The Chair that Brought Me Down

Okay, it has happened. I am officially a ruthless capitalist. That's all there is to it.

So, several years ago... I guess five years ago now, Ben and I were out on a walk in the neighborhood in Atlanta that we lived in (these were the newlywed days... so we didn't have much of anything in terms of possessions), and noticed a little yard sale had sprung up. I'm never one to pass up a bargain, so I looked around, and spotted one of those kneeling office chairs. I remember there was some story about where all this stuff had come from-- I think someone had died, and a family member finally had rooted through their apartment and decided to sell all of their stuff on the cheap out on the street. So anyway, we got this chair super cheap. It was maybe $20 max, but probably more like $10. And it worked fine. We liked it and used it for several years, but ultimately Ben decided that since he's doing a lot of work from home these days, he wanted a sturdier chair for this back, found some great deal on slickdeals.com, and so we had no use for this chair anymore.

Due to some combination of my nesting instinct and the reality of having just finished our basement (don't worry... before/after pictures coming tomorrow), I have been going through all of the stuff that we have accumulated in the unfinished portion of our basement-- and there is, amazingly, a lot of it. I've been finding boxes of baby clothes, washing them, finding little bouncy seats, pulling out boxes and boxes of books now that we actually have a space to store them. It's been a big project, and in the process, I have found lots and lots of stuff that I didn't even know existed. Part of this, I'm sure, is due to the fact that my mom was responsible for bringing over the last bit of stuff we had stored at her house, and I'm realizing that she threw lots of extra things in. Like the "ParaSpa Select Heat Therapy Paraffin Bath"? Yeah, totally not mine.

So, contrary to my typical MO of making little to no money, I decided to be industrious and actually sell some of our junk on craigslist. First I posted the old junky fridge that was here when we moved in, full of rotten food, but currently airing out on our back patio. I posted it under "free stuff," and actually got like 6 takers or something (and I had even already scheduled a special trash pickup for it!). This was easy! So I posted a bunch of other stuff, ranging from a base kitchen cabinet to a chili serving set to a rice steamer to this office kneeling chair-- all of these items for money. I did a bit of research on how much other people were selling similar items for (unfortunately, no other paraffin baths on craigslist...), and how much they cost new and just picked a price. So here's the thing. I posted the kneeling chair for $50, and actually just sold it to some sweet librarian that seemed thrilled to be taking it off my hands. I made more than 100% profit from something that I didn't even want anymore.

Am I a horrible person? Once you're a filthy capitalist is there any going back? I am wracked by guilt, but also enjoying the feeling of having some cash padding my wallet. Oh my. I guess this is how it starts.