Craigslist suck

[Sapphire Silk]

I'm trying to sell some furniture and sundries on Craigslist to make room in the house, clear out stuff I'm no longer using, and generate some mad money.

I've posted a few items on Craigslist in the hopes of making them move quickly.

You should give me a discount because . . . .

First item is a 5 drawer dresser. It's sturdy, made by a well known company, though I got it used (for free as it happens; a neighbor put it on the curb and said I could have it). I listed it for $50, was willing to dicker.

Guy responds to my ad and says he is interested in it, wants to meet and look at it. Because it is so heavy, I'm planning to just bring the guy to my house (normally I meet in a neutral place) so he can see it. I figure he'll make me an offer.

I had given him my phone number, so he calls me. He wants me to give him a discount, and let him pay $30, because he has to drive 1 1/2hrs to come to my neck of the woods.

Uhm. No. No way. Not my problem, not a good enough reason to go THAT low. He pulls the "high gas prices", and after the third time I tell him, "Sorry, can't do it," he gets audibly frustrated and says, "Well, what will you take for it then?"

Me: $50.

Guy: Come on, you can come down a little can't you?

Me: Well, make me an offer, then.

Guy: $35

Now I'm just getting irritated. He's not serious. Me: Sorry, can't do it. $45.

Guy: Can we just meet in the middle and call it $40

Me: Can't do it. (I might have, if you hadn't persisted in lowballing my price and playing the sob story, then getting pissy when I didn't bite).

CLICK!

I sold the dresser two weeks later for $50.

Shipping is not an option

I am trying to sell some neoprene seat covers for the Jeep I no longer own. My asking price is insanely low, $25. I get lots of interest, but the first buyer backs out because he can't meet me at a neutral place (this item is light, so I follow Craigslist rules). But the next guy . . . .

Sends me an email, saying he lives in [town 35 miles away] and can I just ship the item to him.

My answer: "I do not ship items. I follow Craigslist rules and meet customers in a neutral location near my home. I only accept cash."

His response: Thanks for the response. I'll see what I can do.

Yeah . . . if you can't see about following my rules, I'll see about selling to someone who can.

[Merriweather]

I may have posted this before, but my worst CL SC was the woman who wanted me to deliver the item to her at her shop, in our main downtown shopping area. When I declined mainly due to the amount of the time it would take me (either circling the block for half an hour to get a close parking spot, or parking several blocks away and walking slowly on an injured leg) she wanted me to drive it to her shop, double park on the main thoroughfare thru downtown, honk until she both heard me inside a closed up winter shop and could step away from customers, and she would then come out pay me and take the item Oh, and all this during the week before Christmas, when downtown is the busiest of the year.

I want to add, this is not NYC, with traffic crawling so slow you could double park a few mintues & no one notice. The main street thru downtown is not only part of our shopping district, but a main thoroughfare, a four lane road that moves steadily between traffic lights. What might be called double parking is actually just stopping dead in a moving lane of traffic, and is somehow frowned upon by the local police.

Oh, and there was the lady that I asked when she wanted to meet, that my schedule was fairly flexible that week. She hemmed & hawed for days (had to get a ride from daughter, couldn't reach daughter, etc. etc. Then finally emailed me wanting to meet in half an hour I didn't even see the email for longer than that. She was totally pissed off, I guess to her a "failrly flexible schedule" means "sitting at the computer 24/7 at your beck & call".

[dalesys]

...I guess to her a "failrly flexible schedule" means "sitting at the computer 24/7 for your bark & yowl".

What you meant?

[Juggler]

I have problems with the neutral location, cash only policy.

I've been considering buying a used kindle but don't want to get stuck with a stolen one that can't be registered. If a seller was willing to take paypal, I could do it over my phone, he would know he was getting paid and I would have a record of the transaction in case anything went wrong. Not having a way to contact the seller or recover my money in case of fraud is just too sketchy.

[Sapphire Silk]

I have problems with the neutral location, cash only policy.

I've been considering buying a used kindle but don't want to get stuck with a stolen one that can't be registered. If a seller was willing to take paypal, I could do it over my phone, he would know he was getting paid and I would have a record of the transaction in case anything went wrong. Not having a way to contact the seller or recover my money in case of fraud is just too sketchy.

The policy works for the most part, but I do see your concern. If the price is too low, that's a red flag that the item is hot. My policy is not to buy popular items on Craigslist. That helps me avoid most of the stolen items right there. I buy them on eBay, where at least there is an electronic trail, and eBay and PayPal to back me up, or I buy them in local shops where I have a brick and mortar address to go back to in case of problems. We have an excellent used book store that deals in used electronics; quality is always good, prices reasonable, and you know the item is not stolen before you buy it.

