Rex Trulove
This isn’t a frivolous question. Do you think that ‘free’ and ‘worthless’ are the same thing? It appears that many people do.
This is something I noticed many years ago. We had a dog that had a litter of puppies. They were mixed-breed pups, but they were adorable. When they were weaned, we advertised free puppies to give away. For over a week, we didn’t have a single call and nobody stopped by to see the puppies.
Since the advertising didn’t cost anything, I changed the ad and advertised “puppies for sale, $50”. Within 2 days, all of the puppies had new homes. Since I wasn’t looking to make money off of the whole deal, I merely included $50 worth of food, treats, and puppy toys with each puppy that was purchased.
What brings this up is the fact that three years ago when I last separated the irises and daylilies at the church, I tried to give away the excess. I wasn’t able to. Nobody was interested. I’m planning on again separating the irises, but this time, I’m going to bag up the excess and put up a sign that reads “Iris tubers, 15-bag. Suggested church donation, $1.” The proceeds will be used to help offset the cost of maintaining the flower beds.
I suspect that I’ll have a less difficult time of giving away the excess without throwing as many away. What do you think?
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When you see that something is offered for free, do you automatically think that it must be worthless?
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Yes
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No
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I’m usually suspicious of a free deal
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sometimes is see ‘free’ as the same as ‘worthless’
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when things are free we have to consider instead the value to us1
I think you hit it on the head. It all comes down to personal value. As the adage says, “One man’s garbage, another man’s treasure.” There are things that people buy and spend large sums of money on that wouldn’t have any value at all to me, so although they spent a lot of money on those items, to me they’d be worthless.
That is the essence of what makes each of us unique!
Great Idea Indeed, thanks rex
I hope it works. I’d rather not throw away a bunch of perfectly good tubers this time.
When it is too good to be true then more likely it is not true.
That tends to be the sentiment for most people.
That is too bad. I would take the irises.
🙂 As near as I can figure it, last time this was done, I ended up throwing away about 50 pounds of Iris tubers, even after planting quite a few at home.
I go and look at the product and make up my own mind. I don’t think free is worthless, sometimes a company gives something away as a trial to see if people like it.
That is certainly true. I’m not sure how many people actually think about it, but a “two for the price of one” sale also means that one of whatever it is has a free pricetag.
I don’t think something that is free is worthless, especially when it comes to dogs! We are going to try and give away a piano and a heavy desk for free…I wonder if we should charge $50 each to get rid of them faster? lol
It would be an idea. If people actually contact you, you could always say something like, “Since you seem like an honest person, I’ll tell you what. You can have these for free.” That way, they’ll feel like they really got a bargain. 🙂
Good idea, Rex. We may just do that.