Craigslist idiots.

[Tucko]

After painlessly selling my drill press today, I got a response from another ad of mine. I listed 2 sheet metal turning machines, at $200 apiece. His first text said "You have the machin"
I responded, "Which one?"
"Tha sheet metal"
He sends a pic of the blue one.
"Yes, I still have them."
He then asks what's the lowest I'll take. I told him I only negotiate price in person. He then asks for directions. It's 9:45 at night, mind you. I told him tomorrow would be better, after 3:00. He says, "I'll buy it, but I'll give you $300."
I said, "Call me tomorrow."
Is he about to pay me $300 for one machine when I'm only asking $200 each? His lack of reading comprehension might cost him an extra $100.....We shall see. http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/tls/5175884599.html

 

[bmxdad]

Ha, I bet he wants both for $300.

 

[matt_i]

Negotiate in person is best because it forces the buyer to bring cash and not waste his/her gasoline both ways by making a silly low offer that's going to get booted.

Not everyone is equipped with the people-skills to conduct this transaction smoothly, I have found

 

[CJ7VFR]

This sounds very fishy to me.

Broken english, very unclear about price being paid, and asking for directions to your home right away, at night, and in LA?

There is a scam going around where a guy will ask about your item, and offer you more than what you want for it. Their replies are very broken english, and are hard to make out. They also ask for directions to your home right away before you even have any time to negotiate anything.

Then they show up at your house to "buy" your item, but they will not have cash. They will say that they were afraid to bring cash because they don't know you and YOU might rip them off!

But because you are so kind and a nice person they are willing to write you a check for MORE than you are asking if that is o.k. with you.

So you take the check thinking you got one over on them, and they take your sheet metal machine. Then you try to cash the check the next day, and it turns out to be fake.

So he got one over on you! He has your machine and you have your hand around your pecker with no money and no sheet metal machine wondering what just happened.

Are you able to load your sheet metal machines into your vehicle and meet this person at a neutral location, such as a mall parking lot or some other place where there are people around, during the daytime?

Don't give him directions to you home. There are red flags in his messages and I would not trust him. If he wants to see the machine, bring it to a neutral location, and bring at least one friend with you.

And by no means do you accept a check from ANYONE.

Jim

 

[Mr_P]

Craigslist in Los Angeles is no different than others around the US. Except that there are so many potential customers and opportunities for great deals.

In this particular case, I would call the guy back to confirm which one he/she is talking about. The OP had specifically asked the inquiring persons to refrain from the following, "no texts asking what my lowest price is"

Some deals just take a little more clarification than others. I've sold hubcaps to cars on craigslist, and bought both hub caps and cars. Communication is key.

I miss Los Angeles/Inland Empire/San Diego craigslists.

Let us know what happens after 3pm today.

 

[mustangSR70]

That really *****, people are idiots sometimes. I just ran across one myself. I had a '41 Plymouth truck listed on LA CL. Guy was supposed to meet me at 630 on Wed, showed up at 8. Was going to leave half as deposit, forgot wallet, but said he would put money in my bank, if I give him my routing and account number. Then we agreed that he would come get the truck Saturday at 10, a-hole never showed, never contacted me. I took 2 hours getting all the parts collected for him, no show. 11 I told him forget it. Too bad, I've decided to keep the truck. CL brings out some real weirdos. Good luck with selling your machines.

 

[CJM8515]

Yea people are idiots. Ive had people offering insane offers more than a few times. I just ignore it by now.

I state in my ad's "cash talks, dont even make an offer in email. If you lowball me when you get here Im not gonna be happy either". Works most of the time. Ive chased a few people off before.

 

[Trey T]

people that are eagered to know the "lowest you'll take" isn't serious at buying, they just want to price shop, that's all.

