The ad looked interesting. The lightly used 8 HP snowblower was $100 and only a couple miles from home. My thirty year old Simplicity is tired and the eighteen year old Yard King could use a backup. As listed, the owner was moving to a climate that did not have snow. June seems like a good time to buy used snowblowers.
As I emptied out the pickup to make room for this 'maybe' but 'good deal' purchase I thought it was a bit warm but it was only ninety-six. Throwing the metal ramps into the box was a commitment that it would be coming home with me.
Trading texts with the seller I arrived cautious but enthused. It was an electric start so I brought a thirty foot extension cord, not willing to take 'It ran the last time I used it' answer to "How does it run?" As it turns out it was more or lest identical to our existing Yard King. The seller knew nothing about the machine and said it was her father's and that he was old (older than me?) and then added that he'd not used it in five years.
After finding an outlet in the garage and verifying gas in the tank...or it used to be gas, the starting process failed to get it running. There was compression and a cough or two but no opportunity to test all six gears, etc. My guess was that a new $25 carb would get it running. OK, $125 is still a pretty good deal. The plan was to get it running and drive it up the ramp into the pickup. Plan B was incomplete: how would I get a 300 pound non-running snowblower up six feet of ramp at forty-five degrees. Perhaps the seller could help push. Given her 4' 8' height and seventy pounds this did not seem likely.
So, I said "No thanks" and drove away. As I drove home I thought "Renting a trailer would be $40 and would take 2-3 hours of messing around. The carb would be $25 and at least an hour of time. If my time is worth McDonald's wages of about $20 an hour, I'm at $100 for the blower, $25 for the carb, $40 for the trailer and four hours at $25....that's $245 and no guarantee that it will run."
At home the names of two other people were added to the conversation. One had a trailer and the other might want to put the new carb in. That would the cost up at least another $100; each of those people like to chew the fat. By that time it was one hundred and two degrees.
It it had not been for Facebook Marketplace and the hundred plus degree day, better decisions would have been made and something, actually anything, might have been accomplished.
But the weather will be cooler TUE and WED and I really don't need a third snowblower; I'm already thinking more clearly. That, Mr. Zuckerberg, is what's on my mind.
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