New Craigslist experience

[dudesweet157]

So I avoided the scammer from my last thread and finally set up what I thought was a legit deal.  Had a time and place, met the guy, but he conveniently brought less than the agreed upon amount of cash (I'm not talking 5 or 10 dollars, he was $100 short) and wanted to know if I would do the deal anyway since we were both already there.  The nerve of some people!  I told him he could hit an ATM or take a hike, and he just left...  I drove a considerable ways to meet him too. 

The more I try to use Craigslist, the more I'm beginning to think the fees and BS from eBay and PayPal are worth it.

/rant over]

 

[line6man]

Craigslist is full of flakes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKE3ZLj7_V8

 

[dudesweet157]

As a buyer, Craigslist has been relatively good to me.  I've bought textbooks, music equipment and found the band I've been in for the past 2.5 years on Craigslist.  As far as selling goes, unless I was selling a hard to find or vintage piece, I've had nothing but trouble and just ended up selling on Ebay.  The only reason I haven't done that yet is because I dread trying to ship an AC30 and if I get the going rate, I'll lose quite a bit of my investment (I got it used) in it in fees. 

 

[mayfly]

As a buyer, Craigslist has been relatively good to me.  I've bought textbooks, music equipment and found the band I've been in for the past 2.5 years on Craigslist.  As far as selling goes, unless I was selling a hard to find or vintage piece, I've had nothing but trouble and just ended up selling on Ebay.  The only reason I haven't done that yet is because I dread trying to ship an AC30 and if I get the going rate, I'll lose quite a bit of my investment (I got it used) in it in fees.

Do you have a local consignment shop?  for example, I use these guys all the time:

http://www.spacemanmusic.com/

 

[Jusatele]

I buy off craigs list a lot, and never have a raw deal
I have never sold over it
usually I meet and we look over the item, I test it and then we discuss price
I never lowball, I just point out what I am looking for, if there is damage or wear and ask what his CASH price is. I can get a few dollars off some guys, others I pay full price. Just depends on the item, I think there are a many guys scamming product as are scamming lowball, it goes both ways.

But at least I get to see and demo a product before I buy it
Ebay I cannot and I refuse to buy that way especially since there are so many guys desperate for the product they bit it up past a reasonable price.
And I will tell you, trying to get paypal to refund is a hassle.

I see craigs list as the better of the 2

 

[Rickgrxbass]

I think we're due for a new public "yard sale" site; eBay used to be it years ago, but the last 10 years at least it's just been overrun by wholesalers and straight-up retailers. You can't hardly find good deals on used stuff anymore. And Craigslist brings the creepiness of classified ads to the internet, you're better off dealing with gypsies than some of the weirdo's on CL (No offence to anyone of actual Hungarian descent, BTW).

 

[Hbom]

I heard there is supposed to be a phone app coming that will put feebay on the skids. Don't know much about it except what I just said and that I'm not smart enough to write it myself.
Any of you coders out there got any ideas?

:rock-on:

 

[Cagey]

It's not a coding problem - eBay and Craig's List both obviously work quite well from a functional standpoint. The problem is human nature. You can come up with tons of rules and enforcement schemes to mitigate against the baser tendencies, but then you end up with an expensive, unwieldy solution like eBay, or you can make it easy and have a CL, but as has become obvious over the years is that neither way works. Foolproof methods only breed craftier fools, they don't get rid of them.

 

[jay4321]

Craigslist seems to have a lot of timewasters. I'm not really into the whole driving out to meet somebody or having randoms show up at the door either. I'm far more inclined to buy than try to sell there.

Ebay, Amazon etc all have issues with fees but they work. I just set up Buy it Now/Immediate Pay Required and take a lot of good photos, give an honest and complete description, ship fast as promised with UPS/FedEx & with tracking. No overseas shipping or complicated auction terms.

It's not ideal for the cost, but then neither was the old way of trying to find a local buyer. Back in the day you had to get a bit lucky, or run an ad in the paper, or those little yellow tags in the front of Supermarkets. Or get scalped a bit trading the thing in to a shop. One (recently closed) music store in town offered to sell one of my guitars for me at 40% commission.

About the only thing that makes any sense going local for are heavy items like bikes and treadmills, at least to me. Even buying/reselling textbooks on campus is somewhat pointless anymore. As much as I dislike the seller fees today it's still so much easier to just write up a description ship off a box. Likewise if I want, say, a used Boss CE-5, I don't have to go scouring the local shops or wait until some local dude has one 40 miles away for $65.

 

[jay4321]

And on a side note, I live close to the shore in South Jersey, so I have to visit both the "South Jersey" and "Jersey Shore" locations.

 

[AprioriMark]

What are you trying to sell? Nevermind, just saw your other post. I've never had any problems selling, but I don't put up with a lot of BS either.  You'll get 600 out of that; just be patient.  Make sure to be clear that you're not interested in BS, and make sure you get a mobile number that you can both call and text.  I've found that anyone with contact "issues" ends up being a waste of time.

-Mark

 

[dudesweet157]

I never put my phone number up there.  I did it once and a bunch of wack-jobs started calling my number about unrelated (read: illegal) things.  I had to get them blocked to get them to stop.  My email is attached to my postings and I reply to all inquiries as soon I get them on my phone.  I've just come to the conclusion that most of the people one meets on the internet are flaky douche bags (present company excluded, of course).

