1 million dollars for a junk car!

I admit that my title is misleading. I wasn’t offered a million dollars for junking my car today, but relative to its cash value what one company did offer me seemed like almost that much.

I want to junk my Chrysler LeBaron 1992 auto, or sell it. Several junkyards including reputable places I’ve dealt with in the past offered me modest amounts of money – GI Salvage in Pine Brook, NJ will pay nothing if they come to tow it, Deb & Dot in North Bergen will pay $75 if they tow it or $125 if I drive it over there. A nice guy in Newark offered me $100 guaranteed and up to $150 if original catlytic converter and other features are present.

One Clifton company offered me $50 and a guy who found me through the Craigslist ad I posted to sell the car offered me $100. Then there was the doozy.

Then I called 888-899-5185 and a lady told me that she could buy my car for $50-$75. Or, if I wanted to donate it I would get

1. $500 gas card
2. $1000 tax deduction
3. $1000 in supermarket certificates, and
4. A 3-day free stay at a hotel which I could select from a list of many locations located across the nation.

Did I want to book my 3-day stay?

The lady asked me this about 4 times – she seemed so interested in booking the free vacation for me I immediately concluded she’d get a nice sales commission if I booked that trip.

I replied, “No, I don’t want to go to any hotel. And I’m not listening to any sales pitch to buy a time share either.” Because that is what this is all about. I’ve heard these offers before and they interest me not a little bit. People often have to pay what may be hefty travel expenses to get to one of these “free” vacation spots, and while installed there (and a captive audience) the place’s sales team takes up half of your promised vacation time attempting to harass you into purchasing one of their time share programs.

The booking lady seemed a lot less interested in talking to me after I disclosed my stand on listening to time share sales pitches. I had a question of my own to ask, though. I wanted to know where I could get verification of the other offers she had cited. I was told me to visit THElibraryproject.org on the internet and, “get more information there.” I asked if the website had “the” at the beginning or was just libraryproject.org and was told it was definitely THElibraryproject.org.

It turns out that there is no website THElibraryproject.org (no surprise there). There is a libraryproject.org website. I visited but couldn’t figure out what they do exactly. There certainly wasn’t any visible information on the site about giving $1500 worth of gas cards and supermarket certificates in exchange for the donation of a junk car.

I hope somebody buys my car so I don’t have to junk it. It’s a nice looking little thing – white – with excellent suspension, good tires, a new starter, and its been well maintained. Although it does have a bad transmission.