Skruffy's top ten most infuriating things you find in a craigslist ad

I know I've made this post before, but I felt like typing something up. I'm kinda bored tonight.

In no particular order...

1. Sellers that will only negotiate in person I usually like to have the deal worked out before I even look at a car. It makes me very suspicious (and I've usually been right) that the condition of a vehicle has been grossly misrepresented when they won't negotiate over the phone. It's especially frustrating when the car in question is 100 miles away and they keep saying "you just need to come look at it".

2. Multiple cars for sale in one craigslist post You know you can post as many ads as you want for free, right?

3. Email for pics So you've taken photographs of the car, have them in a digital format, and you wont just put them in the ad?

4. SOLD Ugh, doesn't it suck when you read through a long, detailed description, thinking "this is the one" as you go over a in-depth maintenance history and other cool stuff, only to find "SOLD" at the end of the 10th paragraph. So lets get this straight, you found the post/edit/delete link in your email, blew right over the delete button, and took the time to edit those four evil letters into the ad. Why the hell didn't you just delete it?

5. No description at all "'89 BMW sedan, runs good" Seriously? That's it? No price or anything?

6. Call for details You do know that space in the ad is free, right? This approach just guarantees you'll be spending a lot of time on the phone with people that can't afford whatever you're selling, but wanted to know the price.

7. Too many new parts to list A quantity of parts and repair so large, it defies the very concept of a list. I can't help but picture a guy standing in a garage surrounded by great mountains of receipts and invoices, furiously scratching away at a notepad. Sweat pours from his brow, his fingers raw and bloody. Spent pens and pencils lay, discarded like cigarette butts, all around him. He falls to his knees and weeps. "So many new parts..."

8. Super clean newer car with no title Everyone knows it's stolen or a buy her pay here car being sold out from under a loan. Especially when the seller posts something like "no title, don't ask". Guess what, a Camry with no title isn't really worth anything since, you know, you can't drive it.

9. Keyword spam I'm not even sure what this is supposed to accomplish. Yes, your 83 accord now shows up in searches for any BMW model, but I've got my doubts that people are cross shopping a M3 or 540 with a $300 accord. I'm not. Stop it.

10. The unbelievably obvious cut & paste scam attempt. Lets see, we've got whole text from an edmunds specification page (bullet points and all), no description, and a price about 1/3 what it should be. Yeah, this looks legit. The palm trees in the background of your picture are an especially nice touch for a car being sold in Ohio in winter.

Ok, time for beer.

1: Don't call me up and work me on the price until you've at least seen the car. It's just bad manners to lowball someone when you can't even see what you're dickering about. If you can't be bothered to look at the car, you're not serious anyway.

The rest of the complaint are actually valid.

Shawn

skruffy wrote: 1. Sellers that will only negotiate in person I usually like to have the deal worked out before I even look at a car. It makes me very suspicious (and I've usually been right) that the condition of a vehicle has been grossly misrepresented when they won't negotiate over the phone. It's especially frustrating when the car in question is 100 miles away and they keep saying "you just need to come look at it".

I won't. How the hell can you know that my 1942 humbug isn't worth $425K from a few pics. You can't. You pushing the price down without even looking at it tells me that you're going to be too difficult to deal with. Especially since even if you do convince me to knock a few bucks off, you're inevitably going to go for another round once you're in front of me.

If I tell you how much I will take over the phone, you are definitely not getting it for less in person. I don't care where you want to negotiate, you get about the same deal in either place. I actually kind of like dealing over the phone. People who talk money over the phone don't usually try to super lowball me when they arrive. I almost always have a pretty good idea of what I can get from a car and rarely sell one in desperation. Flashing a handful of bills that is less than 1/3rd of my asking price is just going to annoy me.

