Scam? I think so.

[California]

My goal of protecting any potential buyer from being scammed worked like a charm.

Great strategy!

20+ years ago I was selling a lot of Y2K - surplussed electronics on Ebay. I followed the 'Ebay Sellers' group on Usenet. (Facebook hadn't been invented yet).

Back then an Ebay listing could include photos hosted elsewhere. This allowed a lot of scams since the photo could be changed while the auction was live.

Some pro dealers in that Usenet group boasted that when they found their photo was still getting hits after their auction was completed and paid, they substituted a new photo at their offsite link. 'Warning, Scam', or just something crude like dog poop. A scam vendor with many auctions open might never notice the change until he eventually wondered why nobody bid.

One legitimate vendor posted a long dialog with a scammer who was outraged that 'his' auction had been defaced.

 

[Henniker]

Send her a message and tell her, "Good grief!! I'm going to be in Roanoke on business/family/vacation (doesn't matter) and can inspect it then and pay with cash. Just let me know when and where". Or something along those lines and it either moved, or you won't get a reply. But it's definitely a scam.

I did the same thing years ago, when I was first looking for a tractor.
They said the tractor was in Iowa, so thought it odd that it was advertised on NH CL.
I replied with "Great! I'm a truck driver and I'll happen to be out that way next week. Give your address, and I'll pick it up." The ad was gone from CL within hours....

 

[Jbeerman9]

100% scam. I’ve seen the EXACT same response to a couple tractors I inquired about in the last two weeks. The cheap price and like new tractor should be a dead giveaway. Wishing thinking just like myself….but too good to be true. Which they were.

 

[IndyJay]

I did the same thing years ago, when I was first looking for a tractor.
They said the tractor was in Iowa, so thought it odd that it was advertised on NH CL.
I replied with "Great! I'm a truck driver and I'll happen to be out that way next week. Give your address, and I'll pick it up." The ad was gone from CL within hours....

The reason the ad was down was likely due to the number of people who "flagged" it. I always flag these ads for a relatively new "loaded" tractor for $8,000 - $12,000, especially if there is a phone number or (female) email address in the photo. I sometimes wonder if these are kids playing some game to see who gets the most hits? I see this a lot with car ads on CL with email addresses in the pictures.