People will steal anything!!!

[Deere Dude]

I had a 24x40 6' chain link fence in the middle of a 2 acre open grassy field on a busy 2 lane highway I used for selling stuff. The house was 600' away in a woods with the fence barely visible because of trees. The nearest house was 1/3 mile up the road and the road was straight as an arrow for 1 mile one way and 5 miles the other way.

I put cars, boats, aluminum wheels, trailers, tractor attachments, garden tractors and everything else I could think of to sell. This was before CL but I had a lot of luck.

I had a nice set of wheels, but not super fancy ones, for my truck inside and chained them all together. One wheel was hooked by somebody and pulled from the pile until the chain was tight, so they left it.

One other item I had was a very old 40 HP antique all aluminum type Evinrude boat motor in the fence. It was laying outside for 20-30 years and was shot but I figures I would sell it for cheap, like 10-20 bucks or so. Maybe I would just throw it back in the weeds and forget it even existed.

I moved some stuff around one day and leaned the motor up against the fence and called it a day. The next time I checked a couple days later the motor was gone. Somebody nicely cut a slot in the fence and pulled the motor. Then it seemed the motor got more valuable to me.

That was in the 90s but would think twice about selling stuff that way now.

 

[STx]

CL is a mixed bag, I've had mostly very good experiences with it though. I sell a lot of hog traps on CL and those buyers have pretty much all been good people. I'm not a negotiator, I price things where I think they're fair and you can either take it or leave it. I had one guy that called me wanting a hog trap and tried to negotiate with me. I told him it is what it is, if you think it's too much go somewhere else. He agreed to the price and shows up, I get it loaded up in his truck and he starts trying to negotiate again. At the time, I was loading my trailer to take a large order to one of my distributors so I was busy and not in the mood to deal with it. I pulled the trap out of his truck and started dragging it back into the shop, the look on his face was priceless! He starts saying "hold on, hold on" and I look at him and tell him again, you knew the price before you came, either you want the trap or not, makes no difference to me either way. He pulls out the full amount and hands it to me and I loaded the trap back up. Just before he leaves, he shakes my hand and says "man, you drive a hard bargain. can't blame a guy for trying though, right?" I just chuckled and he was on his way.

As far as the free stuff, I never, ever put my phone number on those ads. I put the address and tell them first come, first served, don't knock on my door, don't make a mess and it's usually gone in less than an hour. Once it's gone, I delete the ad. I've gotten rid of all kinds of stuff like that from broken washing machines to excess flooring to old light fixtures. I like that the stuff isn't going to the landfill and haven't really had any bad experiences doing it that way other than the one time someone broke the glass in a light fixture and didn't bother to pick it up. That was pretty minor though.

The strangest thing I ever had stolen was a $10 dog tie out from my property when we were first starting to clean things up down here. I had cameras up because we'd had problems with theft here in the past and got a picture of the thief walking out with the tie out in one of his kid's hands and a rifle slung over his shoulder. Turned out he had a felony record so he ended up getting convicted on a felony charge of felon in possession of a firearm and spent 2.5 years in the state jail for that dog tie out. He's out now and I've gotten a picture of him stealing one of my cameras but, it wasn't good enough to positively identify him. If he keeps wandering around here though, I'll catch him in the act eventually and it won't go well for him.

 

[Ford850]

I've never listed anything for free on CL. That scares me. I have sold quite a few things on it though. I research prices briefly, and list things on the low end compared to others selling similar things. I clean up the item, take lots of pics showing details and any flaws. Then I post a very descriptive ad and say "first one here with $xx.xx gets it" at the end of it. I don't budge off my price and filter out requesters by email before I let them call me. Most items are sold and gone on the same day. Sometimes within minutes. I've been lucky so far.
Oh yeah, I also move the items out away from the house and close to the road when someone's coming to pick it up. I meet them out there.

 

[rustyshakelford]

When we put things out at the road and place a free sign it's hit or miss how long it stays. When it's out there for longer than a few hrs I'll flip the sign over and paint $20 or more and it's gone within 30mins. People are weird and shady. Think they are getting a better deal by stealing it than taking it when offered for free

Brett

 

[5030]

I have a couple deterrents around here. My NRA sign by the drive and my very obvious shooting range you can see driving down the road. Firearm possession seems to be a good deterrent to theft. Could be the fact I open carry around the house too. This is an open carry state.

 

[RollingsFarms]

And now he knows where you live... I sold a welder on CL - met the buyer in a WallyWorld parking lot on a busy day.

No he doesn't, he just knows where an empty acre lot I own is located. I just happen to have an old burn barrel on the site. I never would allow someone from Craigslist to come to my house. If they'll steal a 30 year old barrel there's no telling what they'd steal from my house.

 

[joefromga]

I always have my helper with me. Having 2 people makes such a huge difference. It calms you and if the person is shady they'll be way less likely to try anything.

Also my gun makes me feel better.

 

[Oleozz]

Recently sold a trailer on CL. Sold it locally, man and his wife arrived with cash, liked the trailer and took it home. Only got one call where the man did not seem quite with it but all in all, at least to this point, was not a bad experience.

 

[5030]

No he doesn't, he just knows where an empty acre lot I own is located. I just happen to have an old burn barrel on the site. I never would allow someone from Craigslist to come to my house. If they'll steal a 30 year old barrel there's no telling what they'd steal from my house.

I'd give them my ex's address and hope they steal her....

 

[TCB1]

Dang, i've never had that kind of bad luck. Sorry!