your cat is beautiful

(warning: after writing this post, i realized that it quickly became a rambling post that is of little interest to most people, but i know that my immediate family will enjoy it, so it goes on the blog).

i've become a little bit of a craigslist troll lately. i watch the free stuff pretty religiously, and i have alerts set up through an app on my phone for certain items that we're looking for. one of my alerts is for the term, "organ."

let me explain. a couple weeks ago, i was perusing the free ads and there was one for an organ. no picture, and very little description. i thought, i'll call just in case this person is giving away a nice organ for free. i called and an older woman answered. i asked her if she knew what kind of organ it was. she didn't. so, i gave the phone to randy and he started asking her questions. by the end of the conversation, randy had narrowed it down to a few models of a hammond organ. he went and got it and we now have a hammond M3 that is in great condition. for free. it's not anything fancy, but it's a fun little organ for randy to play some jazz on.

so that got us to thinking, what if other people are sitting on even better models of the hammond, not knowing what they have, and selling them (or giving them away!) on craigslist? thus, i have an alert on my phone for the term organ.

so last night, i checked an alert for a hammond C3 organ on my phone. the ad claimed that it was in working and had the listing price as $100. here is the picture from the ad (relevant later):

now, i know that i've been throwing around model numbers like people know what i'm talking about, and most don't, but let me assure you that this is a great organ. hammond organs have a bit of a cult following. they are famous as jazz organs and the B3 is the most famous. but the C3 is pretty much the exact same organ with a built in speaker in an enclosed cabinet. so a C3 for $100? ridiculous. they might as well have been giving it away.

back to the story. i told randy about the ad and quickly went to email the person to tell them that we would take the organ, but there was no email associated with the ad. upon inspecting the ad, i realized that there was actually no contact information in the ad at all. this was maddening. somewhere out there, someone was trying to sell a C3 for $100 and there was no way of contacting them. i considered walking the streets of capitol hill, yelling for the owner of the C3 to show himself. i tried to summon my inner sherlock to find any clues in the picture as to the exact location of the organ: a landmark in a background window, a unique architectural detail, anything. to no avail. so instead, we hit the button that has craiglist send the seller a note, indicating that there is no contact info. we kept refreshing the ad to see if the seller had added contact info, but nothing changed and we finally went to sleep, dreaming of the illusive C3.

this morning, i checked the ad first thing after i woke up. still no way to contact the seller. but as i continued to watch the ad and my organ alerts on my phone, a funny thing started happening on craigslist. ads started popping up, trying to reach out to this seller. you see, we were not the only ones in angst over the ad. i could just imagine hammond enthusiasts throughout the seattle area, sitting in front of their computers, trying to figure out how to one up the other seekers, without looking so desperate that it would drive the price up.

but the ads climaxed at 12:56pm, with this beauty. i'm going to include the text and picture here, because some day the ad will be taken down and i want to immortalize it:

Hammond C3 Owner - your cat is beautiful

To the seller of the Hammond C3 on Capitol Hill,

I just wanted to say that your Nebelung cat is gorgeous; they are one of my favorite breeds. Even more so as I have one myself. Like yours, mine also likes to sit atop musical instruments: http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/5531_141696500870_6216495_n.jpg

I wish it were your cat you were selling for such a wonderful price, but alas, I couldn't ask you to part with a Nebelung. As it turns out, though, I love Hammonds about as much as I love silver cats. And I would love to buy that C3 if you've still got it. I know I am not alone in trying to contact you in this indirect manner. But if you feel so inclined... shoot me an email, and we can figure something out.

I'll get there today if you need! And of course, I never turn down the chance to chat with another cat person.

this is fantastic on so many levels. i don't even know where to start. randy is working on a parody of the cat ad with a soda can (there is a soda can next to the organ in the original ad), appealing to the seller's love of soda and stating that randy, too, loves to drink soda. even if he can't have the organ, randy would love to talk to him about soda.

still no contact info on the ad. who knows, maybe the seller has already contacted one of the people who reached out in a separate ad. maybe due to the response he has realized that it is worth much more than $100 and will sell it somewhere else for more. maybe he just hasn't checked his email yet and will update the ad later (you know i'll be watching). maybe it's some old lady who doesn't know why no one has responded to the ad that her nephew put up for her last night and she will end up taking it to the salvation army.

or maybe it's someone who is messing with the hammond community.

i hope that the cat response ad was posted by his best friend, who is also in on the joke.