I guess I should have phrased the first one better. I'm not the guy that calls up and just lowballs the crap out of you, and there's usually other stuff that can be negotiated aside from price. I guess this mainly applies to the broken/parts cars I've been buying lately, ie the car is equipped with ridiculous stereo equipment, blinging rims, extra worthless spare parts, etc.. that I don't want and the seller is convinced is worth big money or something like that. "You keep those 22s with bald tires that are making the car impossible to sell and knock $200 off the price, I'll bring my own wheels to get it on the trailer". No matter if we're negotiating or not, you're going to spend some time on the phone with me before I come look at the car. I guess that's what I should have posted.

Eh, the more I read over it the stupider I sound. You guys are right. #1 sucks.

Hell, the last 3 cars I bought on craigslist were for the original asking price, although none were for more than $550.

Also, I like it when someone mentions that they aren't even going to get close to my asking price with their offer before I spend an hour going over a car with them in person. I had a guy test drive my P5, go over all the service records and mods with me, thoroughly examine the carfax (that I supplied), etc.. and then say "well, I've only got $8,500". I was asking $11k at the time. I was really pissed he hadn't mentioned that like an hour ago, or even on the phone so I wouldn't have wasted my time.

So, number 1 is now officially replaced with "GRM forum software that messes up the formatting of lists"

skruffy wrote: So, number 1 is now officially replaced with "GRM forum software that messes up the formatting of lists"

I like making lists. It allows me to post lots of information without having to form paragraphs and whatnot.

This forum allows me to get the various garbage out of my head without cornering my wife and subjecting her to some long winded diatribe about craigslist. If I have to think about this stuff, so does everyone else.

One that really gets me (other than no pics at all) is the it's 2am and I've decided to sell my ride on Craigslist person. I don't have a problem with that, what I have a problem with is that they take the pics at 2:05 am with their cellphone cam or point and shoot with its next to useless flash so all you see is a fender or whatever bodypart happens to be closest.

Skruffy -- shades of Peter Egan (after a particularly frustrating experience with the rear end of an XKE and several pints of Guinness) in some of those points. I can think of no higher compliment.

I enjoyed reading your list, too. Number 7 had me laughing.

Another classifieds pet peeve of mine is 'price firm'. Unless the car/part/whatever is an obvious bargain, is it not an unwritten rule that one prices one's item to allow room for negotiation?

Also, "wheels pictured not included. will come with stock wheels". Then take some berkeleying photos of the car with stock wheels.

$8500 offer on an $11,000 asking price? That's a fair offer, in my books. You didn't have to take it

I recently sold a 98 Cherokee on Kijiji (like your CL), and was surprised at the number of people that offered me pennies on the dollar for it. Typically the email read, 'I give you $200 for it'. I was tempted to say OK, here;'s my address (I live in the middle of nowhere), make them drive all the way out, then tell them I already sold it to the first guy with $200.

Multiple cars for sale in one ad? I prefer it. It makes looking that much easier, and let's me know if the same guy has a bunch of different stuff I might be interested in.

Some things that bug me, are the "low price, just for today! Then it's going back up!". Seriously? When you lower the price I know that's at least what you will take. Also, "I need the money for my probation". Really? I don't want your car. And then the people asking for "no spammers, please." Yeah, those spambots saw you ask nicely, and know they are gonna leave you alone.

Joey

joey48442 wrote: And then the people asking for "no spammers, please." Yeah, those spambots saw you ask nicely, and know they are gonna leave you alone.

It doesn't do anything for spambots, but it is surprisingly effective against real life scammers.

zomby woof wrote: $8500 offer on an $11,000 asking price? That's a fair offer, in my books. You didn't have to take it

I don't think it was the was 2500 knock down in price that was frustrating. It was probably the negotiating tactic and the fact that time was wasted. To say I have up to 11K but I'll offer what its worth and then low ball at 8500 is one thing. To show up with 8500 and have no intention of offering 11K even if that is what the car is worth is just scummy. Then to waste an hour on top of that. I'd be steamed.
An exaggerated example: You wouldn't walk into a dealership and pick out a brand new Porsche, test drive it, review all the information, and then tell the dealer that you can only afford $10K. I mean you might just for the fun of the test drive or to irk the salesman that just wasted and our with you. But it is a scummy thing to do. At least a hired salesman gets compensated for his time (unless he's pure commission) but somebody on CL who knows their vehicle and knows its value may be selling it for a loss. To waste their time is just cutting deeper into their loss.

