday evening when I got home from work Josh was sitting at the kitchen table and asked again for the breakdown of what he had to pay for the car. He said if the airconditioning could be fixed or recharged, whatever it needed, he would now be interested. I said that I wished I had know that before I agreed to show it that night. Josh said that it really was no big deal and if this person wanted to buy it to let them have it. Yes, I was confused!

Leonard and his wife arrived around 7:30 to see the car and looked at it for almost 2 hours. I could tell Leonard wanted to make an offer but the Mrs. wasn't so convinced. At 9:30 and 9000 mosquito bites later they decided they wanted to sleep on it and would call back on Saturday. I advised them that we would be gone for a while on Saturday morning but to call my cell phone as I would have it with me.

As Lori and I drove to Wal-Mart for groceries Saturday morning we discussed the events surrounding the car. We thought Josh would want it for sure when we started this process and had given him many opportunities to have it. But we couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth either if someone wanted to buy it. We came to the conclusion that if Leornard and his wife made an offer then the car was not meant for Josh.

Leonard called my phone around 10 am. and wanted to know when we would be home. I said we'd be there by noon and to feel free to stop by. It was incredibly hot Saturday morning, we're talkin' just stand still and sweat like a pig. I've never understood that saying because from what I understand pigs dont sweat...but anyway. Leonard started combing the car over again. Although I really wanted to sell the car, my own selfishness was causing me to have thought along these lines ....it so incredbily HOT out here, I certainly hope he doesn't look at this car for another 2 hours in this heat! After about 15 minutes Leonard made an offer. I counterd and he counterd back. I said I think its ok but let me go talk to my wife about it. Of course she was good with it so it was "Sold to the man with the cash!"