But using just PayPal for a CL item; I'm scare PayPal will say, "check's no good" or some crap to claw back the bucks and leave me out in the cold.

[Pixilated]

I was getting rid of a lot of stuff prior to my recent move to My Hometown, and posting them on Kijiji (a free classified site in Canada; I think there's a version of it in the U.S.) Last item to go was a glider rocker with really badly marked cushions (it was not upholstered; the cushions just sat on the wooden frame). One person asked if I could deliver it for $10. I said sorry, couldn't do it (time and car space constraints).

Second email: "Do you have any friends with a truck who could deliver it? $5 to each of you."

Didn't occur to me until much later to ask if the respondent didn't have any friends who could pick the blasted thing up for him/her!

[Sapphire Silk]

Didn't occur to me until much later to ask if the respondent didn't have any friends who could pick the blasted thing up for him/her!

Clearly not

[Jetfire]

I have problems with the neutral location, cash only policy.

I've been considering buying a used kindle but don't want to get stuck with a stolen one that can't be registered. If a seller was willing to take paypal, I could do it over my phone, he would know he was getting paid and I would have a record of the transaction in case anything went wrong. Not having a way to contact the seller or recover my money in case of fraud is just too sketchy.

I'm not familiar with CL (I'm in Kijiji territory and haven't really done much with it at that), but even with a neutral location cash only sale, there are ways you could probably cover yourself.

The biggest thing would be to have two identical receipts written up and ready for both parties to sign with whatever clauses you want to enforce.

If you meet at a Staples or Kinkos or similar place with photocopiers available you could ask for a (partially blacked out) copy of their ID so you can confirm they do have valid legal ID and can use that (with the receipt) to do a small claims suit if something does go wrong with what you're getting.

Granted I'd only do that for 'hot' items like video game systems, tablets, other (recent/expensive) electronics or big ticket items.

Luckily of sorts for me, all I've ever done recently online was give away some old electronics before my move. Since I was moving anyways, I had them show up at my apartment building for the pickups and had no issues at all.

[telecom_goddess]

I've bought a number of things on craigslist over the years, including a pda, bread machine, some tools, an air conditioner and so on. I've been lucky I guess because I've had great success with all of the purchases. I haven't needed to sell anything on there so far.

Speaking of Ebay I found some great deals on there for some wireless adapters and a KVM switch . Going to put 3 computers in one room, an IMac, a linux box, and a Windows XP machine. And they will all be hooked up to one monitor keyboard and be wireless.

[PepperElf]

I have problems with the neutral location, cash only policy.

I understand the cash-only reservations but... the "neutral location" part is often there to protect you.


I've posted about him before but, I know someone who picked at-home transactions and showed up with a weapon, stole the item, and then called the victim to remind them that "I know where you live," to scare them from telling the cops. Five separate times.*

This is why CL doesn't encourage people to do at-home transactions. At a neutral location you can make use of security that's already in place to help protect you.



* he was awarded 5 life sentences + 53 years, but they reduced it to 33 years back in 09 for testifying against his co-defendant.

[Sapphire Silk]

This is why I also generally follow the neutral location rules, except when the item is particularly heavy.

It's a trade off: a small amount of risk for the benefit of not having a buyer try to nail you with, "Well, you're here now, how about we just discount it to . . . ." hoping you'll cave not wanting to take the item home. That's happened to me before, with an elliptical I sold two years ago.

The other security issue with CL is if you're hoping to buy a hot item cheap is the "seller" may be setting you up for a robbery, knowing you'll have cash on you or that the "buyer" may try to rob you of the hot item, knowing he can resell it quickly.

Which is why I don't buy or sell hot items through CL.

[Canarr]

* he was awarded 5 life sentences + 53 years, but they reduced it to 33 years back in 09 for testifying against his co-defendant.

Come again? Did he kill anyone? I didn't think armed robbery got THAT kind of punishment!

[Teefies2]

Which is why I don't buy or sell hot items through CL.

Wait ... what??? You buy and sell hot items routinely????

Just kidding, I know you didn't mean it that way

[vikingchyk]

I've posted about him before but, I know someone who picked at-home transactions and showed up with a weapon, stole the item, and then called the victim to remind them that "I know where you live," to scare them from telling the cops. Five separate times.*

Yeesh.

We have an ongoing saga in the local news about when *both* parties brought a gun to a CL transaction. The update is that one of the robbery victims was just arrested :
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bre...,6242101.story
{no fratching on... well, anything involving this story }

Stuff like this makes me avoid CL like the plague. Did this type of thing go on as often in the "good ol' days" when all we had were newspaper classified ads? Or was it just not reported then?

[violiavampyr]

I remember people still sometimes met at a neutral location. My dad would almost never go to a persons house to buy a car, they met somewhere. On occasion they came to us.