Keyword spam I'm not even sure what this is supposed to accomplish. Yes, your 83 accord now shows up in searches for any BMW model, but I've got my doubts that people are cross shopping a M3 or 540 with a $300 accord. I'm not. Stop it.

"Search titles only" function FTMFW! And, I flag anything. ANYTHING that pisses me off.

To the CL sellers of cameras/lenses:

1. Sorry that people might have the nerve to contact you asking if the item is still available, but there is no reason to put "I'LL IGNORE YOU IF YOU EMAIL ME ASKING IF THE ITEM IS STILL AVAILABLE" in your listing. I, along with other CL users, have wasted a fair deal of time composing well thought out messages asking intelligent follow up questions about an item, only to be ignored or told that the item was sold 4 days earlier. If you are offering an item at a competitive price, it's only natural for a potential buyer to inquire about its availability to avoid wasting more time.

2. On a related note, if you respond to a buyer's follow up questions about an item, it is rude to give information that was NOT in your ad, but preface it with with "AS I STATED IN THE AD...".

3. If you're selling a close or medium range lens because you already moved up to a better one, surely you could use your new lens to take photos of the one you are selling, rather than your camera phone?

4. If you're selling a DSLR body, particularly a professional grade one, why on earth would you take a photo of it with the dust cap removed?

5. If you're selling a kit lens, chances are good that it's a fairly inexpensive lens, and there are many of them in circulation. Therefore, mentioning that the same lens (with warranty mind you) costs $310 new on Amazon probably does NOT help justify you asking $285 for a lens that "Was only used for 2 years."

6. To the sellers trying to sell their older 35MM equipment as a lot: Just because you paid $1800 total for the equipment in 1982 does not mean it is worth $900 today. Updating your ad to complain about supposed lowball offers and mention that under no condition will you split the lot probably drives potential buyers away.

7. To the guys trying to sell clearly "hot" or gray market DSLR's- Are we really supposed to believe that your employer bought 4 high end bodies "for an important documentation project" but ended up not using the one you are selling, and they instructed you to dump it NIB for 70% of what they are selling for everywhere else, with a warranty card that has not been filled out?

8. Why not post 1 image of the actual item you're trying to sell, rather than a review of the equipment and 4 images you found online that were supposedly taken with it?

i hate the email of "i'll give you $300 for it" when you have a vehicle listed at 1400 and all the comps are 1900-2200.

i was going to take my car down but CL did it for me, someone flagged it and it was not in violation of any terms of use. and you cant really contact CL to tell them to eff themselves.

i hate CL - most sellers or buyers are scum of the earth bottom of the barrell a-holes. they lowball via email without seeing things, take free things you offer to someone needing for their project and list them for $100 when they get home, etc... i had a guy tell me he needed these wheels i was getting rid of for his race car since they were circle track stuff. he took them away and then they were immediately listed again with my pics for $100 saying how he dug them out of his stash of parts and the tires were great and stuff.

i bought a k5 blazer from a guy - he made it into a redneck mud buggy but it is titled, ran and drove. i needed to put my plow on something. he listed it for $300 - a trans and transfer case is more than that. he told me he got calls of at least 10 $100-150 offers, i was the only one who told him his price was fair.

then there was the "clean no rust" 1985 regal i went to get. the ad said how clean it was, he told me on the phone it was clean and there was no rust. we got there and the thing had typical cleveland rot holes in every body panel. he was literally upstairs smoking crack when i got there

i also hate and delete the emails that say "call me" with only a number. no - FU - call me if you want it. or the guy that asks a bunch of questions, says give me your # i want to come take a look, then never calls.

