Craigslist needs a "Punch-person-in-the-nose" button.

[sikkinixx]

Not to sound like a crotchety old man or anything but honestly, either a) people are getting stupider b) too many idiots use the internet or c) people are selfish asses.

Craigslist, at least around here, used to be very easy and painless to use. Sure people might do the "I'll be there at x o'clock" and show up an hour late or whatever but I generally had no issues selling or buying.

Today though, good lord. Trying to sell a lamp, retails for $20 put it in for $10 including a fancy LED bulb.

"DO u still have the lamp 4 sale?"

Yes!

"Can u drop it off [20 minutes away]?"

Sure, I'm heading by there anyway.

"Great! Will u do $5? Its 4 my sister and she is moving out a needs a lamp (she is in university and doesnt have much $)?"

Go To He....

I am an unemployed, deeply in debt student. Her sob story does nothing for me. Honestly? REALLY? It's less than half the price in the store, no tax AND I will drop it off and you're going to hustle me down 50%? IT'S FIVE DAMN DOLLARS.

Another thing for sale, $50 brand new. Price firm, no delivery, picture included. E-mails include:

Will u deliver [45 minutes away]?

I'll give u 30

Is it new? (*hint: read the description*)

Can u send me a pic?

I don't have the money right now, can I give you half today and half on payday?

 

[waloshin]

At least you got offers.

 

[chown33]

Not to sound like a crotchety old man or anything but honestly, either a) people are getting stupider b) too many idiots use the internet or c) people are selfish asses.

d) All of the above.

FWIW, none of this is new. I used to get it with For Sale want ads in the local newspaper (ya know, that thing that was devastated by Craig's List).

 

[JoeG4]

That's nothing! The vast majority of replies I get when I list things for sale are "Is the item still for sale" and one where the item's description (or title) is followed with a ".?" at the end.

Both are sent by scammers. :| And then you get the people that call, make the offer, and then never show up - only to say they weren't interested later.

There's also people that lowball bigtime. If you get an offer that's like.. 1/4 of the price you're listing for, they're out of their mind.

The worst craigslist experience I had was where I listed my family's house for rent, and it was followed up by a scammer listing our house for rent for much cheaper and then they were trying to scam interested people. Of course, you would be lucky to get an apartment in the area for the monthly rent he was asking, nevermind a big house.... but people were whacko enough to think....

That we should rent the house to them for that price because he listed it ....

when I complained to craigslist, they deleted my listing and blacklisted my account.

 

[leftywamumonkey]

I feel your pain every time I sell something on Craigslist.

I can't believe the buyer had the audacity to offer $5 after you agreed to deliver the lamp. Wow...

I wish there was a reputation system where you could rate the buyer and the seller, kind of like eBay.

 

[rei101]

That is called: selling.

To sell is like that every where.

 

[einmusiker]

theres no point in trying to sell something worth $10. might as well give it away to family

 

[rhett7660]

That is ok, I had an ad with a bedroom set that said will not separate. 30+ emails and texts later all asking will I separate it... ugh.

 

[Krafty]

I can never sell anything on CL without getting that one request to wire the money to Idaho and ship the package because him and his daughter who wants the item are moving to Africa.

 

[lord patton]

I didn't read the thread and I don't have to. Based on the title of the thread I'm sure that I agree.

 

[JoeG4]

lol while I've had craigslist go pretty bad, I've also had it work out pretty well, too. As for breaking up sets, one time I did that selling our washer/dryer and ended up getting $40 more.

 

[pvmacguy]

I used to use CL all the time. I don't anymore after the last experience I had.

I was trying to sell a 32GB iPad "orignal" with a vaja case, apple case, and a bunch of other junk for $300. I posted pictures in the listing, got some emails and low balls then this dude agrees on price. I text him the pictures as well and we agree on a meeting place. 30 minutes away from me much to my displeasure.

Go there, dude calls 5 MINUTES BEFORE MEET TIME, Says "wait this isnt an iPad 2 is it??" I say "NO! it's an iPad 1 I already told you that!!!" he goes, "well, that isnt any better than my (toshiba android tablet) I don't want it." At this point I'm so I let that MF'er have it.

Needless to say, I won't ever use CL again. People in my area are just too cheap and too retarded and I won't put up with it.

/rant

 

[h1r0ll3r]

I've only used CL twice to sell something;

1st time - tried to sell my T-Mobile Sidekick (yes, this was quite some time ago) and got numerous lowball/shady offers. Finally found someone will to pay my asking price. He/She sent me an "invoice" from PayPal which looked like it was made using MS FrontPage or some crap. They said the payment was on hold until I sent them a verified tracking number, at which point, then they'd release the payment. This phone was meant for his "niece" which lived in the Congo and it was "his/her" birthday present.

Note to scammers, if you're going to try and run a scam like this, probably best if you actually put someone's name in there and stop putting your family member of choice in parentheses.

2nd time - looking for a travel case for my golf clubs. Found one really cheap and called the guy up to confirm he still had it. He said yes. Took off early from work to drive 40 minutes to his place to seal the deal. When I got there, he said it was sold already. Asked him why he didn't tell me this beforehand? Said he didn't have my number?

I will NEVER EVER use CL again so long as I live. I'll put up with the eBay crap any day over CL.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Craigslist has always worked pretty well for me. I bought my daughter a MacBook for college and got a free iPod touch. Listed the touch on CL and had money in hand within 30 minutes. I have sold lots of other things as well. Yeah, you get the idiots and bottom feeders, but that is to be expected as it is basically an online garage sale.

