We joined our local Freecyle, later Freegle group about 5 years ago. We are mainly givers rather than takers and to begin with everything we advertised were taken by people who clearly wanted our goods for their own use.
But over the last couple of years we have found that more and more our offerings are clearly being asked for by people who intend to trade them and make money. DH offered a violin that he had since childhood and found it as one of the lots for sale at our local village hall auction. The person who took it, said it was for a child who wanted to learn the violin at school, but didn't have an instrument.
This weekend I offered an electric fan heater. Within minutes someone had responded, I waited a day and contacted them. They wanted me to leave the heater on the doorstep in a bag, even though I said I would be in. Instead I went into the front garden to rake the leaves around the time he was due to turn up. I feel, if you are getting something for free you should interact with the donor and say thank you. Needless to say the person concerned either saw me and drove on or didn't bother to collect at all.
I offered it then to somebody else who had expressed an interest, they to said 'yes, please'. I sent them collection details and I haven't heard from them since.
This type of behaviour seems to be the norm for Freecycle/Freegle now. I have decided not to use it anymore for anything that could possibly be sold or traded, even if it means putting it in the recycling bins at the tip.
