In reply to curtis73:
I have never had anything like that. If I did I certainly would be email only. The only issue I've ever had with listing my phone number in a CL ad was one guy who went into his life story trying to talk me into a trade that I told him I wasn't interested in.
I gave up on trying to get a reply through email. No number, no sale.
DocV wrote: What is the deal with Craigslist ads which only list an email as means of reply?
What's the deal with CL buyers wanting my primary personal phone number, rather than being willing send me a text based message through an appropriately anonymous email system? If I have an intelligently written and comprehensively detailed ad, good quality photos, and a fair asking price, then I figure that anybody not contacting me over something as ridiculously insignificant as needing to use email (like a working professional) is more likely to be the type of person that wouldn't be worth my time to deal with anyways. Their loss, not mine.
Same goes with my replying to ads via email. I'm actually less likely to even bother contacting typical CL sellers if they don't have an email option, unless their ad is enough better than average to actually indicate their sincerity as a seller.
As such, I've never really had any significant issues getting a response from what I consider to be legitimate buyers and sellers when using an email-first communication philosophy. Since I don't recall ever even having a mildly unpleasant transaction with the people I've actually bought from and sold to on CL after initial email contact, I don't expect to see any benefit to changing this practice anytime soon either.
The only real reason I have found to call/txt first, if it's an option, is if I'm trying to buy a specific high-demand/low-supply item that will easily sell in <1hr of the ad going when one that is actually reasonably priced for its age and condition finally pops up.
In reply to Driven5:
Maybe that's the difference. I've never had a work email, it's never been my primary means of contact for anything. In fact the only legitimate email I do get is the occasional PM from here. Everything else is spam.
And believe me, I'm not sending out " wut's the lowest you'll take bro" emails. But the fact that I'm close to 0 for fifty of emails sent versus reply's means that there are a lot less people doing things the way you do.
I prefer email for initial contact or I use my separate google voice number to deal with the texts and calls.
I usually prefer sending an email first to get initial contact, but it seems texting the number is a lot quicker in getting a response.
In reply to Nick_Comstock:
I actually CL from my Yahoo account...I just mean that any working professional should be more than comfortable communicating via email. Although, my email address basically just being my name might also help me to not get disregarded as spam too. I don't typically include my phone number, or call/text them, until after we have agreed upon a tentative meeting.
Other than that, I just provide the information I would want to see in an email from a serious potential buyer. I don't know if you do it any differently from me, but I have had a good response rate from sellers by doing the following in my CL emails:
If you're doing similar and still having that much trouble getting a reply from sellers that specifically chose to include email as a contact method, it sounds to me like the problem might be more of a technical issue with your email address (i.e. spam-boxed) rather than it being an issue with sellers not actually replying to email contacts...Or maybe there are just no reasonable, rational, and intelligent CL'ers in your area. Either way, this is something that could be tested to find out which it is.
Beware of CL scammers selling super clean Toyota/Nissan/Wrangler 4x4s cheap. Seems to be common problem up here in the Northland.
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