This time last year I was telling my daughters and son-in-law that I wanted a fireplace for Christmas. Nothing fancy, one of those fireplaces that you just push against the wall-could even been electric.

Well my daughter came across a floor model stereo system that looked like a fireplace. One of consoles made back in the 70’s. It played albums and 8 tracks. This thing was huge, bulky and although maybe an antique, not pretty. She brought it to my house and set it up in my bedroom, before I had really seen it good enough to make a decision. I mean she had shown me a small pix of the thing via text, but from the photo it looked to me as if it had potential. But seeing it there, against my wall, I had definitely changed my mind. I wanted it out, and fast.

So I googled similar consoles, to check out it’s value. Come to find out, there were similar stereos selling from$300 to $900. I was surprised anyone would be willing to buy the thing, but I guess you never know.

Anyways, I put it on Craig’s list as a B.O item. The next day an older woman called me and said she has an old fireplace in her home (that apparently looked like a whole in the wall) and she was just looking for a front panel for her fireplace. Something that would make it look more attractive. After seeing the photo of the fireplace console I posted they were interested. She figured her husband, who was a handyman, could pull out the stereo and just use the casing. I mentioned that it was an antique and she could save it as it was and make a small profit, but she was just interested in improving the looks of the fireplace she had.

Anyway, Christmas eve morning and her husband came to my door to pick up the stereo. And I am so serious, this guy looked exactly like Santa. He says, “Merry Christmas, I am here to pick up the fireplace”. Seriously, I thought it was a joke. I even asked, “Are you serious?” He was!

I said, “It’s pretty heavy. Did you bring elves to help?” He laughed and said, “Nope, just me.” We both joked about the irony of it all. He explained how his wife had been trying to find a way to fix their fireplace and how pleased she was to have saw the add on Craig’s List.

So he worked like a mule getting that thing down the stairs, out the door and onto his truck.

He was such a jolly sweet guy and the whole scene was just funny to me that I charged him very little for the fireplace. Almost gave it away.