Cribs

Really, what fun would it be for Mark to have a baby if some scheming and price negotiations weren't involved? Though we've only bought one item thus far, a crib, it's proven to be fertile ground for Mark's favorite pastime. The crib story: I found a beautiful crib on Craiglist listed for $50 and soon found out that it had been recalled. I called the manufacter and explained the scenario, asking them if this crib would be eligible for the recall since I was buying it second hand. It was. This meant we would get a $220 voucher at Baby's R US for a new crib of our choice after disassembling pieces of this crib and sending them back to the company. Mark had me talk the owner of the Craiglist crib down to $40 citing that it had been recalled. The owner appeared happy get it off his hands. Fast forward: With our recall obligations complete and our voucher in hand we walk into Babies R US. We find a crib, albeit a bit stuffy and "regal" as we've come to call it, but handsome neverless, on clearance from $500 to $300. Mark asks if they will sell us the floor model. They won't. We go to another Babies R US, an advantage of living in the 'burbs I suppose. They have the same crib and Mark asks if they would sell the floor model. They happily oblige. Mark asks what kind of discount they usually give for a floormodel, "10%" is the answer. Mark asks if they could do 20%. She send us to the manager who also happens to be nice and friendly. After a little more persuasion on Mark's part (I recall him talking about how we just had our ultrasound and how great a day it's been, etc. etc.) She says that she doesn't want to ruin our day and says she'll give us 15% off. We're both pretty psyched about that. She gathers up a few things and rings us up, subtracting the discount and voucher, bringing us to a grand total of $10.18 with tax! She then tells us she's excited for us and to have a great day. As we're walking away, I swear Mark would be skipping at this point if he could, I'm doing the calculations in my head knowing that it couldn't have been just 15% off, it was just too cheap. We pull out the reciept: 15% off plus 10% off. She had given us both the standard discount of 10% and and an additional 15% off bonus. We celebrated with milkshakes.
I haven't figured out how to caption pics yet on here, but the first one is the recalled one, and the second, the one that is assembled, is the bed for the future Royal member of our family. If you have any suggestions for what to make out of the old one, we would love to hear it!