 

[schmelpboy]

A couple of examples;

I have a guy right now emailing me about a Bostitch Framing nailer. It's over 250 new. I have it listed for 150. Like everyone else, he lowballs. Now, when I lowball, I usually know I'm going to buy something in advance, but try to get a couple of bucks off. And, by a couple of bucks, I mean 5 or 10. This guy offers me 60. I politely say not a chance. 1 Minute later, 65, and he wants "the case" in the picture. In the picture, it's sitting on a cardboard box. I tell him there is no case. Each time he sends me his lowballs, he includes some sob story about a family member he is helping out...blah blah blah. If you're buying a framing nailer, the person you are helping is building something. If they are building something, they have enough money to pay my asking price.
So, I politely say no again. Then its 70. I finally say not a chance.
Then he starts to get uppity and says, "Well you said you'd take offers, you just keep refusing mine. What do you want for it?" At this point I said 150. He's wasting my time. When a person says, "I'll take an offer," that doesn't mean less than half price. Idiot.
So then he emails me back and says final offer, 85. I just replied, "NO."
Again he asks for best offer. I gave in and said 125.
He responds back with, "does it come with the instruction manual, tools, any extras? My picture clearly shows a bare tool. And, earlier, I told him there was no case... At this point, I just stopped responding to him. People that stupid will just hurt themselves with a nailer.

I also have a ton of brand new Craftsman ratcheting wrench sets on CL that came out of my grandfather's estate. They are selling for 30ish bucks on ebay plus shipping. So, I figured a cash deal would be good at 25, so I listed them for 30. Immediately I get a response. He'll take all of the sets (I have 12) at 13 dollars each. I said no, they are selling for 3 times that online. He asks for best offer. I said 25 knowing he'll come back with 20. Nope. He comes back with 14. I said not a chance. I said the lowest I'll go is 20 a set, and that's final. He responds back, "So we're good at 16 a set, I've bought from you before, I'll be over to get them." WTF. Seriously? I didn't even respond. I just wasn't going to answer my door when he showed up. Then, the next day, I get a text back from him saying something came up and he wasn't coming that day. Good. I've never heard from him again.

 

[maxpower_hd]

I've had a lot more luck buying than selling. I've received all kinds of stupid offers. Most of which were scams. You get good at weeding them out after a while.

 

[Fishplate]

forgot wallet, but said he would put money in my bank, if I give him my routing and account number.

You didn't, did you?

 

[A1an]

You didn't, did you?

Why wouldn't you? Princes from Africa are very trustworthy.

 

[Tucko]

Well, the knucklehead never called me at 3 yesterday. But I've got both of them sold to a guy at work. I also have a Roper Whitney 6" corner notcher I'm selling for $350. Got my first email offer for $150...Really? The nerve of some people...

 

[Ilikeike]

He sounded like a scam anyway, I sell a lot on CL myself and have an ad up now.
sometimes it fun to mess with them and string them along.

 

[jd_1138]

CL enables the knucklehead tire kickers to prolong the hassle. In the old days, a guy would list something in the paper, and the guy would show up and either pay or not. Now we have this email/texting BS.

 

[drwheels]

Cl brings them out all over the world.It is hit and miss on my stuff I sell on there.

 

[ford33]

I sold a very large side by side refrigerator on CL a few years ago. The buyer paid cash and showed up to my home on-time but with a tiny flat bed trailer attached to his SUV. I looked at that small trailer and asked if he was sure that thing would get it home. He said "no problem".

Buyer and a helper laid the frig left side down on the trailer and the trailer springs hit bottom. Then we discovered one tire was flat. I put air in the tires and off he went 50 miles to his house or shop. I did check the news to see if there were any accidents caused by refrigerators in the road. I can only imagine what the frig looked like upon arrival after bouncing down the interstate on a trailer with no suspension travel.

 

[jd_1138]

I sold a very large side by side refrigerator on CL a few years ago. The buyer paid cash and showed up to my home on-time but with a tiny flat bed trailer attached to his SUV. I looked at that small trailer and asked if he was sure that thing would get it home. He said "no problem".

Buyer and a helper laid the frig left side down on the trailer and the trailer springs hit bottom. Then we discovered one tire was flat. I put air in the tires and off he went 50 miles to his house or shop. I did check the news to see if there were any accidents caused by refrigerators in the road. I can only imagine what the frig looked like upon arrival after bouncing down the interstate on a trailer with no suspension travel.

