Thursday, June 26, 2008

Is there such a thing as too nice?

The past month has been insanely busy, with traveling for weddings, working, and getting everything in order for moving. Unfortunately, blogging has been low on the priority list.

Part of the past month's craziness included trying to sell my car. We had planned on consolidating down to one car once school started in the fall, so by selling it before we moved, we would take one less thing with us. This was the first time I've ever tried to sell anything so big, so I decided to test the uncharted waters of Craigslist. I'd heard that it works pretty well, but I was skeptical. To my amazement, within a day of my initial posting, I already had about 5 inquiries, and within a week, I had 10-15 inquiries. This was the beginning of the trouble for me. When I went to meet the various prospective buyers, I immediately took a liking to some of them and the opposite to others. When the people that I liked made an offer, my miserable bargaining skills and my overnice personality wanted to give them their wish. Thankfully my wife continually encouraged me not to take the first offer. What really surprised me was how much I had a hard time calling people back when I finally sold the car. I had only met and talked to these people for no more than a half hour, yet it felt like I was delivering devastating news.

All I can say is that I did not in any way enjoy the process of selling my car, although my exchange with the final buyer was very easy and pleasant. My tendnency to be nice and accommodating to people made the process much more difficult. So, if there is such a thing as being too nice, I would probably fit the description. But then I have to wonder if that's really a bad thing...