Craigslist in your town

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asicer

Touchdown! Greaser!
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asicer
Does this happen on your local Craigslist?

MyAd: "$100 Unlocked gold iPhone 6 plus 32GB $100. If the ad is up, the phone is still available."

TheirEmail#1: "Hi. Is the Unlocked gold iPhone 6 plus 32GB $100 still available?"
MyReply#1: "Yes."
TheirEmail#2:"Is the Unlocked gold iPhone 6 plus 32GB $100 unlocked?"
MyReply#2: "Yes."
TheirEmail#3: "How much memory and what color is the Unlocked gold iPhone 6 plus 32GB $100?"
MyReply#3: "32GB and Gold"
TheirEmail#4:"How much do you want for the Unlocked gold iPhone 6 plus 32GB $100?"
MyReply#4: "$100"
<crickets>

I've gone through this dialog with 4 different people so far.
 
Think how stupid the average reader is, and know that half of them are dumber than that.
 
What impresses me is that four out of four of your potential customers can write a clearly written email, spelling everything correctly.
 
To answer your question @asicer, yes. Same here.

Interestingly I tried this instead of answering and it worked.

“Re-read the ad.”

Numerous people responded something to the effect of, “Oh, I only looked at the pictures.”

I suspect if you put the text in a photo, they’d see it. Whether they’d read it then or not, I don’t know.

Haven’t tried that new theory yet.
 
Yeah, our CL is different around here.

"Is your iPhone still available?"

"yes"

"Sir, I am out of the country right now but would like purchase. Please kindly let me pay your for your iPhone plus your troubles of shipping. I will be sending a cashier's check. You can send the overpayment to the person who will be receiving the item for me."
 
I answered one for a 1962 Corvette for $1500. I knew it was BS but '62 Vettes don't come around often, and ya never know. I wasn't at the airport so maybe my ship came in lol. Anyway, called and the poor woman said someone is playing a trick on them and they didn't have a '62.
 
I ask the same, because there are a good number of sellers who misrepresent in their adds, better to find out via email than drive somewhere and find out.
 
My town has an area for sellers/buyers in the PD parking lot to meet for safety.
 
I've mostly had good luck on Craigslist, though I've encountered some scammers. Still, in the vast minority. I even unloaded some of Uncle Lester's ancient camera equipment.
 
I've sold a couple vehicles on CL, El Camino and S2000 Honda. Plus some other household stuff. Just have to be cautious.
 
I've had 2 experiences with CL. Selling a motorcycle and selling a Flat-Screen Projection TV...both sold in one day without any bull about my asking price...
 
denverpilot said:
Numerous people responded something to the effect of, “Oh, I only looked at the pictures.”

I suspect if you put the text in a photo, they’d see it. Whether they’d read it then or not, I don’t know.
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Excellent idea! I think I'm going to try it.
 
I Once bought a pontoon boat, I didn't like it and put it on CL at twice the price I'd paid for it, thinking I 'd haggle it down if needed. It sold in hours.
 
Tom-D said:
I Once bought a pontoon boat, I didn't like it and put it on CL at twice the price I'd paid for it, thinking I 'd haggle it down if needed. It sold in hours.
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NoHeat said:
What impresses me is that four out of four of your potential customers can write a clearly written email, spelling everything correctly.
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They have smartphones with voice recognition. I’ll leave to you to decide who is smarter
 
One of the guys at work was talking yesterday about Craigslist shutting down its personals section. He seemed bothered by it. o_O
 
I had this ad a few years ago:

"Free Flat Screen TV model blah-blah worth $500! Come pick it up. Free! Only one requirement: Let me know when you want to come pick it up - ANY time is fine by me, BUT stick within 15 minutes of the time that YOU tell me".

Easy right? Nope... the community couldn't do it. 5 people made appointments and tried to show up anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours late.

I eventually just pulled the ad and stuck the thing in the trash.
 
I don't do Craigs List or eBay anymore. I just put up a notice at church. If no one wants it I'll give it to Goodwill.