Wow, that is just stupid that he'd think that the fridge would suffer no damage. Can't fix stupid.

 

[YukonXL04]

I had a similar deal go down a while back. I was parting out a 02 Sierra. Had the truck bed for sale for $150. Guy shows up by himself in a brand new dodge ram. He looks over the bed and says I'll take it! LOL Im like okay how? He scratches his head and says I dont know.... LOL REALLY!!! We did end up working out delivery for an extra $50. Who shows up to buy a truck bed and doesnt bring help or a trailer... *****!

Another guy came to buy the whole extended cab with no doors or seats. shows up with a tiny rinky dink trailer and a little 1000lb winch. Come on man, you need like 4 people minimum on things like this. Somehow we got it loaded though.

 

[bmxdad]

Well, the knucklehead never called me at 3 yesterday. But I've got both of them sold to a guy at work. I also have a Roper Whitney 6" corner notcher I'm selling for $350. Got my first email offer for $150...Really? The nerve of some people...

Yea, goes both ways. Some people double the price on something because its "Vintage" ... as in old.

 

[bmxdad]

A couple of examples;

I have a guy right now emailing me about a Bostitch Framing nailer. It's over 250 new. I have it listed for 150. Like everyone else, he lowballs. Now, when I lowball, I usually know I'm going to buy something in advance, but try to get a couple of bucks off. And, by a couple of bucks, I mean 5 or 10. This guy offers me 60. I politely say not a chance. 1 Minute later, 65, and he wants "the case" in the picture. In the picture, it's sitting on a cardboard box. I tell him there is no case. Each time he sends me his lowballs, he includes some sob story about a family member he is helping out...blah blah blah. If you're buying a framing nailer, the person you are helping is building something. If they are building something, they have enough money to pay my asking price. ....

If someone try's to low ball me hard, I give a new offer, but add to it. I have something for $100, they offer $50. I say I'll take $120 ... they get all confused

 

[jd_1138]

I had a similar deal go down a while back. I was parting out a 02 Sierra. Had the truck bed for sale for $150. Guy shows up by himself in a brand new dodge ram. He looks over the bed and says I'll take it! LOL Im like okay how? He scratches his head and says I dont know.... LOL REALLY!!! We did end up working out delivery for an extra $50. Who shows up to buy a truck bed and doesnt bring help or a trailer... *****!

Another guy came to buy the whole extended cab with no doors or seats. shows up with a tiny rinky dink trailer and a little 1000lb winch. Come on man, you need like 4 people minimum on things like this. Somehow we got it loaded though.

We put my wife's 10 year old Baldwin upright organ on CL in the free section because we were moving. Nothing wrong with it. Had just been tuned by her friend who tunes organs/pianos. Even came with the original manual and a bunch of sheet music.

Had a woman want it for her grand daughter, but we she kept flaking out on finding help to come get it. It's not even that heavy -- 2 or 3 adult guys could move it with a dolly, and I even offered to help. After she flaked out on me 4 or 5 times, I quit responding to her emails and listed it in the music section and sold it for $400. ha ha. She actually saw it there and messaged me saying she still wanted it but wouldn't pay for it since I originally had it listed for free. I told her to go to a music store and pay $2,500 for one and they'd deliver it for free.

 

[CJ7VFR]

You didn't, did you?

I second this. You didn't give this guy your bank info did you? That is one of the oldest scams around.

Jim

 

[RustyGoat]

I sold a very large side by side refrigerator on CL a few years ago. The buyer paid cash and showed up to my home on-time but with a tiny flat bed trailer attached to his SUV. I looked at that small trailer and asked if he was sure that thing would get it home. He said "no problem".

Buyer and a helper laid the frig left side down on the trailer and the trailer springs hit bottom. Then we discovered one tire was flat. I put air in the tires and off he went 50 miles to his house or shop. I did check the news to see if there were any accidents caused by refrigerators in the road. I can only imagine what the frig looked like upon arrival after bouncing down the interstate on a trailer with no suspension travel.

