Well I commend you for sticking to your principles but if you were going to pay the asking price, wouldn't have had a problem with you buying the bike from the get-go. I would think co-op volunteers would get an allowance for first crack at a good bike once or twice per year. Don't worry, karma police are active and something better will come your way.

Many near miss stories but the one I feel most acutely is a DeRosa at a really good price that a guy put up on CL on New Years Eve. It was a couple of hours away, guy answered right away but I had to work the holiday Monday, he couldn't meet during the week, so we agreed to meet the following weekend. Of course we had our only snow storm of the whole winter the next weekend. I know I could have made it but really thought it was stupid to try for a bike (not like trying to make it for a cancer treatment or something) and decided not too. When I tried to rget schedule for the next weekend, guy had changed his mind about selling it.