Called about a hand fired stove today

 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Thu. Feb. 22, 2018 7:56 pm

Some of you are aware of some of the stoves I like as a few of us have discussed via pm's. Well, I found a stove...

...the stove is much smaller than I wanted and most likely too small for my home...
...and it wasn't on my radar...
...but considering its condition, isn't off my radar...
...in fact, it's condition placed it on my radar anyway...
...the price is...well...it's up there...
...but I was considering it anyway...again, because of the condition.

I called the guy and he's got someone interested in it already (that's what they all say, but he was willing to accept money in advance). The stove location isn't bad and the guy wants some money to hold the stove, $50 bucks, but...

...he's not going to be home from across the country for a month. Hold the phone! The guy won't be home for a month and he wants me to send him a check for $50. So, naturally...a red flag!!!

Now, I might feel more comfortable sending/gambling half that amount in the form of a post office money order, but I don't feel comfortable sending a personal check with my account info on it. So, I called the guy back and voiced my concerns and asked him not to hold the stove for me and asked him to call me when he got home if he still had the stove.

Maybe I'll miss out on a real decent stove, but I think it's asking a bit of people to post something for sale a month before you'll be home so you can show the stove and accept money. The stove is new old stock...and because of that, perhaps he thinks people are willing to send a little or the entire amount 1 month before anyone can pick it up. That's going a bit far if you ask me. Why wouldn't a person wait to offer it for sale when they get home? What say you?


 
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michaelanthony
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Post by michaelanthony » Thu. Feb. 22, 2018 8:02 pm

I think you're right Hoytman, 50 bucks might not seem like much but if someone steals from you it might as well be $500.00 or more. The feeling of getting ripped of leaves a bad taste and it could stop you from finding another stove or trusting someone again regardless if they are worthy or not...Ask him to send you $50.00 to hold for a month and see what he or she say's. ;)

 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Thu. Feb. 22, 2018 8:24 pm

He said he was retired and he and his wife spend the winter out of the state. He knew the roads near where the stove is to be picked up, and he knew the town in a county between us because he and his mother used to live there, and he knew the county seat of the county I live in. So, I think he's at least 95% trustworthy...that's just not enough for me.

I really don't need to spend any money until my house is sold anyway.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Thu. Feb. 22, 2018 8:38 pm

H, I'd pass on it. Like you said, it might even be to small for your needs. Just sounds dumb to me & trust me, I know dumb!!! LOL

 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Thu. Feb. 22, 2018 8:51 pm

Getting the chance to buy this stove isn't about me getting my first coal stove. It's about an opportunity to get an unburned unit and preserve that history for my son. What he does with it when I'm gone is up to him. I'm nearing half century and my son is 11...he's into old things and history. We could always buy another similar stove to rebuild and have this one to cast parts from, be they cast iron or fire bricks, and have a near perfect stove to copy.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Thu. Feb. 22, 2018 9:24 pm

Then if $$$ is not a concern, have at it. I'm hoping it's some kind of a base burner--that's old things & would be worth the boys time.

 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Fri. Feb. 23, 2018 1:21 pm

Nope...wasn't a base heater.

If someone here is willing to give him money in advance...I'm willing to help folks on this forum out because I may need their help someday...and I'd hope I could get an honest reply.

WM 414...unburned...with paper work...Toledo, Ohio, craigslist.

I spoke with him by phone a 2nd time last night and told him I am still interested, but that I would not ask him to hold the stove for me because I didn't want to send money at this time and then wait a month to get the stove. Sorry...but that's a good gig for someone to make money off of fools. He said he wouldn't hold it but he'd call me, if no one put money down, when he got home. I said that would be fine and I was still interested. Again, I think he was trustworthy...I'm just not going down that road.

If someone here wants it and will put money down first, then be my guest.


 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Fri. Feb. 23, 2018 1:25 pm

When I said the price was up there...I meant for a stove that I wasn't really looking for. I had already made up my mind that if he calls me when he got home in a month that if I had to pay the asking price, then I'd likely pay it. Of course, I'm not going to agree to any price without seeing it in person and I voiced that to him as well.

