I Hate Selling Vehicles

Petrolburner wrote:

Harvey wrote: This is a text conversation I had with a guy when I was selling my wife's car. http://i.imgur.com/oOrvldq.jpg

That was fun, thanks for sharing. I figured it was an auto reply spam bot, turns out it was a real idiot and you were having fun with him.

Yes, at a certain point you can see me transfer from giving legitimate responses to just messing with him after I realize it's gotta be a scammer.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/25/georgia-couple-disappears-after-arranging-meeting-on-craigslist/ Yup

And these folks have been found dead in a lake. The "seller" used a disposable cell phone and never owned a 66 mustang.

Wife said. " you are never buying on Craigslist again". I don't think that's true. But be safe out there.

I once sold a cheap car to my cousin and a few weeks later something bad happened and it ate a head gasket. I felt pretty bad about that. He was cool about it though.

I've only had good experiences buying and selling stuff on CL. The only mildly annoying situation was the guy who looked at the car, agreed on a price I was more than happy with, said he would come back to pick it up next morning and then never showed up. I just sold it to the next guy.

Maybe I just don't do enough CL dealing and have gotten lucky so far.

Reading this thread has made me feel a bit better about selling stuff on Craigslist.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/25/georgia-couple-disappears-after-arranging-meeting-on-craigslist/ Yup

And these folks have been found dead in a lake. The "seller" used a disposable cell phone and never owned a 66 mustang. Wife said. " you are never buying on Craigslist again". I don't think that's true. But be safe out there.

Two things to remember when buying/selling on CL: Wallet and IWB holster.

Datsun1500 wrote:

Harvey wrote:

Petrolburner wrote:

Harvey wrote: This is a text conversation I had with a guy when I was selling my wife's car. http://i.imgur.com/oOrvldq.jpg

That was fun, thanks for sharing. I figured it was an auto reply spam bot, turns out it was a real idiot and you were having fun with him.

Yes, at a certain point you can see me transfer from giving legitimate responses to just messing with him after I realize it's gotta be a scammer.

You didn't know it was a scammer on his 2nd reply? It's pretty obvious.

This was my first Craigslist scammer text so while even the initial text had my guard up I was still kinda playing it legit just in case.

I do remember selling some wheels and snow tires on the cheap via Craigslist. Good photos so no guessing about what condition and the price was low to move them. Kid calls and says he will take them. Shows up and tries to haggle a little in the basement as we are looking at the wheels. I tell him he can leave and I'll sell them to the other people calling. He pulls out the full amount and we're good.

Then there was the guy that bought my 15x9 6UL rims who later came back and tried to lowball me on the lightly used Hoosiers that were previously on them to the tune of less than half what I wanted (already very low price). Thanks for making me dismount them and then trying to lowball me on them, ass.

secretariata wrote: How about the folks who won't even come look at it but send a text with "What's your bottom dollar price? I have cash right now." I take $0.01 off the price I advertised and tell them if they can't be bothered to even look at it I can't be bothered to negotiate any lower...

I add $$$ to the asking price with those questions......berkeley them.

listed car last night at 6 p.m.- got call from Asian guy at 7, he said" I come give you money tomorrow at three , Okay" hung up. Didn't ask where or if I would be available. Then, phone rings at 1 a.m., I didn't answer. Then text from same number follows" I'm from out of state, would you hold until I can get money". My response would get me banned from this forum. Another guy shows up at noon to see, likes car but has no money.What is wrong with people???/

beanco wrote: Another guy shows up at noon to see, likes car but has no money.What is wrong with people???/

A couple years ago we had a garage sale. In the garage was the '67 Le Mans, under its cover. NFS. Enough people asked what was under the cover that eventually I just left it pulled back so they could see for themselves. A couple guys left me their number in case I ever changed my mind. No problem.

But this one guy. Didn't leave his number or take mine (I didn't offer). About 18 months later my wife comes out to go to work, and he's parked at the curb. Jumps out of his beat up old S-10 and (politely) accosts her to ask about the Pontiac. She's rightfully a little freaked out, but gets his number for me to call. So I call him (to stop him coming around and bugging Mrs. Duke again), he tells me he's really interested, and wants to see the car again. I told him I wasn't really looking to sell, but come see it, and we'll talk. So he comes by really early on a Saturday, I show him the car from top to bottom, and the whole time he's saying "yeah, this is perfect, I love it." So he asks what I'll take for it. I reminded him that I had never advertised the car for sale, but if he wanted it, he should make me an offer.

At which point he says, "Oh, I don't have any money right now! But I'd really like to own that if I did."

In reply to Duke:

So basically he took a tour of your car?