When the local Home Depot went out of business I stopped in to see what I could find a good deal on. This is what I saw as I was walking in...

The trailer was maybe big enough to haul a small lawn mower. It was gone when I left.

 

[---]

When the local Home Depot went out of business ...

Wow Home Depot going out of business? I'm lucky to find a parking spot when I hit Home Depot no matter what time I go there and we have 4 stores and 1 Lowes in a 10 mile radius.

 

[RustyGoat]

Wow Home Depot going out of business? I'm lucky to find a parking spot when I hit Home Depot no matter what time I go there and we have 4 stores and 1 Lowes in a 10 mile radius.

This was back in 2008. Poor customer service and a Lowes and Menards nearby with lower prices meant nobody shopped there. There was normally more employees than customers in the store. Hell I was in there on Black Friday morning and didn't even have to wait in line to check out.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

 

[Codyyy]

CL seems like just an online garage sale. Always offer half of asking price, no matter how much it says "firm". They may seem like idiots but a lot of times they know how CL works. I hardly ever have good luck selling on CL unless I'm basically giving it away. Then people whine about having to actually get up and go buy it.

 

[iScream]

While there are plenty of idiot buyers, and sellers, on Craigslist, there are also a ton of trolls. Basically kids who think it's fun to see if they can get you worked up by purposely acting like idiots with their questions and offers.

 

[jb3426]

Around here we have the people who list 10 year old items at half of the original msrp, which is still more than you can buy it new for most times. Then they relist it every couple of hours so its on the front page. The newest and coolest thing to do is list your garbage for sale. I have seen 10 half full bottles of brake fluid listed for $10 and numerous ads for half full rusted cans of paint for $20 a can. Im sure you have all seen the harbor freight freebies for sale for $5.
As a seller i have seen the other side as well. Can you hold it for a month?, take half your firm asking price?, do you take ebt cards? The best was when I tried to sell my Migmaster 250 for $500. Got a few replies saying they could buy a new Lincoln 140 from lowes for less so I was asking too much. After the first guy to show up "tested" it I pulled the ad a kept it. He started off by saying he didnt know how to weld with a fixed shade helmet. After a bunch of odd noises with my back turned i grabbed a spare mask to see what he was doing. After all these years i didnt know you were supposed to 10-12" of stickout. Best decision I ever made was to keep the welder after him telling me it was broken.

 

[Ironhorse74]

None of you guys have sold a sailboat on CL. I can tell.

Brad

 

[CJM8515]

None of you guys have sold a sailboat on CL. I can tell.

Brad

Do tell!

 

[bmxdad]

I sold a J30 a couple years ago ... got full price, but it took awhile.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

That really *****, people are idiots sometimes. I just ran across one myself. I had a '41 Plymouth truck listed on LA CL. Guy was supposed to meet me at 630 on Wed, showed up at 8. Was going to leave half as deposit, forgot wallet, but said he would put money in my bank, if I give him my routing and account number. Then we agreed that he would come get the truck Saturday at 10, a-hole never showed, never contacted me. I took 2 hours getting all the parts collected for him, no show. 11 I told him forget it. Too bad, I've decided to keep the truck. CL brings out some real weirdos. Good luck with selling your machines.

So did you actually give this guy your routing and account numbers???

 

[Maui]

I have had pretty good experiences both buying and selling on Craigslist. But I've had a few occasions where things went south. The biggest problems that I seem to run across are these:
1.) Communication - if the seller doesn't list a telephone number in the ad then odds are you will never hear back from them. Unless you really want the item, don't waste your time by emailing them.
2.) Selling - people will sometimes tell you that they will meet up with you at your house at a specific day and time and then never show up. When you call them to ask where they are, they either don't answer or say that they're not coming for whatever reason. Really? You couldn't call me to tell me you're not coming over?

I've had people try to lowball me (which I expect), and I've had others who pay full price with no questions asked. It's like Forrest Gump said - "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." I think that the same thing applies to Craigslist.

