I'm an inveterate Craigslist watcher... musical equipment, motorcycles, cars, etc... lately I've been on a Resmed jag... if I haven't made it clear I'm a big fan of the Ax10 hardware.
The way to do CL is to watch every day and see how long something's stuck around... once it's getting long in the tooth, say 2 or 3 weeks, the seller will be ready to deal.
I'd been watching this one 4000hour Autoset... the pictures looked like hell, like someone had sprinkled cigarette ashes on the unit. They wanted 200$. After watching it sit there I contacted and offered 60$. I figured somebody's grandma had passed and this was the tail end of the estate-kinda thing.
They countered with 'can you pay 75' which means increase a token amount to save face and it's mine. I countered with 'no, only go 65'... they accepted and gave me the address in South Austin, a painful drive down Lamar to BubbaLand. I even ordered a new motor off Amazon, figuring this machine would need complete disassembly.
I pulled up (traffic was hell on a Saturday afternoon) in front of a modest clothing store... strode in and announced myself as the CPAP customer. My seller was a wizened woman about my age or a little older, say 70. I asked if it was her machine and she said yes, I asked if she had gotten a new machine and she waved her hand dismissively, the sign language for someone that had given up on CPAP. We exchanged cash for bag and she said 'trust me'... I thanked her and took the bag out to the car. Inside was the machine with a hose still connected, another hose, some aged nasal pillows and a big packet of Apria paperwork. Satisfied, I drove home.
After I removed the machine from the bag I was struck... this was an almost new machine, in pristine condition, one spiderweb in the water tub area from being in a closet for two years. The plastic was still on the silver button. The filter area was clean, the filter was clean. I unplugged the Climateline, it had been crammed in without allowing for the electrical connection... strange, I thought... I powered the unit and verified all worked well... the Climateline was recognized when plugged in properly... I tested the machine with my manometer and all pressures were exact. The water tub appeared to be brand-new, no trace of ever being wet. The modem connected to T-Mobile and showed two bars. This was the steal deal of the century on an Airsense 10 Autoset, 65$.
Then I made the mistake of putting her SD card in my computer and reading her graphs.
Every leak, every tortured attempt at sleep, every stop/start... her sad two-year story of CPAP failure was there. Some nights less than an hour's use. She'd tried valiantly, for two years, with no help at all to be a user... and failed. She was a classic Apria failure from what I hear... neglect. She quit in 2022.
That night in bed the realization hit me... tears flowed around the mask... I had to get back up and calm down, finally getting back to bed at 4am. I was going to give that woman either a chance to take back the machine and help her, or I was going to pay her the proper asking price she'd advertised (most of these are listed at 300$).
I had her complete home phone and address... the full Apria contract etc. I dialed and left a message, she returned the call immediately. I let her know that seeing her suffering had touched me (my Grinch heart grew three sizes!) She declined the machine but thanked me for offering to pay her price... I got her Zelle email and sent the remaining 135$. She said she'd keep my number if she ever did decide to try again.
I never did find out why her pictures were so pitiful... was she using a potato-phone? Did she apply some kind of sparkle-filter? The CL ad was gone when I went back to look.
So anyway now I have four of these things... this one has the most motor hours on it. It is a sickness, I have to stop! Or... start giving them away to folks that need them.
Please PM me if you know someone in straits that needs a decent machine. Especially seeking folks stuck with an old Philips cpap or biPap machine that can't afford a replacement... these things sitting on a shelf don't do me any good.
