and it was awful 
I'm still twitching.
and it was awful
I'm still twitching.
Think of all the useless crap you missed out on! 
I avoid craigslist as much as possible. I hate that website. Not in a love-hate way either. A hate-hate way. Nothing puts you in touch with every local idiot and scumbag faster.
I was IP blocked from CL for half a day last week. I think someone saw me pouting in my office.
In reply to NickD:
Hey, I resemble that remark!
RossD wrote: In reply to NickD: Hey, I resemble that remark!
Hahaha. Sorry, but every experience I've had with craigslist has been extremely negative. People who don't leave a phone number and then apparently never check their e-mail. People who never call you back to let you know it was sold (I then proceed to blow up that person's voice mail with multiple calls a day). People who don't take the ad down when it's sold. I tried selling a running, driving, rust-free Acura for $1500 and got people saying they would only pay $700, people trying to trade me cars with blown up engines (When I said no trades) or people looking at the car and saying it had blow head gaskets when it clearly did not. I got so frustrated and would have sworn off that site for good but unfortunately it ran the Swap Sheet out of business and nobody bothers to advertise in any other manner any more.
NickD wrote:RossD wrote: In reply to NickD: Hey, I resemble that remark!Hahaha. Sorry, but every experience I've had with craigslist has been extremely negative. People who don't leave a phone number and then apparently never check their e-mail. People who never call you back to let you know it was sold (I then proceed to blow up that person's voice mail with multiple calls a day). People who don't take the ad down when it's sold. I tried selling a running, driving, rust-free Acura for $1500 and got people saying they would only pay $700, people trying to trade me cars with blown up engines (When I said no trades) or people looking at the car and saying it had blow head gaskets when it clearly did not. I got so frustrated and would have sworn off that site for good but unfortunately it ran the Swap Sheet out of business and nobody bothers to advertise in any other manner any more.
This is my experience with CL as well. I only go there out of desperation. People who find actual worthwhile bargains on CL are the real 1-percenters.
In other news...Miatae are plentiful on the Cincinnati list of craigs. $1800 running, driving, "rust free" NA
RossD wrote: I was IP blocked from CL for half a day last week. I think someone saw me pouting in my office.
Half a DAY!?! my god man, are you ok? I'm here if you need anything.
For the record, it was the "Merkur" search after the "Alfa Romeo" search that finally did it in. I guess I can't blame them too much for the IP block...
To me, everything on Craigslist might as well be in North Korea for the cost and trouble it would take for me to get it 
Without Craigslist I don't know where I would find people to trade me paintball gear and car stereo equipment for cars.
Duke wrote: This is my experience with CL as well. I only go there out of desperation. People who find actual worthwhile bargains on CL are the *real* 1-percenters.
Haha well damn, I really am the 1%. 
I have a fridge, oven, microwave and dishwasher all bought from CL. I bought a $1000 BMW 525i and put another $1000 into it and sold it for a $2000 profit. I've sold lots of stuff on there also and have had an overall positive experience doing so. Just this weekend I sold 2 sets of outdoor furniture within 12 hours of posting the ad (and yes I took them down after and emailed all that responded they were sold).
I <3 CL
t25torx wrote:Duke wrote: People who find actual worthwhile bargains on CL are the *real* 1-percenters.Haha well damn, I really am the 1%. I bought a $1000 BMW 525i and put another $1000 into it and sold it for a $2000 profit. I <3 CL
Around here, that would have been a $1000 525i that needed $2000 worth of work and they'd be asking $5000 with a line that says NO LOWBALLERS I NO WAT I HAVE and then 200 irrelevant search tags.
Duke wrote:t25torx wrote:Around here, that would have been a $1000 525i that needed $2000 worth of work and they'd be asking $5000 with a line that says NO LOWBALLERS I NO WAT I HAVE and then 200 irrelevant search tags.Duke wrote: People who find actual worthwhile bargains on CL are the *real* 1-percenters.Haha well damn, I really am the 1%. I bought a $1000 BMW 525i and put another $1000 into it and sold it for a $2000 profit. I <3 CL
Same here.
I read this as I went 12 minutes with a post op off craigslist
Ive been spending alot of time on craigslist, ive emailed/texted 4 people and have had one reply. Its terrible but when your looking for a deal it can work.
