I’m just trying to sell some equipment and I get B.S. like this. 2nd time in a year I’ve gotten replies from an “out of town” buyer.
quote:
I appreciate your response to my inquiry. I am interested in buying it from you. I would love to come and check it out myself but I just got married and am presently on an honeymoon trip to Hawaii with my wife.Please withdraw the advert from web so I can be rest assured that the item is held for me. I don’t mind adding $50 for you to do that, I should believe that it is in good condition as stated. I will be making the payment via a Certified Check which my secretary will mail across to you.you do not have to worry about shipping, My mover will be coming for the pick up once the Certified Check has been cashed. I will need both your full name and physical address which will be for the payment and also enhance payment delivery. Hope to read from you soon again.
My experience with craigslist is that most people are FLAKES. I had an investment property for sale on CL – I kept getting calls and e-mails, but people would never follow up. Stuff like “we need to see this immediately – so very interested”. Then you’d never hear from them again. One guy wanted to look at the place right away – I said, I can be there in half an hour – he said, see you there. He never showed.
I had similar experience trying to sell household stuff.
Now I just put junk on the curb and say “come and get it – ad deleted when merchandise disappears”. That seems to work well (though people still write asking me to “hold” it – like they’re going to show up).
The scams are easy to spot after you’ve seen the first couple, but they are annoying and very plentiful. Otherwise, I’ve had good luck on Craigs. Got both our current tenents on Craigs, sold a dining room set, and the free stuff has all been picked up within an hour or two of posting.
I think some people reply to posts to feel like they have had human contact that day. I don’t get people that waste time replying and never follow up either.
“My experience with craigslist is that most people are FLAKES.”
DING! Don’t mind if I do vent for a bit, as I’ve got appliances for sale on CL right now. Have gotten about 7 emails about our fridge, so I either reply by email or call the number they ask me to call. Out of those replies, I got TWO real bites. No idea what happened to the rest of the people who were “VERY interested.” First guy said he’d come between 3 and 4 on Sunday, and would call when he was leaving. 4:00 rolls around, no word, I call HIM, “Oh, yeah I won’t be needing it anymore.” Fvcking awesome, thanks for the heads up buddy!
Then today, had a woman that sounded more reliable than the first guy - supposedly she’s fridge shopping for her boss / workplace. She called again this morning to arrange 4pm pick-up. But suddenly, at 1pm her boss magically acquired a fridge for free from somewhere - won’t be needing mine. Argh. Well, at least she gave advanced warning so I didn’t waste a trip home to wait there.
I’m sure people have had much worse CL experiences, but I guess this serves as a reminder why CL can just be a PITA. At this point I’m almost ready to post the stuff on Freecycle and be done. /rant off
I do have to say, that’s the most creative scam I’ve seen yet… the whole “certified check” and “my mover will come get it” adds quite a bit of assumed credibility to it…
But with regards to flaky CL people, yeah, wtf??? One thing that irritates the hell out of me is when someone posts an item, I email them saying “hey I want this when can I pick it up”, and then I never hear anything back… but the post stays up!
I’ve also learned to upcharge my price by $50 if I do try to sell something, because no one EVER offers the listed price, haha.