Central NY
February 2020
Life in NY has been COLD. Its hard to do much of anything when the temperature is 9 degree's somedays, and it seems the older I get the colder winters feel. Most of this season has been spent hibernating surfing the living room couch. I caught up on several of those series I had promised myself I would watch in binge fashion. Scrolled Face book and other media sites until my fingers cramped up, and spent far to many hours in what I will term WISHTIME. In wishtime, I project into the future what I will be doing when.....(fill in the blank) In my most recent wishtime adventure I was thinking what great fun it would be to have my very own small, cute little travel trailer that I could take for my very own trips.
I started searching RPODs, Teardrops, vintage and even van conversions. I had made up my mind, new was not an option, and neither was taking on a second loan for another rv. I had to find one cheep enough to purchase outright and maybe fix it up. Even used wasn't cheep, and there were very few that fit my desired size even available. Craig's list, ebay, marketplace, I even search specialty sites and vintage restoration. To pricy or in need of total renovation seemed to be my two choices....until I caught sight of this simply adorable 2003 SCAMP..
This thing was ADORABLE and priced RIGHT!!!! Mint condition, clean, perfect towing weight, bathroom, kitchen, enough sleep room for 4 girlfriends. Only work it would need is some fun decorating.....the price was $2,000-.
I didn't think twice about emailing the seller. I was convinced it would be a complete dead end. Someone out there had surely taken this charmer already. New SCAMPS go upward of $15,000 and well kept used start around $7,000.
I received a return email within 20 minutes. Still expecting a Sorry SOLD message, I was shocked when the email sent, provided me with a whole ton of information......BUT not about the Scamp.
(I wish I still had it I'd post)
The sender and seller Margaret, or Beverly.. informed me that her husband had recently passed away and she needed to sell it to afford her daughters college education. She also noted that she was forced to move in with her family as they are the only people she has to support her.
I thought it was a bit odd as there was not much information on the Scamp itself, but I had my heart set on getting her (yes I had deemed her a she) and thought, well maybe this women is really in a bind and needs to sell quickly. I returned the email wondering where the trailer was and what I needed to do to pick it up. (I had been on a local marketplace site originally and had already decided I was not driving to terribly far for pick up). Smart enough to be a little suspicious I put my interaction out into a RV facebook community for some feedback and waited for my new friend Beverly or Margaret to respond.
My next email sounded very scripted but there were full beautiful pictures......I barely read the email and went straight to the pictures deciding what kind of curtains I would be making and that I will certainly need to change the "fish hook" wallpaper out of the bathroom. I was getting excited.....she would need a name, what would I call her.
YES!!!! I was gone, any red flags (as previously been) were gone...I had her in my drive by Sunday afternoon and ready for her 1st voyage by early spring. I read the email with mini road trip visions in my eyes. This is what I read.
She will be shipped....it is all set...working with ebay to ensure safe secure transaction...she is yours for 5 days and return at sellers (Beverly or Margaret's) expense if she is not everything I had been dreaming.....send no money now. Just send shipping address.
No time for thinking...address entered and send hit.....I really would be seeing my new to me little trailer by the end of the weekend.
I was soon running around my office showing pictures like I was showing my newborn baby...LOOK...Look...Look what I'm getting. I was simply gitty with joy and the excitement was almost to much to contain. Even my friends were a little unsure.
I drove home from work preparing for where I would wrangle up the funds, as I most certainly was gonna LOVE her and keep her forever...
I picked up my son from school and told him I was getting a trailer....it would be here some time over the weekend.
He gave me the; you are CRAZY old lady eye and asked just how are they shipping it to you? We both pondered over this a little bit and I even joked that it was covered in bubblewrap and UPS would take it off the back of their brown truck.... I really did wonder just how they were gonna ship this to me. BUT STILL not aware of the RED FLAGS
Once I was home I checked my email....had ebay contacted me? Was I about to be the new owner of an adorable little scamp? Yes....yes there it was. A very official looking email from ebay.
Everything about that email seemed legit. Ebay logo, same colors, very formal, even had a guaranteed safe transaction section. I was pretty much convinced.....despite all those red flags, this was real....I was really gonna have this beauty, my wishtime was no longer on wish time....it was on REAL TIME and that real time was on its way, all I had to do was.....read the tiny print...……..
……………...purchase 10 $200 dollar ebay cards from my local drugstore, scratch off the id number on the back and send pictures to the email address within the email...…..
I WAS CRUSHED....
Needless to say, I was almost scamed by just how darn cute that SCAMP was.....Heed the warning. If something appears to good to be true, it USUALLY is. TTFN
