Inevitably, if you sell stuff long enough online, you run into one or two troublesome buyers.

I sold a slipper chair for a great price, $25, to a local realtor online in a Facebook group 2 weeks ago. I think I paid about $150 for it at Home Decorators a good many years ago. I took an immediate dislike to the color and fabric when it arrived on my doorstep, but it was too much of a hassle to return it at the time, so I kept it all these years; it's never really been sat on by anyone.

When I asked the realtor if she wanted to know the dimensions or anything else, she said no, it was "perfect" and that she "absolutely wanted" the chair. I told her if she paid me, via Paypal, that I would hold it for her til she picked up. So she paid me. I told her she could pick up on my 2 weekday work-at-home days, or on the weekend, anytime. She has yet to get it together to do so and it's been 2 weeks.

First, she was sick, then she was still sick on the next day we scheduled, yada yada yada. We went back and forth each week but she was either busy or still sick. When she couldn't make it, she suggested I refund her the money and try to sell it to someone else unless i could wait a bit longer. I said I would wait a bit longer. Today I asked her again to please pick up the chair and now she's putting me off til Saturday. I tried to pin her down to a time on Saturday as I have things to do too, but she never responded.

I have no confidence she'll actually pick it up then, and I was annoyed when she conveniently disappeared when I tried to get her to agree to a specific time on Saturday. So after initially telling her Saturday was fine, I decided to just refund her the money via Paypal.

I mean, you would think that if you really wanted an item, you would make the time to get it at some point over 2 weeks. I tried to be patient, but when I sell something online, I expect that the buyer will come get the item in a reasonable amount of time, and I think 2 weeks is plenty of time to do so.

Totally annoyed to do this, and I actually don't think I was obligated to refund her money simply because she couldn't get her act together to pick up the chair. I marked the post as "Sold" when I received her payment.

HOWEVER, after she said she wanted it, I had pulled the chair out from the corner where it sat. I noticed a small mark right on the seat in a visible location. I wondered if it might be cat spit-up. It was clear, but it was a mark. So I took a paper towel dampened only by water, and rubbed it. When it dried, there was an equally noticeable mark on the fabric. I couldn't believe it and I was very upset. Not a stain, but I think the chenille-type fabric was so cheap/thin that when I rubbed it, it rubbed off some of the surface bumps on the fabric, if you know what chenille looks like.

I was feeling very apprehensive about how the woman who bought the chair might react when she saw it. She had said she "absolutely wanted" the chair and paid for it in advance, but upon seeing this mark, she might get upset and I don't have the stomach to deal with that. You can't see any kind of mark in the photo I posted on Facebook, so for that reason I felt it would be wrong of me to insist she take it.

So after refunding the payment of the realtor woman, I reached out to 2 others who had expressed interest in the chair 2 weeks ago. I guess I feel more comfortable having someone else come over to look at it and then buy the chair only after they've seen it and are presumably ok with the mark. Not sure how others might react. If neither of the 2 says they're still interested, I'm inclined to just donate this when the Make a Home people come to pick up my couch in 2 weeks. It was only $25.

In the meantime, my house is absolutely jam-packed with stuff here, due to having my mother's stuff here, and in fact that was the reason I decided to sell both this chair, which I never liked, and my old couch. It would make more room to store my mother's art and yarns until I have time to sell it.

UPDATE: Another woman who had said she was interested 2 weeks ago came by today, paid cash and took it away. Hooray.

In the meantime, the original buyer no doubt saw I had refunded her payment and then sent me a note saying her contractor cancelled some work today and could she come by in an hour to pick it up. NOT. I'm done with you.