Over the past weekend, I put my PSP up for sale on craigslist. The idea was to get rid of it, as even with ADD medications and lifestyle changes, they still set me back. So I'm getting it out of my life so I can focus on more important things. Like finishing school and starting a career.

For starters, it's a PSP-2000 model, and I'm selling it with the case, Memory Stick, and four games. The games are GRAW2, Burnout Legends, Midnight Club LA Remix, and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X. All of them got at least decent marks. The whole deal totals out at just shy of $300, but I'm scaling back to $260 so it'll sell quicker. Again, the idea is to get rid of the thing, not make money off it.

I also live in Midlothian, TX, which is one of the smaller country-as-it-gets towns just south of the DFW metroplex.

The other day, I get an email asking if the PSP was still available. Stupid question, I think as I type out my reply. I knew ahead of time to expect bullshit questions, so I politely gave a "yes" answer.

Today, I got a response from him. I'm removing the name and email address, but this is what he wrote:

Thanks for the response,Actually Am on a business trip in Netherlands
i will not be back in the next 12days...I'm buying the item for my friend
son as a gift in oversea and i need this item as matter as
urgently. i will be offer you $270 USD for the item and $90 USD for
shipping cost... item is to be shipped directly from you to my cousin
address at abroad via**USPS 5-8 Day service**.So kindly get back to
me with your paypal email address and if you don't have paypal
account just logging on to www.paypal.com to create a
paypal account and get back to me with it to proceed with the
transaction

1) His grammar usage is all but screaming "second language." The only way I can see him being on any business trip to the Netherlands is if he was from a country like France. I rather doubt that's the case here; the vibrations I'm getting are telling me something's literally rotten in Denmark.

2) He's offering the buy it from me to give to some random "friend" and his kid in some country he can't be bothered to name. If this "friend" wants my stuff so bad, why am I not doing business with him? Why am I going through his supposedly-better-to-do friend who no speakee good Engliz?

3) He not only wants to pay me through PayPal, but he wants my PayPal information to do it. Such that he's even supplied a link to the PayPal site in his email, with instructions to set up an account. As if I can't just type the URL in my browser's address bar myself. On top of that, what makes this fool think I'm giving him any information on any Internet-based payment service tied directly to my bank account?

4) He's offering ten bucks more than my asking price, plus $90 more to cover international shipping through USPS. What's wrong with this picture? [link] <- Nice big paragraph right under the heading outlining the hoops you have to jump through to export to the Netherlands. All of which probably totals well over $90 after getting past all the international trade legalities for both the U.S. and the Netherlands.


So here's the picture my mind's painting: this guy's thinking I'm going to give him my PSP and my PayPal account info without a second thought. Because everyone in small towns in Texas are stupid like that, right? And if he steals my money and pirates my games, he can drag me into the frying pan with him for selling the games to him in the first place if he ever gets caught. RIGHT?

I didn't want to call him out right away, so in my reply, I dropped a more subtle hint:

(Mr. Buyer),
As much as I appreciate what you're doing for your friend, I must decline. My PSP uses NTSC format, which to my knowledge is only used as a video game format in North America. Pretty much every other country (including European countries such as the Netherlands) use PAL format. Every game your friend or his son buys for the system will not work, because the two formats are incompatible with each other. In order to get games that work on it, they would have to import everything from the U.S.

If his son wants a PSP that much, it would be more worth his while to get one off the shelf of the local store where he lives.

Mr. Netherlands, the "dumbass Texas redneck" you're bartering with just showed you he's more intelligent than you originally thought he was. It is now your turn to do the same. Helpful hint: the smart option is punching out.