 
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Post by biggerpatterson » Fri. Feb. 23, 2018 4:06 pm

One of those was listed in the local shopper flier in the summer of 2016 ,still in the crate, for $400. I called but it was sold.

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Fri. Feb. 23, 2018 5:05 pm

So Bill, let me get this straight. You just plan on purchasing the stove as a present for your son, (hoping he'll still appreciate it when he's older) , and the price and driving distance is "reasonable" to you, and you don't plan on heating anything with it, but will take it apart, to have a twin made out of it, so you can use it for burning in your house, which is too big for that WM? I guess if that's how you roll, I hope the stove will still be there in a month. If not, I wouldn't sweat the little things. Stoves are like cars, there's always another deal (and possibly better one) to be found out there. Good luck, and keep us posted.

 
Hoytman
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Other Heating: electric, wood, oil

Post by Hoytman » Sat. Feb. 24, 2018 6:57 pm

Would it be wrong if I rolled that way? I'm not sure how to take your comments. :) I think you're assuming too much, joeq. LOL! I do have another building besides the house, and plans could include a third building in the future, or even my dad's place. So, any "twin" could be used anywhere...and so could the original should I ever decide to change my mind. :) Men do change their minds a lot. Sometimes we make plans and God says, "put your plans aside son...I had this in mind for you instead". (I'm not suggesting I hear God's voice either. LOL!)

I think it's great the some things haven't been used for years so that people in the future can look back on originals of the past and look at our history. Yes, I realize this is not a 19th century stove that's all that important. That's not even my real reasons for my comments.

Since I've never burned coal, I'd rather find a similar stove to learn with rather than buy a fine new old stock stove and ruin it by over firing it. Do I think I could burn it without ruining it? Yes. However, I'd rather not take that chance until I get my feet "black". I'm sure you're correct in saying they'll always be another deal.

The entire focus of my thread, and perhaps I didn't do a good job writing about what I felt is weird, is...

...Why post something for sale on craigslist, expecting people to pay you "any amount at all...even holding money in advance", when you know you won't be home for a month to allow the purchaser to look at, let alone, receive the item for sale? If you're going to post something for sale, then why not wait until you get home? I believe the guy is legit, but why would anyone chance it and send money to one side of the country when the item for sale is supposed to be on the opposite side of the country.

I thought about asking the guy if he'd accept a $20 money order, rather than the $50 he asked for, instead of me sending a personal check with my account info on it. That way he doesn't have to worry if the check is good and I don't have to worry about my account information being used in some malicious way. I thought it was courteous enough on my part to call him back of my intentions, tell him that I didn't expect him to hold the stove, but that if the stove was as he described and as the pictures show, then when he got home and it wasn't sold to call me when he got home and I'd be willing to pay him cash in full upon seeing the stove in person and confirming his description. After speaking via pm with another forum member I felt better about the price...since I don't look at these everyday and don't know what a fair price is, I had reservations about the price at the first conversation with the man. My 2nd phone call, telling of my intention to decline sending money in advance and the offer to pay in cash, in person, the asking price I think is pretty reasonable on my part.

It's really not a big deal if I don't get the stove...and heck...if someone here wouldn't care to send him cash in advance...I think that would be awesome...but that's not how I roll. I don't think it's wrong to expect someone to be at the location they have an item for sale at the time of posting. I just wish I could sell things and ask people for money a month in advance of delivery...making people wait a month before they can even see what they put money down on...IF he didn't sell the item to someone who didn't care to gamble and send him the entire asking price in advance. Would I then get my "holding money" back? I doubt it.

I don't mean for my paragraphs to imply I am upset. I am not "sweating it", that is for certain. I just was explaining that I think the circumstances were strange and in a way, alarming. I also wanted to give all the good folks here a heads-up of (key word) potential bad dealings. I hope people take that as me trying to help folks out here. It sure isn't my intent to bad mouth a potentially legitimate seller either.