My favorite adds will say, "Tire for sale" And have a picture of an old wore out tire. :rolleyes:
 
Tom-D said:
I Once bought a pontoon boat, I didn't like it and put it on CL at twice the price I'd paid for it, thinking I 'd haggle it down if needed. It sold in hours.
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I did the same thing with a jetski...I knew I had gotten a good deal, but I guess I didn't realize just how good a deal. Owned/used the jetski for 2 years, then doubled my money. People were fighting over it when I sold it....and it wasn't cheap either. Weird.
 
mscard88 said:
I answered one for a 1962 Corvette for $1500. I knew it was BS but '62 Vettes don't come around often, and ya never know. I wasn't at the airport so maybe my ship came in lol. Anyway, called and the poor woman said someone is playing a trick on them and they didn't have a '62.
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They didn't have a '62. They had a '63 split window, and I haggled her down to $1200. You're ship was in, you just asked the wrong questions. :cool:
 
What I hate the most of the selling end of things is when they want to meet you somewhere... ok fair enough I get some people are afraid... but then I'm there on time and they're not. Again, fine, that happens but they'll keep texting they're on their way and in fact are running an hour or more late. How can you run an hour late and not know you're going to be really late? Tell me that for god sakes, I can go grab a sandwich instead of sitting in my car in a parking lot for an hour.
 
cowman said:
What I hate the most of the selling end of things is when they want to meet you somewhere... ok fair enough I get some people are afraid... but then I'm there on time and they're not. Again, fine, that happens but they'll keep texting they're on their way and in fact are running an hour or more late. How can you run an hour late and not know you're going to be really late? Tell me that for god sakes, I can go grab a sandwich instead of sitting in my car in a parking lot for an hour.
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Being in the boonies it’s pretty much a given I’m going to drive in to meet them. They think they’ll end up buried in my backyard just finding the place, and they’ll get lost even in daylight.

But I can also tell them, “It takes me 30 minutes to get to the WalMart from home, so if you’re not there at the appointed time I’ll send directions to find my house, and you won’t find it. And Google Maps only gets you close.” :)
 
I had three mattress/box spring sets to get rid of when I sold my house. They were 30+ years old. I was worried about how I was going to dispose of them so someone suggested Craigslist. I got a call the same day I listed them. "Still got those mattresses?" He came over right away, in a small pickup. No way they were going to all fit since one was king set. He ended up making two trips. The funniest thing was that he asked me for the bedding... the bedding I was stripping off the bed that I had slept in the night before. Sure, why not. I have no need for king bedding any more. Wow, what people will take for free. The only drawback is that I had to sleep on the floor the last three weeks I lived there. Good thing I have an awesome camping mattress.
 
Everskyward said:
I had three mattress/box spring sets to get rid of when I sold my house. They were 30+ years old. I was worried about how I was going to dispose of them so someone suggested Craigslist. I got a call the same day I listed them. "Still got those mattresses?" He came over right away, in a small pickup. No way they were going to all fit since one was king set. He ended up making two trips. The funniest thing was that he asked me for the bedding... the bedding I was stripping off the bed that I had slept in the night before. Sure, why not. I have no need for king bedding any more. Wow, what people will take for free. The only drawback is that I had to sleep on the floor the last three weeks I lived there. Good thing I have an awesome camping mattress.
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This guy?

upload_2018-3-28_16-43-8.jpeg
 
I have bought 4 vehicles over the years on CL (why 4? Sons.) Have had good luck with all 4 although one was for a few kilobucks and was leery about carrying all that cash to a blind drop so put #2 son off with the cash around the corner. Have also advertised for contract workers on CL, that costs $35 but is still good value for the responses I got. CL is a holdover from a simpler earlier internet era. Kind of like those prehistoric living fossils they catch every once in a while.
 
Another thing I ran into was people wanting me to deliver the item. Keep in mind I was offering this stuff free, and most of it was furniture. Uh no, if I was able to transport it, I would take it to the Salvation Army or some other charity. One of the drawbacks of living in the boonies was that no charity would bring a truck out there.
 
CL for Houston is no good.

I bought and sold a bunch of motorcycles and a couple of cars on CL but that was 10 years ago. CL is now littered with car dealers posing as individual sellers.

I've had decent luck buying music gear but not so much selling it. Everyone wants to low-ball on gear they haven't even seen yet.

