Man On Craigslist Wants To Trade Funeral Plots For VW Bus
There's a pretty high bar for weird trades when it comes to both VW Microbuses and Craigslist. The VW Type II's long association with the counterculture must have made for some engaging trades over its many decades of history, involving all kinds of drugs and patchouli-scented sex acts.
And Craigslist certainly needs no introduction as a haven of weirdos trading weird things for more weird (or mundane) things. If you have a stack of porn DVDs and need a kitchen mixer, I can't think of anywhere better to go. So when they team up, you know it's gonna be good.
And this one is. A guy wants to trade funeral plots for an old Microbus.
As he says in his ad:
I am looking for a bus. Really any year prior to the vanagons and Eurovan. I am interested in a project or a fully restored. I am willing to trade up to 4 (four) cemetary plots at Forest Park in Webster. These are premium plots that can be transferred into your name. They are all 4 side by side. The number of plots I am willing to offer depends on how much your bus is worth. These plots go for around $3000 each if you buy them from Forest Park. If you bought them from an owner, the price would be much lower. In short, don't be afraid to make an offer. I will entertain all offers.
So, we know this guy is only interested in the early, air-cooled buses, with the classic, pre-angular Vanagon look. Okay, that's a pretty common desire — those are the sought-after ones, generally. I'm not exactly sure what makes a funeral plot "premium," but I'm guessing it's location, for the view you're never going to enjoy. I guess the non-premium ones abut a utility shed or tire incinerator. The question is why does he have a family's worth of plots, and why is he willing to swap them for a bus now?
In my head, I'm picturing a formerly death-obsessed guy who's had some sort of major life change and now wants to take his family on a cross-country trip in a Microbus, as opposed to spending every weekend updating his will and playing "Dust in the Wind" at all his kids' birthdays. A sort of feelgood-movie kind of situation.
That, or he's swindled some old folks out of their plots and wants to make a very, very leisurely getaway in the bus.
Weird as it sounds, there's probably someone out there for whom this is the perfect deal. I just hope that person wants to bury his or her parents outside of Houston.