 

[jay4321]

Another point is that Craigslist is vastly more practical to people who live in a major city or in the immediate area. I could see a person who lives in Boston or Philly making better use of it for basically anything. NJ is a pretty populated state per cap, but even then most of the listings for me are spread out sometimes as much as 40 miles.

Years ago I do remember an interesting experience with a guy who contacted me about buying a $50-ish guitar pedal, he was in Philly and gave me a hard time because I wasn't willing to deliver it personally, as opposed to just mailing the thing. About an hour each way with the tons of tolls (like $5 for the Ben Franklin bridge alone), not to mention gas and, you know, my time.

It's probably just my experiences, but it seems like Craiglist and garage sales attract a very disproportionate share of weirdos. Especially the latter case, I'll never do one of those again, I'd rather donate stuff or just toss it. I had one on a Saturday at 10am, and specifically noted "no early birds." One person showed up at before 8am knocking on my door, another woman walked straight upstairs and into my house (very separate from garage).

 

[line6man]

It's probably just my experiences, but it seems like Craiglist and garage sales attract a very disproportionate share of weirdos. Especially the latter case, I'll never do one of those again, I'd rather donate stuff or just toss it. I had one on a Saturday at 10am, and specifically noted "no early birds." One person showed up at before 8am knocking on my door, another woman walked straight upstairs and into my house (very separate from garage).

When you have garage sales, you have to start very early in the morning. I'm told that everything is picked clean by 8 or 9 in the morning, and people are out looking for garage sales at 6 or 7.

 

[Jusatele]

It's probably just my experiences, but it seems like Craiglist and garage sales attract a very disproportionate share of weirdos. Especially the latter case, I'll never do one of those again, I'd rather donate stuff or just toss it. I had one on a Saturday at 10am, and specifically noted "no early birds." One person showed up at before 8am knocking on my door, another woman walked straight upstairs and into my house (very separate from garage).

When you have garage sales, you have to start very early in the morning. I'm told that everything is picked clean by 8 or 9 in the morning, and people are out looking for garage sales at 6 or 7.

reason I do not have garage sales. I tend to want to set up after 9

 

[jay4321]

Understand about early garage sales, but I literally put

"10am-2pm. Absolutely no early birds!"

There weren't any signs and nothing was set up at that point, it was all in the garage with the door locked. I would have completely understood if I had been setting up at 8am and some passerby saw it, but it's a condo development not a public street. Out of consideration for my neighbors (and the fact I know people will show up early anyway), I made it 10am. Point being, this lady who came knocking at my door at 7:45am would only have known about it via the ad which was really clear, and she gave me the same "you gotta be here early or..."

9:30 or something yeah, but showing up 2 hours early and then expecting me to drop breakfast just because you want to beat everybody else for some used dishes is really inconsiderate.

The other one, she walked up an entire flight of steps, just opened the front door and walked right on in. She had to use the bathroom she said. Didn't knock or anything. I was downstairs and saw the whole thing.

And that's actually the second time that happened - when I first bought it we had no blinds and were up on ladders painting the cathedral ceilings in full view for anyone walking by, plus we had all of the windows and the front door wide open a few feet away. Neighbor figured us for workers doing renovations on an empty unit and just stopped in to see what we we're doing. Far more understandable given the situation, but I was still, "nope, I'm the new owner, and you're a stranger who just walked into my house."

 

[Jusatele]

Around here they knock on the door
I swear, it happened
I just gave up
I have a neighbor who has one 4 times a year, I just give her my stuff and she does not even take a commission, she just loves to hold garage sales. Is one of those types that goes to garage sales looking for stuff to sell at her's. I figure why not.
Craigslist is not a bad thing, as I said I ave gotten a quite a few good deals off it and I get to handle the item before I buy. Off of Fleabay I have had bad luck and getting a refund is not as easy as they claim. It is a long drawn out process if the seller does not want to refund, and that can end up in his favor very easy. The proof is in your hands and he can claim anything he wants.
I have sold a few items on Craigslist and admit you get a few weirdos and a few lowballers but I just give them a blank stare and do not open my mouth, it intimidates the hell out of them when you just do nothing, I love to watch them squirm.
No matter how you do business now days there are scammers of all kinds, even at legite places of business, it is the nature of making a buck.

 

[AprioriMark]

I have great luck with CL and rarely waste any time with lamers.  Hell, I've scored amazing stuff fairly regularly.  My Deluxe 5 neck and body for chump change, tons of great pickups for cheap (40 for JB/Jazz set nearly brand new, BB2 for 25, Prails for 30, etc etc)... I could go on, but you'd cry.  Hell, tonight, I scored this from a former W employee, and he is a great guy to boot:

I won't say how cheap it was, but I left the best cheesecake I've ever had to go check it out.  Padouk, and it's beautiful.

-Mark

 

[clearerphish]

I've been in a band for the last two years I found on craigslist.

I've also been receiving spam text messages from fake people responding to cl ads I have placed. (edit to clarify. People "respond" via email to my ads and seem very convincing. I respond with my cell number to get the ball rolling or call or text the cell number they gave me. I never get a response but the next day I start getting spam text messages when I wasn't before and no one ever follows up on the item for sale. And you know if you text "STOP" they say "oh, it's a good number", then put you on a list they sell for direct marketing)

It's scam central these days. If I want something, at least ebay has some sort of protections.