Yeah, for whatever reason, and the thing that got me is it was a year and a half later and he looked me up. Curtis will attest it is no museum piece, and it isn't even a GTO.

Probably should of added that I never sell stuff from home. I take it work where it is surrounded by tall fence and security cameras. I don't like showing off my other stuff, only to have it stolen later.

In reply to Duke:

Some people are just strange about things like that.

Heck, I had that 8ft snowblower listed from August through November, a bunch of people bitching about the price or asking if it would work on an 8n ford.....Had 3 that wouldn't show up with offers of $800 or so on a $1200 asking price. Ended up being bought by the first person to come look at it. He never even tried to offer less than what I was asking due to the condition it was in.

Tyler H wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/25/georgia-couple-disappears-after-arranging-meeting-on-craigslist/ Yup

And these folks have been found dead in a lake. The "seller" used a disposable cell phone and never owned a 66 mustang. Wife said. " you are never buying on Craigslist again". I don't think that's true. But be safe out there.

Two things to remember when buying/selling on CL: Wallet and IWB holster.

Or you could just agree to meet at a public place. I've done that many times. McDonald's parking lots work great. I've always lived by the "The best way to win a fight, is to avoid it" Rule. Never carried a gun.. never will.

I've always sold the cars from my house. Figure there are so many flakes out there, I don't want to drive to meet them someplace, then sit there and stew when they don't show up.

Haven't had any riff raff to deal with yet, although most of the cars I've sold have been around the $10-15k mark. That might cut out that population, although most of the time my cars sell from the car forums, its only my wifes cars that I tend to post on craigslist.

BlueInGreen44 wrote: I once sold a cheap car to my cousin and a few weeks later something bad happened and it ate a head gasket. I felt pretty bad about that. He was cool about it though.

This is part of why I don't like selling things to friends/relatives. My experience has always been that they seem to expect things to be in better shape and to get a better deal because they know you, and then if something goes wrong, they expect you to take care of it, months later. Don't get me wrong, I'm very up front about the condition of things I sell, and I don't like selling a car until I've gotten it sorted a bit or at least know what all is wrong with it, but I sell old stuff. It will break eventually, and I don't want to deal with people wanting me to fix it for them. I sold the thing for a reason, haha.

Have my f150 listed right now just to see if I can trade it for an automatic before I invest any money in it. ill let you guys know if I get any fun stories!

yamaha wrote: Heck, I had that 8ft snowblower listed from August through November, a bunch of people bitching about the price or asking if it would work on an 8n ford.....

Dont leave us hanging! Would an 8ft blower fit an 8N or not?

I do this semi-professionally, the following rules have worked for me in the past:

I meet in a crowded public spot near my house. I always make the buyer come to me, not the other way around. If they flake, I only drove 5 minutes.

Lots of photos and a detailed description, including any issues. If the seller balks, I point out that issue X was listed in the description.

At the end of the description, I'll include a line that says "LIST YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL\DAY OF THE WEEK\ICE CREAM FLAVOR IN THE SUBJECT LINE OR I WILL IGNORE YOU." This weeds out both spam bots, and people that are incapable of reading an entire ad. These same folks also tend to overlap quite a bit with the lowballers.

If they lowball or ask a question that is clearly answered in the ad, I just delete their email. Lowballers are not serious buyers. Responding is a waste of time.

I price the car fairly, but leave a few hundred dollars of negotiating room. Most people just want a token offering that shows you're willing to budge.

I'll have a copy of the history report and any maintenance records in the glove box. I'll also have several comps, and KBB printed out. This tips the negotiations nicely in my favor, if it comes to that.

The cheaper the car, the more it will draw out the dregs of humanity.

I'm certain that I exclude some legitimate buyers by doing this, but I also weed out 95% of the dickheads that would otherwise waste my time.

beanco wrote: Another guy shows up at noon to see, likes car but has no money.What is wrong with people???/

Guy came back with money but he had a large bandage on his forehead and look worn out. I took his money, but made a copy of his ID ( yes ID not license ) just in case he makes local news...It was new hundreds not fives and singles, seems legit right?

beanco wrote: Probably should of added that I never sell stuff from home. I take it work where it is surrounded by tall fence and security cameras. I don't like showing off my other stuff, only to have it stolen later.

Im not carting project cars, couches, riding mowers, or other large items out to some separate location just on the off chance that someone MIGHT buy it (after being a moron like so many have described here). I've sold/given away a lot of stuff on CL and elswhere (like the newspaper) and never had a problem with someone casing the joint.

so far since I listed the f150 on craiglist ive had 3 people look at it and ask to test drive it even though the add clearly states the truck has no front brakes. im about to the point of just fixing it and keep it! People are really picky over a truck priced at 800 bucks.