Maybe you should call him back, say that your (out of town) mom is .... (whatever) and you need to be out of town until... (your DH comes back). Tell him your DH may be home but he does NOT want to deal with this.

This is off the top of my head... if you are really afraid.

I'd see if a neighbor could help bring the furniture inside. If your "buyer" is an honest person and doesn't come over to steal it, someone else could drive by and take it.
andee, I've sold items on a pick up basis and I've never had anyone come to the house while I'm alone. My DH or son or even a neighbor came over so I wouldn't be alone.

Not to worry you more than you are now, it's quite likely he'll bring a friend to help load up the furniture. One person is a concern to me, 2 strangers really makes me nervous.

I agree, that making 2 trips sounds strange considering he's not around the neighborhood.

Do you have his name, address and phone number? Can you do a Switchboard search to see if the info all matches? How about PeopleFinders? I have an account and can look people up by name and state and really get just about any info on them except for their blood type. Email me if you'd like me to do a search for him.

Just be careful. Nowadays it's hard to know who you're dealing with.

Why not ask him to come next weekend when your DH is home?

This kind of thing happens all the time. The sale may go through, it may not.

You seem concerned about your safety, but there is nothing that has occurred that would set up red flares. He doesn't know who is at home and who isn't. He works in DC and lives in Maryland - so do thousands of other people. Or he lives in DC or VA and never changed his cell phone number. No matter.

The worst that can happen is that your furniture gets stolen from the carport or gets moist from the storms and he decides not to buy it. But you are no less safe because this guy has your address.

Thanks everybody. I keep thinking the furniture will be stolen now that I've given the address. Realistically, though, it's big and heavy and no way to get it into the house and maybe that will be a deterrent to it being stolen. We've had it under cover for a month now and swore not to bring it in again. I try to be smart about being alone as much as I am, and so was not so very nervous about that, but thanks Mona for the heads-up on two people. I had already decided no after-dark pick-ups.

DH just now called and doesn't seem too concerned, so that helped. And about the reminder that people don't know who is at home or not: one tip I can pass on is that I used a masculine form of my name in the emails so the buyer thinks he is dealing with a guy.

I'll try to relax a bit. Maybe I'll do some of the detective work Mona mentioned.

You really can't tell much about a person's location based on telephone numbers anymore, because you can keep the number when you move within the same general area or if you switch service providers. DH's cell phone says the call is from a town that is 25 miles east of our city. He has never lived anywhere near than town.

"Small alarm bell: he works in D.C. (he says) I live in Northern VA suburbs (huge) and his cell phone has a Maryland area code."

I wouldn't freak about that. DH's cell doesn't match our area code either, plus we have bought from CL hours away.

If you are worried, do what I do. Call mom. I ~know~ it is rude, but if I am nervous about a situation like that I will have her ON the phone, actively talking to her.

Yes Mom, the guy is here fixing it now. Oh? You need yours done too? Well this guy's name is... Bob. You know what? He kind of looks like Walter! I'll let you know if he does a good job and give you his number.

In a hairy situation, we will keep talking until whoever is gone.

Also, I know I always say the same thing on these type of threads, but I am a firm believer in women carrying mace. And really carry it, not in your purse where it will take 30 seconds to dig it out.

I've done the 'call mom' thing before. When someone comes to the door, I have a phone in my hand and act as if I'm in a conversation. That way if I have an out! It's great if solicitors come to your house.

Could you call a neighbor to be there when the pick up time occurs? (assuming this post isn't too late).

What a great recommendation to have the phone handy and making and receiving calls. This will work better than the neighbors. The furniture is still there this morning ;-) and hopefully it will all work out for the Wed. appointment.

It all seemed so choreographed: His truck wouldn't start; I waited until the last minute to send my address and left work; within the hour he emails "something urgent" has come up.

I just wonder if there is some game that I don't know about. Anyway, I renewed the Craigslist post last night just in case (and immediately received one of those "is it still available" messages -- that game I understand).

Thanks so much to all of you for helping.

Everything went exactly right tonight for the furniture pickup. I was even outside on the cell phone with DH when the guy came. He fit everything into a huge SUV (Maryland tags) and left me with a fistful of dollars.

I'm so happy all went well for you.

Good. It's always good to be prepared but we should never borrow trouble. LOL!

Fist full of dollars? Woo!

Yea for you...glad all went well! But for one who is not on CL much, what's the :is it still available game? thanks

Oh good! I have been thinking about you and wondering how it went. I'm glad the phone recommendation was something that helped you feel more secure.

Also, when in doubt carry your car keys in your hand. You can hit the panic button to call attention if anything goes wrong.

Leahcate: I noticed that every time I renewed my listing for this furniture that I would get one or two e-mails asking "is this still available?". Sometimes there were even misspellings(!). I dutifully and desperately answered each.

Then I noticed another CL poster who said in the ad: "if this post is still active, the whatever is still available, so don't ask, I won't answer". And then I heard something about e-mail address harvesting -- by answering the inquiry, the recipient has your e-mail address.

I don't know what happens then because my yahoo account has a great spam filter and I don't get any junk mail through it. Maybe someone else knows.

I always ask if the piece is still available because many people don't bother to take down the post when it sells, or that they might be holding it for another buyer or whatever. I've got way too much to do without getting people's random email addresses.