Favorite Stupid Craigslist Experiences

[Ken45101]

Years ago I called someone selling firewood by the truck load. A woman answered. I asked her how big of a load it was, she responded with "I don't know but the truck has a lot of gears." ?????????

 

[Ed of all trades]

We Had someone here selling the free Harbor Freight multimeter for $30. I got one for free and I think I paid to much. Anyone want a free multimeter? I'll sell it to you for $30.:laughing:

 

[mark02tj]

I have a question about the trolls. If you answer them, can they actually get to your email address or is it really protected by Craigslist?

They can only get the CL address unless you put your regular address in an email.

x2 on that, BUT.... if your email is set up as "Joe Smith", occasionally you'll see your name in the "from" as the emails go back and forth. Also, if you have a "signature" that automatically goes on your emails, that will go into the craigslist email. For that reason I've set up a Hotmail account that is anonymous with no identifiers in it. Just a first name. GMail, Yahoo, AOL all can serve the same purpose. If you really want to be careful, buy a MagicJack phone number that you only use for CL transactions.

I've had some good scores on CL. A couple of years ago I bought a Frontier RB2184 for $400. The paint wasn't even scratched on it. That poor guy was selling his 13 acre place to move into a suburb neighborhood so they'd be closer to his wife's new job. Personally, I would have gotten a new wife! :laughing: Picked up several other things on CL too - some good, some not so good. Any of the not-so-good has been my own fault for not really knowing what I was looking at. Shame on me for that!

 

[aczlan]

True. I have an email alias setup in Gmail that I use for Craigslist, it's something along the lines of email+craigslist@gmail.com.
That let me set it up to just have my first name in the "from" name and turn off my signature.
I also use a Google Voice phone number as it is set to only forward calls to me when I am likely to be awake (no 3AM "do you still have xxxxxx" calls that way).

Aaron Z

 

[Travelover]

We Had someone here selling the free Harbor Freight multimeter for $30. I got one for free and I think I paid to much. Anyone want a free multimeter? I'll sell it to you for $30.:laughing:

I get a kick out of the people selling Harbor Freight trailers for much more than new. Sure you have to bolt them together, but.........

 

[Garandman]

A guy arranged to look at a minivan we were selling. He wanted to come look at it in the afternoon so I took work off. He never showed.

I called up his wife, who mentioned that he worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic. Oh, I said, I know some people there, who does he work for? She told me, and I called up his boss and told him this guy was supposed to be coming up to look at a van in Boston and no-showed. That's not what he told his boss....

 

[weldingisfun]

Never offer anything for free on CL. We had a rooster we wanted rid of, so we offered it for "FREE". A woman called and asked if we would deliver it to her. Changed the ad and sold it later for $5.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the high prices on CL is the low ballers. I have dealt with quite a few of them, I always jack up my asking price so that I can get the price I really want.

 

[Country Geek]

True. I have an email alias setup in Gmail that I use for Craigslist, it's something along the lines of email+craigslist@[B][/B]gmail.com.
That let me set it up to just have my first name in the "from" name and turn off my signature.
I also use a Google Voice phone number as it is set to only forward calls to me when I am likely to be awake (no 3AM "do you still have xxxxxx" calls that way).

Aaron Z

This is the best advice. Burner gmail account + burner google voice number. Especially since all the craigslist deals I've successfully done over the last 2+ years have been exclusively conducted over text (using the Google Voice number). No calls or emails. That seems to be the most effective way to do business on CL these days.

Whenever I do that I get a few lowball texts that are easy to respond "no" to. Usually 1-2 of them then come back with a more reasonable offer, we go back and forth a few times, and then agree. Then the person comes and buys it. I've never had anyone back out at that point because I always advertise completely honestly, including the flaws. I've always ended up selling the item (including a car) to the first (and therefore only) person who made an appointment to come look at it, after the back-and-forth texts.

 

[farm boy00]

Perhaps one of the reasons for the high prices on CL is the low ballers. I have dealt with quite a few of them, I always jack up my asking price so that I can get the price I really want.

Yup that's the only way you can do it

 

[Ed of all trades]

We have sold a few things on Craigslist and everyone has had one person come and look and paid the asking price without a word except thank you Ed