Woman Posts Husband’s Ladder on Facebook Marketplace, Is Shocked by “Mayhem” Bidding War

Function always beats form.

It's a reason why fuel efficient "boring" sedans being manufactured by Toyota are keeping the Japanese auto manufacturer in business with sales remaining steady for the brand. Scroll through TikTok and listen to mechanics talk about their favorite vehicles when it comes to reliability and almost all of them will talk about the brand in a positive light.

This same "function over form" philosophy can be applied to the sale of all goods in general, however, something that X user and podcast host Heather Thompson Day (@HeatherTDay) learned the hard way when her husband asked her to put his ladder up for sale on Facebook marketplace.

She didn't think that anyone was going to want to buy his ladder. Why would they? She had so many more interesting things she was going to put up for sale before their move, like a floor length mirror and furniture.

But she did, indeed, put it up for her husband and was shocked by just how much people were clamoring for it.

She chronicled the sales journey through a series of viral X posts, the first that started with her stating: "I am selling stuff on Facebook before we move. My husband asked me to post his ladder. I said 'no one wants your ladder. ... I have big items like benches and couches and tables.'"

However, as it turned out, there were a lot of people who wanted his ladder.

"I post the ladder and friends IT IS COMPLETE MAYHEM," she wrote, adding, "Every man within 50 miles WANTS THIS LADDER!"

In fact the "mayhem" that she was referring to was going on as she was typing out her initial post, she uploaded a follow-up post indicating that there were, indeed, people who were very, very concerned with whether or not they were going to be able to get their hands on the ladder.

"JUST GOT ANOTHER INQUIRY ON THE LADDER AS I TYPE. Another man asked if he could call my husband’s phone (it’s past 10pm) to solidify his position with the ladder."

Heather expressed her shock and compared it to the response that one of the items she listed to the popular online selling marketplace was receiving: "I simply wasn’t prepared for this. Only two people have asked if they could come get my vintage floor-length mirror?"

She continued in another tweet that the person who came to pick up the ladder couldn't have been any happier with their purchase, but as miffed as she was to learn that her husband's goods were clearly more in demand than the items she picked out and tried to sell, there was a silver lining for single, straight women who were looking to meet men.

"Lastly, this morning a man with a large truck showed up at 7:30am grinning ear to ear, ready to collect the ladder It was posted for less than 24 hours and I could not have survived another minute more. ... Single straight women this is the secret: POST A LADDER and watch them flock," she wrote.

Apparently, there were a lot of men who were very keen to express their love for ladders, like this one guy who responded to Heather's post, writing: "I once had a nice ladder stolen from my garage, and I was heartbroken for a very long time. Even now, 25 years later, despite currently owning several very nice ladders, I reminisce about the ladder that got away and think about how useful it would be today."

Someone else said that their own spouse probably would've gone gaga for the ladder as well: "I guarantee if we were nearby my husband would want the ladder."

There are a lot of people who seem to love the commercial nature of Facebook Marketplace, which could be a reason why there were so many men flocking to the ladder post.

On the Jacksonville Mom blog, author Kerry Schicker delved into her Facebook Marketplace buying/selling "obsession," writing that she ultimately sells more than she can buy, and gave examples of the types of goods she's able to get on there for a "fraction" of the price at a store.

For instance, she remarked that her and her husband recently bought a boat and she wanted to get some kids' life jackets and saw tons of folks putting them up for sale with some of them still rocking the price tags from the store because the person in question never got the chance to actually use them.

Just make sure, like with any online selling venture, you should be mindful of potential scams sellers/buyers may be trying to pull on you. Here are a few to look out for, but in general, anytime someone's trying to send you Venmo or Cash App requests, Zelle emails or anything of the like, just ignore that entirely.