Maui

 

[jps4jeep]

I buy and sell somewhat frequently on craigslist and my conclusion is mouth breathers make such low-ball offers because it is what they have seen in these stupid scripted reality shows where one guy has the price too high, other guy super low-balls, then they end up meeting in the middle.

 

[Showkey]

The other side of CL it's free so people put absolutely crazy prices on junk.

When selling ..........guy call or emails ......hold it for me I will be there tomorrow ...........ya right. First come first served cash only........as it says in the ad.

I use the first communication in email only to avoid the guys that JUST want to talk. If I need a new friend I go to Walmart to meet the REAL weirdos .

 

[CJ7VFR]

None of you guys have sold a sailboat on CL. I can tell.

Brad

I had a friend that tried to sell his row boat on CL. It was his first try at selling anything on there, and he was all gungho about it.

His boat was a nice older row boat, with the oars and a trolling motor that could be attached to the back. He even said the trailer was included.

Now, where he lives is up in a very secluded area of norther NJ, and the homes there are on 10 plus acre lots and it is mostly farm country. So everyone pretty much knows everyone else.

Anyway he puts the boat on CL for a pretty reasonable price, and of course he starts getting the a-hole low ballers and people who have no real intention of actually buying his boat.

He gets one guy who he tells us sounds good. But here are the red flags. The guy wants to come and see it at night. He wants to see exactly where it is, and he does NOT want to meet my friend somewhere in a neutral location. Oh, and the guy did not give my friend a phone number he could use to get in touch with this potential "buyer". Anyone else see any red flags there? The "buyer" did all his contact via a "Gmail" account. Nice.

We all told my friend this is not good, and do NOT look any further into trying to sell this to this troll.

Well, my friend is a real church going guy, and he believes that everyone has good in them, and people deserve a chance. Ah, yeah, right.

So he sets up a time to have this guy come to his house and check out the boat.

The guy shows up at 8:00 at night and says it's a nice boat, but now that he has seen it in person, he does not want it.

My friend lowers the price, but the guy says thanks but no thanks.

Now, my friend did have the boat for sale locally, so he had it chained up to the side of his garage, thinking that would be good enough to prevent someone from trying to steal it.

Guess what happened?

Yup. The next morning my friend went outside to get in his car to go to work, and the boat and the trailer were GONE!!!

The cops were called, but they said there was no way to prove this guy stole it, and even if he did, there was no way to trace him because he used a "Gmail" account and from what they found, he sent his emails from what appeared to be a public library computer from another state!

The world is not puppies and sunshine, and people ****. Not everyone, but most do it seems anymore. Everyone is only looking out to get something for free. Or they see what others have worked hard all their lives to get, and they think they should have that too, and just take it from you because they think they are entitled to it and your not.

Jim

 

[Crazyjake8493]

It seems it's getting harder and harder for me to sell stuff on Craigslist, depending on what the item is. Less people interested lately, and when they are I get ridiculous offers or no-shows. Maybe it's the market though. I used to sell more music gear (guitars, drums) and it seemed like the buyers knew what it was worth, and if they were getting a deal they weren't there to screw around. Actually met some decent people/musicians through Craigslist transactions and found some new bands to check out.

Lately I've been selling more tools and garage/shop type stuff and it seems like the lowball offers never end, and more than half the time the "buyer" doesn't show up. Same with electronics/video games.

I agree that if the seller doesn't list a phone number, there's about an 80% chance you'll never hear from them. I've come across a few listings of things I really wanted, only to find no phone number OR email. Really? Good luck with that one.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

And just because something is "like-new" or "never used" doesn't mean you can charge full price for it on CL. If I can get the same tool brand new at a hardware store with a case and a warranty, why would I pay some guy the same price for something he already opened?

As a buyer, just do your research and understand what you're buying. And understand that the person on the other end is selling the item because they want to make a certain profit from it. If I think something is priced $30 too high, I'll offer $30 less. If I know I'm getting a great deal already, I have no problem paying the full asking price.

I do about a 50/50 mix of buying and selling, so I've learned to see every deal from both sides.

 

[mustangSR70]

You didn't, did you?

Hell no! That was a huge red flag right there. I told him cash when he picks up will work.