Craigslist Stories

[Rich Riddle]

I am fast tiring of dealing with folks on Craigslist. Several want you to send phone numbers and never call or call in the middle of the night. Others never reply to e-mails yet keep posting the same tools for sale. I also noticed an increase in junk mail after responding to some advertisements. It makes me wonder if these are just people fishing for e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

That does not even begin to cover the stories of the people who actually do contact you and what they look and/or act like. So what are your best Craigslist stories? Halloween is approaching, were any of your contacts scary?

[Myk Rian]

I find that if you click on the respond link in the ad, it doesn't work.
I copy and then paste the address into my e-mail program.

[Rich Riddle]

My wife and I purchased a new refrigerator and had an old one to give away. I cleaned it, sanded it, repainted it, and replaced all the seal in the old one before giving it away. A charity indicated they had a man who would take it directly without having to haul it to them and then have him haul it home. He arrived and demanded, and I mean demanded, the new refrigerator instead of the other one. He said people like me "owed" it to him. I had to call the police to have him removed.

When trying to give things away, I have had people show up with missing doors on cars and others who tie furniture to the roofs of cars. Shoes and teeth seem optional for the Craigslist bandits where I live.

[Kevin Bourque]

I've done dozens of deals and can't think of any that went bad.
I've had a few people who said they would come over to look at what I was selling and then never showed, but thats about it.

[Rich Riddle]

I've done dozens of deals and can't think of any that went bad.
I've had a few people who said they would come over to look at what I was selling and then never showed, but thats about it.

That's good. I live in Kentucky though, so perhaps that's why I get some of the better stories. I have held a few items for people who never showed. Strange thing is that most of those were free items. I now use a long disclosure when posting to Craigslist:

The selling price takes into consideration that the item isn’t cosmetically perfect. The price is NOT a starting point for negotiations. Payment must be made in cash at pickup, no exceptions. Unfortunately, I cannot hold the items for someone because of previous “buyers” of other items not returning with the cash.

If you make an appointment to view the item, arrive promptly when scheduled. Have a means to lift this item into your automobile. Have people sufficiently strong to load the item into your automobile.

Please act in a polite and appropriate manner; be clean. The previous statements may seem to appeal to common sense, but some of the people attracted to Craigslist seem to enjoy shocking others with inappropriate actions and behaviors.

Please e-mail your telephone number to be contacted. I will not call before 9:00 AM or later than 8:00 PM. If you can see this advertisement, then the item is still available; the advertisement will be removed immediately upon sale. Thank you.

[Myk Rian]

I like your rules, Rich.

[Paul McGaha]

I like Rich's rules too.

The rules I use for craigslist are:

1) Ad's should have a picture of the actual tool, not a catalog picture.
2) I want to buy directly from the guy that used the tool, not a re-seller.
3) Pricing should be in line from the start, not need much or any tweaking.
4) If I say I agree to buy a tool and set an appointment to pick it up the seller will take it off the market.
5) I want the tools to be in very good to excellent condition

So far this has worked ok for me. A bit of filtering I guess. I'm no expert by any means but I've bought or sold a few things.

PHM

[Myk Rian]

5) I want the tools to be in very good to excellent condition

Well, I've broken that one.
I bought a 1938 8" jointer from a guy 250 miles away.
It was in pieces on his garage floor.

[Scott Shepherd]

I had a few things on there and I kept getting the "Please remove it and consider it sold immediately. I'm out of the country right now, but my son is going to school in South Africa and really needs this computer, so I'll paypal you the money and get you to send it to him".

I had that exact story sent to me on 3 different ads, 3 different times, but by different people.

So in my next sale, I posted that it was for local pickup only and that I didn't take paypal and wouldn't ship it to your college student that's studying in Africa.

I got an email on that item almost immediately after posting, telling me that I was a horrible human being for posting such a disrespectful ad and that my business will fail because I don't know a thing about human relations and marketing. It was a very long email, very detailed. They told me it was the worst ad they had ever seen in their life and I was a piece of garbage for writing and posting it.

I assumed it was written by the people that are sending that same scam out. I'm not sure how it meant by business would fail. It was a personal sale for a personal item and I never mentioned what business I was in, if I owned my own business or if I worked for Wal-Mart.

[Ben Hatcher]

If you think that the tool postings are crazy, you should look at some of the boats for sale. I can't tell you how many boats I've seen described as "nice" that aren't much more than an oxidized hull sitting in the dirt.

[Mike Circo]

I've had nothing but success and good engagements both selling and buying on Craigslist.

The fun one was giving away a few hundred pounds of sand from my kids sandbox that they looong since outgrew. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of all that sand (can't just dump it on my suburban lot) so I put a free add in craigs list. I had 5 people lined up for it. The first three took what they needed and cleared out the entire supply. One guy didn't have a good way to carry it home, and asked to use my buckets. I lent him five 5 gallon buckets, he filled them and I figured I may never see them again, and that would be the end of it. The next morning the buckets were on my front step, rinsed out and ready for reuse.

Like I said, you be careful, but I've had no problems. Maybe I just have good neighbors.

[Peter Kelly]

I've both sold and bought a lot of machinery and tools from CL and it's been great overall. Takes a bit of patience though.

[Eric DeSilva]

4) If I say I agree to buy a tool and set an appointment to pick it up the seller will take it off the market.

Guess you won't be buying anything from me.

You can blame all the people that set appointments and never showed up or kept rescheduling, or showed up and then wanted to renegotiate the price. Now I'm strictly first with cash in hand. If you say you are interested, I'll call you to tell you someone else bought it so you don't have to waste a trip, but my ad stays up 'til I've got cold hard cash.

[Eric DeSilva]

I made the mistake of offering a workbench for free--had the most PO'd people yelling at me that they were first and they were more deserving, yikes. Now when I want to get rid of something for free, I post a curb alert to CL and explicitly say that I won't answer emails and if you don't see it, it's gone. I do say that I'll pull the ad as soon as I see that it is gone, but there are no guarantees for "free."

[Paul McGaha]

Guess you won't be buying anything from me.

You can blame all the people that set appointments and never showed up or kept rescheduling, or showed up and then wanted to renegotiate the price. Now I'm strictly first with cash in hand. If you say you are interested, I'll call you to tell you someone else bought it so you don't have to waste a trip, but my ad stays up 'til I've got cold hard cash.

Maybe I'm lucky but all my craigslist transactions have been problem free. It's been my experience that once the buyer says I agree to that price and I want to make an appointment to pick it up there is an agreement in place. So far the agreements have held up.

I've made a couple of craigslist purchases (a JET Benchtop OSS and a Powermatic Sign (???)) from guys that turned out to be creekers.

Maybe it's good that I've been dealing I think 100% with woodworkers because all the craigslist transactions I've made have been woodworking tool related.

PHM