Online Selling Practices - Craigslist etc. Rant!

[RollingsFarms]

I hate when you make the deal over the phone, maybe they talk you down some, and THEN you find out they live two or three hours away and want YOU to meet them halfway or deliver the whatever it is to them basically. I don't mind meeting you in MY town but I'm not driving 45 mins to meet you halfway and especially not after you just beat me up on the price some and now I'll have cost tied up in gas. I tell them look if I have to meet you or go out of my way you will pay full price plus $40.

 

[jmc]

Has anyone mentioned the 10 second paint jobs so the product is "like new"? A guy near here even spray painted the hydraulic cylinder's shaft. Like new.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Did anyone mention CL posters who fail to take down an ad after they sell something? . . . .

Yes!! And then some of them get mad because you're "bothering" them about something that's already sold.

Well, here's a tip Mr. Seller: Remove your freaking ad when the item is sold.

 

[Jarrod32]

I have sold and bought things on Craigslist. Sometimes people are willing to negotiate on price, and sometimes they are firm. It is hard to tell when people have set their price with the expectation that they will haggle it down a bit, or if they have set a firm price. I tend to give myself some haggle room when I set a price on something I am selling. Sometimes I find items that are priced quite fairly, and sometimes the people seem to be a bit prouder of their item than they should be judging by the price. I have got some very good deals, and have walked away from a lot of items and offers when they were too far away from reasonable.

A while back I bought an old used pickup...I needed a"weekend hauler" type vehicle. I looked at a lot of pickups, some were good deals, but nicer and more money than I wanted to pay at the time. I stated that to the seller, that it wasn't for me, and didn't insult them with a low ball offer (in part because I thought they were priced fairly). Some were crap, and were overpriced. I looked at a lot of pickups before finding the right deal. I thought it was priced a bit high based on what I had seen, and was able to talk the seller down a couple hundred. We agreed on a price, and buyer and seller were happy.

I recently purchased a 3-point blade off Craigslist. It was advertised properly as a light-duty blade (what I wanted), and was priced fairly. Photo below, and I paid $140 for it. Some may think I paid too much, some may think I got a good deal. I think I got a good deal, because this will serve my purposes nicely, and I didn't need to pay for a new blade or pay for a heavier duty blade that I don't need. Both buyer and seller are happy, and ultimately that is all that matters.

Like some have already said...it is a crap shoot. You can find some good deals, but you sometimes have to sift through a lot of crap to find the occasional diamond in the rough.

 

[3930dave]

The best is car ads where they don't put the mileage.

Also, car and truck ads with no engine type/displacement info.

Rgds, D.

 

[bcp]

Jarrod32, your blade would be listed on CL around here for $400-$600.



Bruce

 

[xzcVAbc5]

Craigslist for me is really only worth it for multiple hundred $ items or greater where there is a chance at a deal. Almost all of my tools come from Ebay or Amazon. I live 60 miles from the nearest "big city" so it's not worth my time and gas to go talk to someone about a used whatever.

For big ticket items like my tractor, shopping on CL was best since I wouldn't have to pay sales tax.

If I have a rant other than those listed is people that are selling a tractor and have a bunch of implements and they aren't willing to price one or two of their attachments separately. The specific attachments I value more than someone buying the whole lot and the remaining tractor and implements are now at a lower price and would make it easier to sell.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Has anyone mentioned the 10 second paint jobs so the product is "like new"? A guy near here even spray painted the hydraulic cylinder's shaft. Like new.

Yes! I looked at a zero turn mower recently that look good in the not-so-closeup pics in the CL ad.

When I saw it in person, the guy had painted it with a rattle-can Scag color and had painted over the decals. And the overall mower looked like the seller had taken the same care with his maintenance that he did with his paint job.

 

[Jarrod32]

Yes! I looked at a zero turn mower recently that look good in the not-so-closeup pics in the CL ad.

When I saw it in person, the guy had painted it with a rattle-can Scag color and had painted over the decals. And the overall mower looked like the seller had taken the same care with his maintenance that he did with his paint job.

Sometimes they make it easy to walk away...

 

[aczlan]

When my wife got her plug in Prius, we had a 10 year old Honda Civic Hybrid to unload, and the dealer's offer was, to say the least, insulting. I listed it on CL, and among the responses was an email from a guy in Wisconsin (we're in Maryland...) so I took detailed photos and scanned service records, etc. He flew in, bought the car and drove it home from the airport. A year later he emailed me, happy as could be, since the car had saved him a lot of gas money in his 100+ mile daily commute. Having bought and sold tractors via CL, all I can add would be take lots of good photos, present a clear description, and they will come.

I bought a car in Raleigh almost like that. The only difference is that I had a friend who inspected it and stored it for a week until I could fly down (from Upstate NY) and pick it up.

What I wont do anymore is take a deposit , I have had buyers put down a deposit and 3 weeks later say they change their mind . Now the first person with cash gets it .

I will take a non-refundable deposit with a 2 week window to pick it up (if there wasn't much interest in it). After that, I keep the deposit and it goes back on Craigslist.

Aaron Z