Bizarro follow-up: eating the black bird

I received some emails asking how the unfinished deal in the last blog turned out. That just occurred this afternoon and I’ll take my crow well done, thank you.

I got up this morning and took my counterpart’s pulse. That is, I checked the counter on my online photo site. Someone had been hitting the pics of the kayak last night that I had offered to trade to him and also wandered around the site. It was most likely him, so he was still intrigued.

Noting that, I should’ve avoided making a similar mistake. I scrolled through the photos of his boat that he had emailed. Oh, jeez. That boat is so hot and an once-in-a-lifetime shot at a package that would approach five grand new. That is to say, not-in-a-lifetime for me, because I wouldn’t shell out near that much for a kayak I’d paddle part time. With the fleet I have, all boats get paddled part time. I gazed at the beautiful lines and construction and issued an audible moan. Doh! Shouldn’t be doing this. I’ll go off to the gym and burn off the boat lust, awaiting his succumbing to his own ardor.

I sped through the workout with visions of his kayak dancing in my head, quite sure his capitulation would await me in the email inbox before the morning was out. I quickly showered and checked my Droid. Yes! There it was. Good thing I stretched because it made it easier to pat myself on the back.

His email began with a repeat of the great sum he had paid for the boat and its accessories. Back to that again. Then he went into how his boat was universally acknowledged as the epitome of kayak design and was constructed of the most high tech materials, while mine was basically pedestrian. Whatever.

This wasn’t sounding good. More like he was dug in, which turned out to be the case. Except he was offering to meet me halfway location-wise to make the swap, which was something. He ended by saying that this was his final offer. Really. Really final. Absolutely final. Okay, I get it. He’s a little irked that I had baited him from his last final offer and he’s not going to lose another point regardless of what it costs him.

But, it was a little incongruent with what I had been reading. In this email, he had inadvertently revealed some personal data. That would enable me to do a web search and gain more perspective.

This yielded results including photo albums of his fleet, which was very impressive. Forget the plea of desperation. He was already sitting on a cache of expensive kayaks so it would be no big deal to him to wait out the winter. The money wasn’t all that important. And, as a footnote, his meandering around my web site probably told him much the same about me, leading to his hardened position.

Do I dig in my heels, which would probably scotch the deal with someone so intent upon winning? Do I walk away, playing for the draw? Or, do I give him the victory and drive away with the dreamboat?

Life’s too short, which was reinforced this week with the death of another high school classmate. Keep your eye on the prime objective, which is to get the boat, not win the game.

I took the deal.