|
There's nothing worse in writing than starting a story with a hackneyed expression like: "One man's junk is another man's treasure," but in this case, the description fits Freecycle.org to a "T."
This site was developed by Deron Beal of Tucson, AZ as a grassroots solution to the problem of overfilling landfills. Using a virtual curbside premise, Beal's intention was to let people put their "stuff" onto a site where others could pick out what they need. The only mandate: it has to be free.
So what do you do when what you need is in Fresno, California and you're sitting at your computer in Bangor, Maine? You look for something closer to home.
Freecycle.org is broken up into regional sections, and those are further fragmented to reachable destinations. Each small group lists how many participants belong to that area, but there is no restriction on signing up in an area far away.
The experience of Bill Heeter as related by the Associated Press hits home to booksellers.
Heeter's biggest problem was books. A thousand or more titles from an Internet textbook selling endeavor piled high in his suburban Kansas City garage.
He offered the books through the freecycling network for anyone to take, and nearly 3,000 freecyclers in and around Kansas City got an e-mail. The same day a woman replied and offered to take all the books to sell at a church garage sale.
"I thought, "Where has this been?" I've been purging junk for years and never questioned if it'd be useful to someone else," said Heeter, 41. "I can see myself freecycling forever. Our garage will never be like that again.
With his garage cleared, Heeter had space for a lawn mover and a leaf blower. He got those free from fellow freecyclers.
Freecyclers may be one way to obtain free inventory for booksellers. It's certainly a lot warmer than getting up at the crack of dawn to go tag sale shopping or waiting in line at a library sale. But there's no guarantee that books will be free and available where you need them.
The closest Freecycling organization nearest me is in Naugatuck CT, a group that formed in July of 2004. With 99 people listed as members, activity promised to be fruitful and I hoped the hardest part about using the site was limiting myself to 200 characters or less, telling the site moderator why I wanted to join.
What was available to take was a lot of clothing, vases, and even a very old, non-working copy machine.
Mike Mastrianni, 25, of Waterbury uses the Naugatuck, Bristol, New Haven and other Freecycle groups within driving distance from his newly acquired home. Though books are not high on his priority list, he has used the organization for furnishings. A microwave, oak cabinetry, and a metal wardrobe found a home with him. Was the quality good? "For free, yeah," he laughingly replied.
Mastrianni heard about Freecycle.org from a friend in Philadelphia. "He's a college professor and freecycles all the time to get things for his apartment."
Freecycle.org is worth checking out and it is worth using if you find yourself with more books than you can store or books you know you won't want to sell online. Your discard may make a student or avid reader very happy.
http://www.freecycle.org
|
