My front yard looks so different now that the pickup trucks and trailer are gone. It looks… clean.

I had to get my bike towed to the mechanic yesterday. Again. It wouldn’t start; it just made a clicking sound when I pressed the starter. I bought the battery back in November or December of last year, and I’ve kept a trickle-charger connected the entire time, except for the week when we had that nasty ice storm… which means it was November. But that’s a whole other post.

The guy who came out to pick up my bike asked if I wanted to sell the ford ranger and the trailer. How much? One hundred dollars. That’s not very much, but I haven’t used the trailer in a few years and the ranger has been sitting there for almost 7 years. I could probably get more if I put an ad in the paper. But a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. Then he offers to tow me to the mechanic for free. Hmmm… that’s a $120 offer. Not much more but I’m getting rid of a couple of eye-sores and a free tow. I agree.

Then he asks about the chevy. I tell him that I don’t have a clean title, that he’s going to have to apply for a bonded title. He asks if it’s stolen, to which I reply “no” and tell him how I came about it. I tell him that it runs, but has problems. He asks that I write down how I came about it, and offers to trade a tow back from the mechanic in exchange for the truck. I agree.

A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. That saying is applicable here, but I’m not sure how. I could have sold the ranger for $500, the trailer for $100 and the chevy for at least $1000. That’s the price. But those items were no longer valuable to me.

A part of me feels like I got the short end of the stick, but the other part feels like it was a fair deal.

Upon further reflection, the part of me that feels like I got the short end of the stick is the money-grubbing cynic in me. What did I get in this deal? I got a free tow to and from the mechanic. I got rid of a pickup truck that hadn’t moved in around 7 years and a trailer needing minor electrical work that I haven’t used in a few years. I got rid of the chevy pickup. It was going to cost another $400 just to get the title on that truck and I was considering abandoning it on the side of the highway one night.

I got a good deal. So why should I be hating that the other party also got a good deal?

It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Sometimes both parties can win.