Don't bother looking for musicians on CL. They should call it 'Flake List'
 
Everskyward said:
I had three mattress/box spring sets to get rid of when I sold my house. They were 30+ years old. I was worried about how I was going to dispose of them so someone suggested Craigslist. I got a call the same day I listed them. "Still got those mattresses?" He came over right away, in a small pickup. No way they were going to all fit since one was king set. He ended up making two trips. The funniest thing was that he asked me for the bedding... the bedding I was stripping off the bed that I had slept in the night before. Sure, why not. I have no need for king bedding any more. Wow, what people will take for free. The only drawback is that I had to sleep on the floor the last three weeks I lived there. Good thing I have an awesome camping mattress.
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When we decided to downsize one room and make it “not a guest room anymore” and replace the beds in the other two rooms in Centennial we had the exact same thing happen. We were about to embark on having all the hardwoods redone that had been under the carpet unfinished for decades and the furniture needed to be gone.

Three nice clearly Mexican guys (only one spoke english) showed up not an hour after I posted the mattresses and beds after calling first. I said I’d hold them all until they looked that day. We didn’t post them completely free but super low. Like “I want these gone today” low.

The twin set was ancient from family and the queen guest room set was a cheapie fake brass thing that was rickety but serviceable. The only nice one was ours and we had already arranged to buy a replacement for it after the wood floors were done and a similar set for the guest room. Even the “nice” one was some fake wood stuff and was our first bed in our first condo. It was time for the stuff to go.

They crammed two queen mattresses, two twin mattresses and the beds and all the bedding ... into a Ford Ranger.

Well kinda in it. More in it and on top of it. Then all three of them smashed into the bench seat are were gone in like 15 minutes, tops.

I’ve never seen a Ford Ranger that full before. I was so dumbfounded they got it all in one trip (I offered to let them come back, I wouldn’t sell the stuff to anyone else) that I didn’t even think to take a photo.

I think I pocketed $150 and got the best laugh I’d had in a long time as I watched that truck headed up the street. It was like watching the three stooges load a truck there for a few minutes. Then cram into the clown car bench seat and head out to parts unknown.

One man’s trash... those guys were awesome. On the twin and the guest room we were already fine with throwing in the bedding. We threw in one of the bedding sets from our room just because the guys were so hilarious. Plus Karen likes to change up the colors and stuff fairly regularly so I knew she’d just replace that set with something new to go with the renovated floors anyway. :)

I know she keeps like four sets for our bed now. I don’t even pay attention. I just climb in. As long as the warm set is on in cold months I don’t care what it looks like at all. About as far as I go is, “Hmmm. Blue this time. Nice.” LOL.

At least she got over the whole decorative pillows everywhere thing years ago. Mostly they were tossed on the floor. Hahahaha.
 
hankrausch said:
I have bought 4 vehicles over the years on CL (why 4? Sons.) Have had good luck with all 4 although one was for a few kilobucks and was leery about carrying all that cash to a blind drop so put #2 son off with the cash around the corner. Have also advertised for contract workers on CL, that costs $35 but is still good value for the responses I got. CL is a holdover from a simpler earlier internet era. Kind of like those prehistoric living fossils they catch every once in a while.
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I have my CL selling story that was to dad and the boys. Problem was, dad and the boys spoke fluent Russian and were huge. I’m 5’ 11” and not narrow and these three all dwarfed me.

I was pretty sure I was about to be robbed of an old Suburban by the Russian mafia until I realized dad was letting son see if he liked a old Suburban that got 8 MPG for his first car. LOL.

Dad walks over after they looked it over and in a thick nearly stereotypical Russian tough guy accent offers what I suspected he would as a starting counteroffer to the advertised price. I countered halfway back and he breaks into the stereotypical Russian guffaw laugh and says “DEAL!” and starts peeling hundred dollar bills odd of a folded stack in his pocket.

We talked for a bit and dad and sons had a business doing heavy labor and moving stuff and they just absolutely loved old Chevy trucks. They had two already and one for parts and the Suburban with the monster motor fit right into their plans.

They had come from work and had to meet me at 10 PM in a 24 hour WalMart parking lot which added to the “suspense” but also gave us an audience of shoppers which made me happier about the whole thing. LOL.

Those guys were BIG. Really big. :)
 
Speaking of CL... I met the coolest guy in Denver today. I've been looking for an office desk about half the size of the one that I gave away before moving up here. I had no luck finding a nice one around here, so got on the Denver CL and found one. The guy was out in the Ken Caryl Ranch area which meant I'd have to go through the bowels of Denver on I-25, or pay the tolls and take the 470 around. I opted to play with Denver traffic. I figured around 10 am it wouldn't be that bad. Wrong! I'll never make that mistake again! I'll pay the tolls next time.

