It wasn’t as easy as that, however. Hundreds of people expressed interest by email, but the first ten or so who said they’d come over never arrived. The eleventh came and took the printer off of my hands some two weeks after I first posted to the list. Once the printer was gone I immediately removed the post, but continued to receive email responses for several days, to the tune of over three hundred “sorry, the printer is gone, thanks for your interest” sent.

Now that I find myself with ten or so little techy items to give away (an internal IDE Zip100 drive with software, or a 2-port USB2 PCI card, for example) that aren’t really worth selling but that someone might want, I am loath to begin the process of email flood, people not showing up, waiting around, turning late folks away, long drawn out hassle of it all.

In discussing the laser printer experience with friends, one suggested that I should make it a race. “The first one to the corner of Robertson and Wilshire who brings me a hamburger gets a free laser printer! I’ll be there for an hour, or until the printer is gone.” This would have the advantages of:

1. Remaining local
2. Requiring no email or phone contact
3. Ensuring that parties are motivated
4. Having a time limit, and
5. A hamburger.

But that would probably only work for high-interest items such as the aforementioned printer. An unregistered copy of Norton SystemWorks 2002 with manual is not likely to garner the level of interest required to get me a hamburger in an hour. So I am casting about for ideas. How do I give small tech things away to people who really want them and:

• Keep it local
• Do it quickly
• Avoid the hassle of a flood of email or phone calls
• Avoid having to tell a lot of latecomers “no”

Any ideas?