What's the craziest thing you've seen offered for free in your Buy Nothing group?

[Anonymous]

Or any other similar freebie group. And did people actually want whatever the item was?

This morning someone posted a bag of Dave's Killer Bagels bagel tops up for grabs. Not a bag of bagels, just the tops of every bagel. Why? Because the person finds the tops of bagels to be too thick so she only eats the thinner bottoms. And people went loco over these! "I CAN BE THERE IN 10 MINS!" "I live 2 streets away & can send my kid on his bike now" "Would love these but I'm working. Can you hold? I'm too poor to afford this brand."

I thought I'd seen it all. Before the bagel tops, the craziest things I had seen was two half eaten Costco-sized sheet cakes from a grad party being offered up.

[Anonymous]

Nothing really surprises me anymore.

[Anonymous]

That doesn't surprise me at all. Dave's Killer products are expensive, and we've had a lot of cakes in our group lately. We've had a lot of food in general, including things like half of a leftover homemade lasagna/casserole/whatever. That doesn't appeal to me, but isn't that crazy.

I've been in Buy Nothing for 7 years and have seen a lot of weird stuff, but not sure what the craziest is, maybe used thongs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That doesn't surprise me at all. Dave's Killer products are expensive, and we've had a lot of cakes in our group lately. We've had a lot of food in general, including things like half of a leftover homemade lasagna/casserole/whatever. That doesn't appeal to me, but isn't that crazy.

I've been in Buy Nothing for 7 years and have seen a lot of weird stuff, but not sure what the craziest is, maybe used thongs?

I’m pretty sure some people will pay good money for those.

[Anonymous]

Any futon

[Anonymous]

I constantly am seeing people offer - and people claim - open, half-used food items. I don’t know who in their right mind would take this. I’m referring to a half drunk container of milk, not ‘here’s a 12 pack of single serve chip packets, we had 2 of them’.

[Anonymous]

French maid costume where someone had cut it in such a way that one’s buttocks would stick out.

[Anonymous]

I live near a state flagship university in an area with a lot of grad students. For a while I was very active on buy nothing and those grad students would take *anything*. I really appreciated that we could work together to not waste stuff but it took a while to get over my hangups and be willing to put things like a half-bottle of baby shampoo or a bag of lentils on there.

My favorite was when someone would ask for something very specific, and as someone who's lived in the same house for 15 years and had tons of relatives dump stuff on me, I could always fulfill their request. We moved from a larger house in a different state and had a lot in storage, so it was fun to slowly unload stuff. I would also put a lot of stuff up on there that could have been easily sold for a lot of money, and that made me the happiest. Gorgeous vintage mirrors, room & board couch, road bike? Take it, friends!

It brought me so much joy! I wish it had existed when I was a broke 20-something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I constantly am seeing people offer - and people claim - open, half-used food items. I don’t know who in their right mind would take this. I’m referring to a half drunk container of milk, not ‘here’s a 12 pack of single serve chip packets, we had 2 of them’.

Milk causes arguments every time. And non-dairy milk? People go crazy for a half-container of Oatly.

[Anonymous]

Have no examples but the bagel story made me LOL. And not hard to believe! Because of this this and NextDoor, I have a permanent side-eye on my neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

People will offer expired food items in mine!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People will offer expired food items in mine!!

All. the. time. Back when I was a newbie and didn't think to ask I picked up an unopened container of something (I forget what, maybe hot sauce?) that was years out of date. Um, no thanks.

[Anonymous]

Expired, open, food bank food.

Broken things.

Dirty things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:French maid costume where someone had cut it in such a way that one’s buttocks would stick out.

Once again, I think this is something that some people would pay good money for.

[Anonymous]

Mine seem pretty tame, but tons of people always offering their freezer burnt meat ick.

I've gotten some good stuff from my group though. Food vacuum seal thing, with bags, a keurig, a little (basic) smoker, my small electric lawn mower. I was using my vacuum seal thing this morning and was literally thinking about all the cool stuff I got for free haha.