I had my heart set on a front-load washing machine and had been scouring the Craigslist ads for over a month. I'm pretty picky and so I wanted a Samsung or LG late model. I came across this listing with no pictures or further description:
WTT Front load washer for evaporative cooler.
I had no idea what this would turn into, but I had an evaporative cooler that I liked very much and paid around $150 for that I was willing to trade.
It turns out she had the exact model of Samsung washer I wanted. Retail price ~$1000 and was willing to trade. I offered extra cash, but she declined. She was due with a new baby in a couple of weeks and just wanted the extra set of washer and dryer out of her house. She threw in the electric dryer because it wasn't working. I have gas appliances, but I was happy to take the electric dryer anyway. The strange thing about this is she knew exactly what was wrong with the dryer, the heating coil, but wasn't interested in getting it fixed herself.
The front load washer worked perfectly and I sold my 8 yo GE top loader for $140. I found the part I needed for the electric dryer on Amazon for $27. I watched a few videos on YouTube to learn how to install it. I basically needed to unscrew about 12 philips head screws, plug the new part in and put all the screws back. It took me a couple of hours because some of the screws were hard to reach.
I didn't have much luck selling the electric dryer since nearly everyone here has gas. However, I did get an offer to trade for a gas appliance in the same line from Samsung. I took the trade and installed the new gas dryer. Just this week I sold my old GE for $100.
Most of this happened at the beginning of the summer. I had planned on replacing my swamp cooler with the money gained from selling my old appliances but I didn't want to do it when prices were still high. I've been waiting for the prices to drop on evaporative coolers. Yesterday I found the exact same cooler in USED-Like New condition from Amazon Warehouse Deals for $52 and I placed my order. I've come full circle. Let's tally the results.
Started with: 8yo GE base model washer and dryer and a 1 year old swamp cooler.
I now have 2yo Samsung front load washer and gas dryer set and the same swamp cooler, but newer.
I gained $240 from the sale of my GE washer and dryer. I spent $27 on parts and $52 on replacing my swamp cooler. Net gain in cash of $161. However, I probably spent an extra $30-50 on cooling this summer due to not having my swamp cooler during the hottest months.
This is the deal I'm the proudest of. Of course deals like this don't come along every day, but if you keep your eyes open you can find them. I laugh when I think that I could have gotten a "deal" on these during the memorial day sale and only spent $1600 instead of the usual $2000.
