What perfect timing! Just yesterday I was laughing to my husband about somebody who posted asking for an "Ikea mammut blue toddler bed" on Freecycle. I mean, I can totally see asking for a toddler bed, they outgrow those quickly and somebody might be ready to make the switch. I can even see asking for a blue one, or one in "boy colors" or something, since if they have a boy they might prefer one that isn't done over with Disney Princesses. But a specific model, from a specific manufacturer, in a specific color? For crying out loud.
At our old Freecycle, before we moved, somebody asked for something, I forget what, and they were amazingly specific. Say it was a car, they wanted domestic only, not foreign, 4-door, automatic, color blue, rear spoilers, power steering and windows, LATCH in the back seats, curtain airbags, etc. The list went on and on. Well, my husband thought it was so greedy that he posted his own WANTED making fun of it, asking for... a grill, maybe? But mimicking the exact requirements this guy wanted (a domestically-produced grill with side-curtain grill heaters, something like that). He almost got himself kicked off Freecycle by the mods. Got a warning, at least. That was on a list where the stuff gets posted immediately, though, so people did read it before the mods deleted it from the website. Funny, I'll admit, but totally rude, and I did tell him to knock it off (politely).
We were in a location temporarily while my husband did military training, and their Freecycle was truly awful. 2/3rds of all posts were WANTEDs, and just like the ones you guys have listed so far: cars, baby gear, expensive electronics, fashion items, etc. People came across as really greedy. It wasn't just a few people, though, as far as I could tell by the user names. If we were going to be there long-term, I would have emailed the mods and recommended that they limit people to one WANTED a week, or a month, or do something to balance out the WANTEDs with OFFERs, like allowing one WANTED but after that they have to post 2 OFFERs to every WANTED. I know a lot of people hate that rule, but this list really needed to institute something dramatic, at least for a while, then maybe they could relax the rule later.
I post a few WANTEDs, mostly in fits and spurts. But my WANTED spurts tend to align with OFFER spurts. Like right now, since we're moving, I've posted twice asking for boxes and moving blankets. But I've also offered about three dozen items, so I feel like it balances out.