In most cases I'd never make public my business dealings, but since I didn't care if I got this stove or not, and I had no intention of sending money in advance, I thought I'd make people on this forum aware of what this guy was wanting...not that it's wrong or right...just that it's not for me. No more, no less. Of course, everyone is a "big boy" and capable of handling their own business. Look! My mention of this is just to try and keep people from grief.

Perhaps I shouldn't have posted at all. I'm done. Where's the "beating a dead horse emoticon"? :lol:

 
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Post by warminmn » Sat. Feb. 24, 2018 8:05 pm

Theres nothing wrong with buying it and using it. Or tear it all apart and make yard out of it if you want to cuz its your money and you can do whatever you want to with it. If anyone thinks whatever you do with it is wrong they should have bought it themselves, is what I tell people :lol:

Heck I saw a 3 year old Cadillac in a demo derby once in the 1980s and Im sure everyone there would have paid the winners purse for it.... of course everyone went after it and it was destroyed early.

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Sat. Feb. 24, 2018 11:43 pm

Hoytman wrote:
Sat. Feb. 24, 2018 6:57 pm
Perhaps I shouldn't have posted at all. I'm done. Where's the "beating a dead horse emoticon"? :lol:
Here ya go Bill.Image
Kidding aside Bill, everyone has their own priorities, and because you posted your desires to the public, some of us feel compelled to give an opinion. If it doesn't coincide with yours, throw it away. Nothing ventured, and nothing gained, and no harm done. And I hear ya on the CL posting being a bit on the lame side. I myself am always leery about sending payments in the mail, depending. Did the stove owner who posted the ad make it known publicly that he was to be gone for a month, or did you have to find out in a phone call?

 
Hoytman
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Post by Hoytman » Mon. Apr. 02, 2018 4:14 pm

Guy called me on Easter as he said he would. I declined. Why? Mostly bad timing for me, again. However, I also declined. I was looking at the pictures online again today (just before I returned his call)...keep in mind it was listed as new/unfired stove...

...the photo of the loading door said, "414a" and the tag on the back of the stove said, "414b". Not that big of a deal really. It's still a nice stove for someone if they're willing to pay that much. I just felt the non-negotiable price...with the discrepancy...just became a negotiable price...at least by some.

Is it a 414? Yes. That's the easy part because of it's measurements and how much coal it will hold.

Is it still worth $400? It is no doubt well worth the asking price to a lot of folks. I just got my hopes up to find a stove to pass down to my son... an old stock/new and unfired stove, totally original as described... which it turned out not to be. The tag and door show different model numbers...and as they say on Shark Tank, ..."and for that reason, I'm out". My loss will be someone's gain, that I am sure of.

Edit: Sold to a guy in PA. Hope it's a forum member. Lol!!!

 
Hoytman
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Location: swOH near a little town where the homes are mobile and the cars aren’t
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Other Heating: electric, wood, oil

Post by Hoytman » Mon. Apr. 02, 2018 4:51 pm

I was hoping to have my house on the market by Easter. I'm 2, maybe 3 weeks behind. Because of that, just last week I had to pass on a new, still in the wooden crate, Warm Morning 400...for the same price as the 414 mentioned in this thread...$400 dollars. No one knew it at the time, but I felt like going to the woods to cry. (LOL! Kidding of course.)

One thing is for certain...

When this danged house is sold I will no longer be passing on stoves like WM 400's in new condition for that price. Now...will someone locate for me the emoticon of baseball bat hitting me over the head. LOL!!!

New flooring throughout, new interior doors throughout, countertop, water heater, re-finish older oak cabinets, new roof, new gutters and down spouts, driveway and patio, new roof on shed, gutters on shed. I need a loan just to eat. LOL!!!

No kidding. I'm just keeping my priorities straight. No stoves for me and the new house until the old house is updated and sold. That's orders from headquarters to those in the know. :)
Last edited by Hoytman on Mon. Apr. 02, 2018 4:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.


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