Thankfully the guy had just sold his house and was willing to make me a deal on the desk. We haggled a bit and then made the deal. He helped me load it into my P/U and then we proceeded to BS. He was a Vietnam Vet who flew choppers and fixed wing both. He was one of the first guys to ever fly into Laos with a CIA big wig on board. After coming home he finished school and became an instructor for the airlines and then for the oil companies who flew choppers offshore to the rigs. He got tired of that gig and became a Chicago cop and flew a chopper, and then was called back into the first Gulf war as an instructor for the Air Force. I could have listened to all his war and police stories for the entire day, but he had inspectors coming over to inspect his home for the new buyers.

The sad part about the matter is the guy had colon cancer 15 years ago and it's now come back and has spread into his lungs. The guy was cool about it and accepted whatever fate the Lord has handed him. He looked pretty damn good for as sick as he was. I wished him luck on his move to FL and we parted ways. You just never know who you're going to meet from a CL ad.
 
That’s too bad for the guy on the cancer deal @azblackbird ... if you’re ever looking for office furniture again, check out the business auction houses down in the bowels of the Platte River valley south of downtown near the liquid oxygen plant.

They’re always overloaded to the gills with decent stuff. It’s where we ended up taking Karen’s brother’s business stuff after he passed away and we closed three locations down. They had so much crap everywhere we couldn’t even get the trailer to their loading dock. They had us just drop stuff on the ground and they stacked it all on pallets and plastic wrapped it, then used a forklift to take it all inside somewhere.

One of our bosses goes to the auctions sometimes and brings back furniture for the office. Some of it still new in original shipping boxes. My desk was one of those buys. Said he got four huge office quality solid metal desks with fake cherry tops for like $250 and they threw in the cradenzas for free.
 
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denverpilot said:
if you’re ever looking for office furniture again, check out the business auction houses down in the bowels of the Platte River valley south of downtown near the liquid oxygen plant.
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That area would've been my second stop if I wouldn't have found this desk. I stopped at Home Depot over at Lone Tree and picked up a smoker, then headed over to Costco for some goodies and then got the hell out of town before the traffic got too bad. This definitely ain't the Denver I was used to 30 some odd years ago. I lived in Littleton for a year before moving to Phoenix and drove past my old condo over by Arapahoe College. I didn't even hardly recognize it. Seems they crammed a sh*tload of buildings into any open areas they could find. I couldn't believe it. WTF?

Evidently everybody must be driving midget cars these days, as evidenced by the parking spaces. Geez... they can't be no more than a few feet wide. Unfricking believable! I guess driving 100 mph is perfectly acceptable on I-25. Just like the good old days. :thumbsup:
 
azblackbird said:
That area would've been my second stop if I wouldn't have found this desk. I stopped at Home Depot over at Lone Tree and picked up a smoker, then headed over to Costco for some goodies and then got the hell out of town before the traffic got too bad. This definitely ain't the Denver I was used to 30 some odd years ago. I lived in Littleton for a year before moving to Phoenix and drove past my old condo over by Arapahoe College. I didn't even hardly recognize it. Seems they crammed a sh*tload of buildings into any open areas they could find. I couldn't believe it. WTF?

Evidently everybody must be driving midget cars these days, as evidenced by the parking spaces. Geez... they can't be no more than a few feet wide. Unfricking believable! I guess driving 100 mph is perfectly acceptable on I-25. Just like the good old days. :thumbsup:
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LOL! Yup. Welcome to the new overcrowded cow town. The rest of Colorado is still pretty much what I call “real Colorado” but Ft Collins to Castle Rock along I-25 is a zoo.

A very dry zoo with nowhere near enough water for all these people for more than a few more generations.

Ever go out to Bonny Reservoir to fish back then? Look up what happened to it. It ceased to exist in 2011.
 
Everskyward said:
Another thing I ran into was people wanting me to deliver the item. Keep in mind I was offering this stuff free, and most of it was furniture. Uh no, if I was able to transport it, I would take it to the Salvation Army or some other charity. One of the drawbacks of living in the boonies was that no charity would bring a truck out there.
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We've run into that too. Put something up either for free or stupidly cheap and then people want to either meet us somewhere or want it delivered. No, not doing that.

We've migrated a lot to selling things on the Facebook marketplace. It seems to work better and we generally seem to be getting better results in terms of buyers for local items. But for things that we don't care about getting money for, we're just donating to Goodwill/Salvation Army/etc.
 
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