Dress for sale.....please, don't make it weird

If you have been following my journey you know I have been selling off most of my stuff, ready for the big move to Barbados. Most people have been really lovely to deal with, but some conversations are odd, to say the least. I have a dress to sell and have had it on Facebook marketplace, the following conversation is one of the strangest I have had in a while. This post is in no way meant to poke fun at the person, or how they live their life, I just found it weird because of the requests. Some people might think I found it weird because it was a guy who wanted to buy it, but this is not the reason. Just keep reading.

To protect the innocent, I have removed the name of the person involved, but what follows is a transcript of the conversation as it happened (I have fixed some spelling and grammar for my own sanity).

The potential buyer of the dress is shown to the left of the screen in italics, with my replies to the right side of the screen, also in italics. The name of the person is given to you when you advertise an item on Facebook Marketplace, so I could see it was a man that was enquiring. The conversation goes as follows:

Him- Is this still available?

-I'm looking for a bridal dress for myself

Me- Hi, yes, it is still available. When did you want to collect it?

(I am completely non-judgemental and don't mind if the dress goes to a man, woman, non-binary, or someone who is black, white, purple or green. I just want someone to get some use out of the dress that I no longer need. I could see from the photo that this person was male and rather slim in build, so I was a bit worried the dress would be too big as it is a UK size 16)

Him- Wondering if will fit me?

- Could I try the dress on?

Me- Yes sure we have a spare room you can try it on in

(I didn't want to discourage them, and thought if they try it on they will see if the dress is too big, or if they would need to get it adjusted etc. You never know how old the photo on the profile is and how people might have changed)

Him- Can anyone help me with getting the dress on?

(The dress is a pretty standard A-line dress with a hidden zip up the back so it doesn't need much help or lacing into. So I gave a simple reply)

Me- Yes we could help to do it up

(So far, so "normal"

.

.

.

then.....)

Him - If I bring a blindfold with me could someone put the blindfold

on me before I put the dress on?

(Errrrr, okay not something I was expecting to be asked, but again I am not judgemental of how anyone wants to do things, so I was happy to help... if a bit confused)

Me - Do you not want to see it on?

Him- Not until I'm in the dress

Me- Yeah sure we can help with that

Him- Who will blindfold me?

(Ummmmmm....? Getting weird....)

Me- I can help. I’ve helped lots of brides in the past

(I used to work in events and helped run hundreds of weddings so I have helped lots of brides with all sorts of requests, and helped quite a few with getting dresses fastened or with final adjustments........although non of them ever asked me to blindfold them)

Him- What spare room will it be

Me- It’s the second bedroom that we don’t use

Him- Ok, does it have a lock?

(It seemed rather specific asking which room we would be using, and I thought maybe they were worried about being walked in on, but then I remembered they wanted my help and wanted to be blindfolded)

Me- No, my rooms don’t have locks

Him- 👍

- I'll have to come to try the dress on after the weekend as I am busy

Me- That’s fine I work from home, so around most of the time.

Just need to avoid when I’m teaching, so I can be free to help you

Him-👍

-Just make sure you do the blindfold tight on me

(OK, getting weird again, but I try to breeze past that and just continue the conversation)

Me- Just let me know what day you want to do and

we can finalise the details

(I did think 'you could just close your eyes' rather than worrying about the blindfold, but maybe he just didn't trust themself to keep them shut. The next day the conversation started again)

Him- Is it a satin or taffeta dress?

-How long can I keep the dress on?

Me- I think it is satin. I think you will know

as soon as you put it on if it's for you

(I am a big believer in knowing when something is just right. Anyone who has tried on a dress or bought a house knows when it is the one for them. I was also kind of imagining someone I didn't know lounging around my house in a dress I never got to wear, and certainly didn't really want to encourage hours of this)

2 days later

Him- You'll still do the blindfold for me?

-When you take the blindfold off me have you

got a mirror, so I can see myself in the dress?

Me- Yes, we have mirrors on the wardrobe

Him-👍

-So I can see myself when the blindfold comes off

-Don't put me in the wardrobe lol

At this point, I felt that they were getting more from the messages than actually wanting the dress, since there was still no sign of actually setting a day or time to come and look at it in person, and it was nearly a week of messages to and fro. I have stuff of my own to be doing, including lots still to sell, so called it a day on that conversation. Maybe I just don't know what they have gone through in their life to have to check that I won't put them in a cupboard or lock them in a room, but they certainly made trying to sell my dress weird.

So, my dress is still for sale, if anyone out there wants it.....

..... just don't make it weird. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1245652079609631/