I was just thinking how different my search for a first car would have gone if I had CL back then. No picking up the "Wheeler Dealer" want ads at the free stands at the grocery store, then having to wade through ad after ad for cars that were way out of my price range. No driving around and stopping at any house with an old car with a for sale sign stuck in the window.
I love the digital age.
In reply to NickD:
Aww dude, no more Swap Sheet?!
I used to live near where you do. This was mostly pre-Craigslist. I used the swap sheet to buy and sell a lot.
That said, when selling through the swap sheet, I still got the crappy calls and whatnot normally associated with Craiglist.
It does seem that Craigslist has removed the "sweet deal" from the equation, because everyone knows what everything is worth.
Sure, there are aspects of the Craigslist that suck both as a potential buyer and seller but IMHO the good far outweighs the bad. The scumbags are pretty easy to identify and ignore and I simply do not know what viable alternative exists these days for secondhand crap.
Bad experiences on craigslist are more indicative of the quality of buyers and sellers in your area than the service itself.
In the Eugene and Portland areas I usually have great results, It is the people from out of region that are the problem.
Me: "Yes it is still available"
Buyer: "Well I don't pay that much for one of those"
Me: "Well it is nice of you to call and inform me of that, you have a nice day" :click
I remember the pre-internet buying and selling days all too well. Getting the weekly local rags like the "money saver" and "Nickel ads" the moment they hit the stands at 7 AM on Tuesday mornings, hastily scanning through and making calls by 8AM on anything that piqued my interest to hear "that just sold" or "I got so many calls that I am raising the price" or if you do finally get to something on time finding it totally misrepresented.
Craigslist didn't lower the bar for buyers and sellers, It just made the E36 M3ty ones easier to contact. They have always been out there.
tuna55 wrote: In reply to NickD: Aww dude, no more Swap Sheet?! I used to live near where you do. This was mostly pre-Craigslist. I used the swap sheet to buy and sell a lot. That said, when selling through the swap sheet, I still got the crappy calls and whatnot normally associated with Craiglist. It does seem that Craigslist has removed the "sweet deal" from the equation, because everyone knows what everything is worth.
Yeah, after 35 years the Swap Sheet went out of business because they couldn't compete. I loved that paper. Bought quite a few cars and snowmobiles through it. My father bought his Caterpillar D4 and his first house via the Swap Sheet.
NickD wrote:Duke wrote:Same here.t25torx wrote:Around here, that would have been a $1000 525i that needed $2000 worth of work and they'd be asking $5000 with a line that says NO LOWBALLERS I NO WAT I HAVE and then 200 irrelevant search tags.Duke wrote: People who find actual worthwhile bargains on CL are the *real* 1-percenters.Haha well damn, I really am the 1%. I bought a $1000 BMW 525i and put another $1000 into it and sold it for a $2000 profit. I <3 CL
See, to me, that's the easy part. The vast majority of the numbnuts on CL are very easy to sniff out just based on the way their ad is written. I won't even bother with those. If it's a really well written ad, I'll respond. From there, if they were one of the smart numbnuts who could string sentences together, they'll usually show themselves pretty quickly in their response. I walk away from those. I've had pretty good luck that way and dealt with halfway decent people.
Same thing for selling. I write what I think is a well worded ad. If the inquiries I get (I don't leave a phone number) are clearly clueless, I don't even respond.
In reply to Klayfish:
Yeah, they're not hard to ignore. It's just that they make up 99% of what's on CL between DC and Philly so even if you ignore them without trying to contact, it takes hours of poring through 99 ads to find 1 that might conceivably be worth investigating.
Then multiply that by 5 to account for the jackasses who duplicate the same item on every CL within strategic bombing range of where they're actually located.
In reply to Duke:
Isn't that why there are deals in the first place? Someone had to sort the wheat from the chaff, most people give up, and us grm'ers are left with a few diamonds in the rough.
Duke wrote: In reply to Klayfish: Yeah, they're not hard to ignore. It's just that they make up 99% of what's on CL between DC and Philly so even if you ignore them without trying to contact, it takes hours of poring through 99 ads to find 1 that might conceivably be worth investigating. Then multiply that by 5 to account for the jackasses who duplicate the same item on every CL within strategic bombing range of where they're actually located.
Yeah, it's representative of the population there. 
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