I've been very active in FreeCycle for a couple of years, both on the giving and receiving ends. First of all, be sure that you're dealing with "the real thing": www.freecycle.org -- because there's a knock-off .com group that I know nothing about. I give items by leaving them on my front porch (protected from street view and up 11 steps) or behind the house (on a bench; we have no fence). I put a Post-It with the person's given name on the bag/box/object. No one has taken anything that wasn't authorized. I have met very few people face-to-face, whether as a donor or recipient. When I pick items up, I usually pick them up from someone else's steps or porch or bushes. It depends on what they've specified. They usually put my name on it. And I live in the Bay Area, very near Berkeley, where many "odd ducks" live. I haven't experienced or (to my knowledge) created any FreeCycle problems. I only give my house address to a selected recipient and I almost never give my phone number. I have been given many others' phone numbers, but tend not to call unless there's a logistical question relating to time of pick-up or something. With over 400 groups and 4 million people worldwide (as of August 2007), it must be working for a lot of us. Try it with a couple of low-value items first. Do NOT tell recipients whether you'll be home or not. Do NOT tell your neighbors that you're "FreeCycling" something. DH and I have also just wanted to give stuff way without doing the FreeCycle thing and have put them out by the sidewalk with the "FREE" sign. They've all disappeared, with no unfortunate side effects: my roses were unmolested, etc. in el cerrito

Karen, thanks for your generous offer of advice on Ebay Selling! When I get it together a bit better, I'll be contacting you for sure. I have threatened for 5 years to sell on it, but just haven't gotten set up with PayPal mainly, plus the other thing I sorta worry about is doing that first Check Out, I'd hate to screw that up! I have a score of 100 and have made purchases exactly 100 times since 2002, but have never sold yet, but at least I'm established well enough for buyers to "trust" me ... do they dare lol. The main thing that is preventing me now is that I'm not organized enough to run it properly as a small business. I really want to keep up with my profits (hopefully no losses!). My daughter is moving very soon, and all her furniture that is filling up my basement, and causing me to be unable to get to my stuff, will finally get moved. They are in the process of looking at houses now. Should be out of here soon, but in a nearby neighborhood! I can't wait to get my bathroom and bedroom back again! It's been 6 months now. Thanks again Karen ~tenderlee

Thanks for the details sushipup. I did not know they did not have a list to browse like CL does. They send out emails!?!? I don't think I would find that easy to work with as a "looker" having to sign into an email account and open dozens of emails every day hoping one of them might have something of use. I would also worry about having to open attachments for the pictures and getting a virus. When I want to get rid of something I just put it at the curb and *POOF* its gone in under an hour. That's the advantage of living in a city. I won't put bags of things out anymore as people rip open the bags and fling the clothes all around leaving them in the rain. Boxes of knicknacks get dumped out to sort through and them there is broken glass all over to clean up. That kind of stuff I take to Goodwill now. The CL free items in my area are always things that cannot be "put curbside" like free dirt, free wood if you cut the tree down, old office furniture that has to be hauled out of a downtown highrise, free bathtubs and toilets if you come in and remove them out of the house for their remodel, basically things that you have to invest labor in order to get.

Don't give up on freecycle, email the owner/moderator for your group and tell them why you were frustrated. They'll never know if you don't tell them! I agree 100% that it depends on how the group is run. (The email address for group owners is listed on the home page for each group, towards the bottom.) I belong to several freecycle groups and some of them are such a mess because the moderators don't have any control over them. I co-own/moderate the local group (2800 members) and it runs smoothly because we have rules - if we didn't it would be chaotic! We only let people post one wanted request per week and the same wanted can't be posted more than once a month. I have given and received LOADS of stuff through freecycle. I've had lots of no-shows as well, but since I usually tell people to come by and get stuff off my porch when I'm not home it's not a big deal. I just move down the list and offer it to the next person who wanted it! Sally