 

[samiwas]

This is simply everywhere. And it doesn't matter what you list, people are programmed to lowball. Getting one over one someone else seems to have become an admirable trait.

Our neighborhood has a Facebook page where residents can discuss issues of importance or just chat. It's mostly used to whine about inane things. But pretty often, a resident will put something up for sale. They almost always offer it up for a really low price. Something like "Dresser that I bought last year for $1000, still in perfect condition. Asking $100 and I'll bring it to you". It doesn't matter what the item is, the same girl in our neighborhood always responds with something like "Will you take $15?" She also asks if other neighbors will come install crown molding in her house or replace her brake pads for her, and she will pay in beer because she doesn't want to pay money. She has become known around the neighborhood as the lowballer...meet anyone new and mention her and you always get a "Oh my God I KNOW!!"

So then, some friends decided to have fun with her. She posted on our page about desperately needing a dining table and asked if anyone was selling one. One friend put a $2000 table on there for $50, and another friend "bought" it within 10 seconds. The girl was distraught and begging for him to sell the table to her. There was no table. Awesomeness.

 

[GoCubsGo]

CL used to be better but now it is more of a headache. I always state, "if the item is listed it is still for sale" and the first e-mail I get is "do you still have this?"

I am selling something for $50 for a pair. The retail price is $160 for two and a good 3-hour drive one way. I was offered $5 for one after about 6 e-mails. Waste of my time. Poor college student etc etc. I was in college and never used that excuse; it's stupid.

CL still has a place and I've sold some larger items on there but now it does take more time than normal. When I was thinking of getting rid of my iPhone some jackass offered me 1/3rd of my asking price telling me I'll be sorry when I don't take it. I'm not.

 

[sikkinixx]

haha glad to see I'm not alone.

I thought I had sold the lamp. Met the person and everything only a few minutes from my place.

"Oh... I thought this was a floor lamp not a desk lamp"

THERE WAS A DAMN PICTURE OF IT!

I told her quite dryly she owed me gas money, she called me a prick and left. Oh well.


On the plus side I sold an xbox game with zero fuss so there is still hope.

 

[TedM]

I feel like a lot of people over the internet need to be punched. Hopefully no one feels that way about me.

 

[dukebound85]

I've had sellers agree to a price and then later try to haggle me up

I've had people interested in vehicles wanting me to drive 4hrs to meet them so they could see it lol

I have had people wanting to test ride my bike with no cash in hand (like yea, if they drop it I would be screwed)

I have heard plenty of "I am in college and broke stories" where they want to pay me ess. As if I really give a **** they are poor and in college

I get all the usual scam tricks as well

But......I have had alot of good experiences as well with it, and will continue to use the site

 

[designs216]

You've pretty much got to approach CL with low expectations, realizing it's FREE aside from the PITA potential. I've dealt with the extreme low ballers, the no-shows and the scammers but overall I've sold about 1/2 of what I posted, which is not bad all things considered. What might help maintain sanity, alluded to earlier -- some things are not worth the trouble of posting and many buyers want to wheedle you down to that level.

 

[tech4all]

Go there, dude calls 5 MINUTES BEFORE MEET TIME, Says "wait this isnt an iPad 2 is it??" I say "NO! it's an iPad 1 I already told you that!!!" he goes, "well, that isnt any better than my (toshiba android tablet) I don't want it." At this point I'm so I let that MF'er have it.

What did you do?

 

[spacepower7]

I've never sold anything on Craigslist but this thread actually makes eBay look good.

Many of my friends just shop the free zone of Craigslist or otherwise check if the person is local and moving, therefore serious about selling for offered price.

My only bad experience with eBay was someone that wanted to return a computer battery that I could never verify as working anyway. It was cheaper to refund the money and let them keep it than to refunded and pay return shipping for a product I didn't know if I could resell.

Most of my other eBay sales (years ago) yielded 20-100% more than I was willing to part with them for.

There is something about the competitive bidding that makes it worthwhile sometimes. Granted, my auctions attracted specific informed buyers.

Craigslist is like the Wild West, no rules and the scammers live there.

 

[splitpea]

The trick with CL, at least if you're fortunate enough to live in a high-traffic area, is to end the post with some specific instructions (e.g. "Any responses without XYZ in the subject line and confirming that you can pick it up between 8pm and 10pm tomorrow will be ignored.") Makes it really easy to weed out the people who are too lazy to read your post or won't respect your time.

Then you actually ignore the ones who don't bother reading. 75 replies; 8 actually followed instructions; offered it to the one who gave the earliest pickup time, and told another that if that guy flaked it was hers. Done it twice. Easy-peasy.

 

[Jimbo47]

When I look for stuff on CL (I've been boat shopping in the Pittsburgh area for over a year now) I steer clear of posts without pictures. Honestly if the seller cannot be bothered to post a picture of whatever they are selling, they probably aren't 100% willing to sell or negotiate a fair price.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Yeah, you get the idiots and bottom feeders, but that is to be expected as it is basically an online garage sale.

Exactly. I listed my 4S, 20 min later I got an offer $70 lower than asking. Said no thanks. The next day someone asks if it has been sold and offered full price. I met the guy in a local (close) Starbucks and sealed the deal in less than 20 min. Got full price which paid for my iPhone 5 and he got a great condition unlocked 4S.

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... I steer clear of posts without pictures. Honestly if the seller cannot be bothered to post a picture of whatever they are selling, they probably aren't 100% willing to sell or negotiate a fair price.

Same here.