First Sales

Barry White is still parked inside the garage. I thought of sending him to the scrap yard not once but at least thrice. Each time I never got around doing it. The first time was the usual procrastination bad habit, the second and third time was somehow blocked by Thusara at very good timing. Both times I was determined to call up the wreckers the next day but Thus sent me an email urging me to consider selling Barry White's parts.


I might end up earning nothing more than just sending Barry White to the yard for all the trouble. I know I am no marketer. I can't sell for my life, can't negotiate, dislike confrontation, can't handle rejection and don't enjoy talking to strangers generally. Last Sunday, I posted an ad online just to convince myself I tried.


No news on the entire Sunday.
No news on Monday


A few text messages came, asking about the availability of various items and their price. It only dawned on me I had not even thought about how much I wanted to price my parts. Wait - I don't know what price should I be selling. Each part is very different and its worth can vary a lot. I had a call asking me to quote for the engine. I was totally stumped and requested for a little time to get back to him. Till now, I have absolutely no idea how much should I quote for this 1995 engine on a 159k mileage. I realised I don't even know what is the engine model. There are a lot of work to do if I am serious in this.


After a quick bath upon reaching home, I went into the garage to get my hands dirty. There was a buyer coming at 1800hrs and I wanted to check if the part I was selling was actually in working condition. It would be dire if I wrongly identified its condition. Fortunately, the passenger front light was working well and was actually intact despite the signal light beside it was thoroughly smashed.


An Irish guy came by and we began to chat. He was picking the item up for his friend, who corresponded with me entirely on email. We supported the same football club and chatted a little about the club. Irish guy was happy to see the headlight working. He tried to bargain but I refuse to barge. I had no idea what I was doing. I found that Irish guy worked as a mechanic eventually when he helped me to twist the signal lightbulb out of the smashed casing that I took out myself. I offered him free since it was smashed, though the bulb should be in working order. He told me his friend's Corolla was smashed at the left side in a crash with a kangaroo. It sounded serious, else a smashed signal casing would not be of any interests to him.


Coincidentally, Barry White's seller was an Irish. The first buyer of his parts was an Irish. Before leaving he expressed interest in buying Barry White front shockies on the driver side. I told him I would let him know the price soon. The fact was of course I have no idea what price should I be selling him  that. Barry White was a very important chapter of my Perth life. He was there during all our hospital visits to check if Albany was fine. He took me to work every night in the toughest period of my life. He took baby Albany home reliably from the hospital and took a blow for me in the car accident. He served me terribly well. 


For Barry White left eye, I recouped A$25.00. I wondered how much I could accumulate before I give up totally on the project. The more money I could raise, the higher the chance I could search for Barry White II, to honour the car behind our story.

2 comments:

  1. I've been an anonymous reader for quite awhile now and would like to say that I'm glad that you are still writing...please keep it up!

    Fellow Singaporean in OZ

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  2. Steady bro! Keep it up :) Paul

    ReplyDelete