The guy that showed up with $8500 pissed me off because it wasn't a point to start negotiating from, it was all the cash he had. I probably would've gone down to $9500 or so, but he showed up, wasted a bunch of my time, and was well aware that he didn't have enough money to buy my car.

I hate it when I list something on CL for an extremely low price, just to make room for whatever new 'lawn art' I've dragged home, and I get a barrage of calls from "a student that needs a car" offering me less than half of the asking price.

Ex: I had a good running albeit ugly E30 that I needed to move to make room for another dead Porsche. I listed it for $300 just to make it evaporate (I posted it here, too, but got no responses). I got several, almost identical calls that went something like this,

"Hi. I'm a college student and I really need a car. I can offer you $120 for your car but you have to deliver it to me"

I responded with, "Scrap is up. If I decide to sell it that cheap, the junkyard will give me $150 and come and pick it up, too."

Walk you pretend college kid!

I strongly feel that if you're serious, you show up with money, look at the car, then negotiate. If we agree on a lower price, then pay me. No "I'll be back tomorrow" or "I have to consult my associate" stories.

In reply to Datsun1500:

Should have clarified- I always make sure to specify what item I'm contacting a seller about. In fact, if they mention their neighborhood/cross streets and they are nearby, I'll even mention the major cross streets I'm near to build credibility. I also always avoid expressing excitement over an item, as whenever I've sold something, those are the buyers who fail to show up.

The worst attempt at scamming I've encountered was when attempting to sell (most of) a Yamaha XS400. It had no bodywork, no title, and it was priced accordingly. However, a Nigerian still contacted me to express interest. I wrote back a message expressing confusion that he could not source a bike similar to this one locally, but assured him that this one was well worth the hassle.

I never heard back from him- Maybe it was the part where I warned him that this bike had "Magical powers to transport you to a legitimate source of income at your job at the Air Ministry offices"

A friend was selling his '97 Avenger on CL, and had his ad flagged 4 times. This car was a base model with 130,XXX miles on it, had been rear-ended, and the threads on one of the plug holes in the head were stripped. Also, the interior had a smell that was a mixture of lacquer thinner and beef jerky-in short he wanted it gone. All of the problems were disclosed in the ad, but apparently his $650 asking price smelled like a scam. He eventually got his full asking price from the first person to show up.

I was selling a pair of fixed back seats on CL, and mentioned in the ad that they were a tube frame design. A guy called and left me 3 messages in the course of an hour (at work). When he came to look at them, he said "Oh, I was under the impression these were a fiberglass shell design, because I was planning to cut them down. I kinda feel like I wasted my time !" WTF?!?!

OTOH, one time I responded to an old, cryptic, misspelled ad with no photo for a Datsun L24. The part that caught my eye was that the seller said "Carb not included." It was probably a 1 in 1000 shot, but I got an L24 with a Cartech Holley manifold for $50.

There was also a guy with a pair of older Marchals listed for $10 with a bunch of water cooled VW stuff. He had them listed as "Manufacturer unknown, with a weird pattern on the glass." However, because he had a PHOTO of them, potential buyers could figure out what he was selling- imagine that.

Luke wrote: Another classifieds pet peeve of mine is 'price firm'. Unless the car/part/whatever is an obvious bargain, is it not an unwritten rule that one prices one's item to allow room for negotiation?

The Craigslist unwritten rule is that there's always room to negotiate unless the price is stated as "firm."

I got my last car off Craigslist and I'm pretty happy with it. I will say, however, that I've got a better BS detector than most, so I don't usually end up wasting too much time on useless ads.

That list is great. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

skruffy wrote: Sellers that will only negotiate in person

I'll negotiate over the hood of the car, not over the phone. Oh, I'll talk with you over the phone about the car, but we ain't haggling. Piss me off enough, and I'll start raising the price.

Email for pics

I've got dozens of pictures, I didn't put them all in the listing. If there is something specific you want a picture of, I'll take it.

Call for details

I've put everything important in the ad, not every niddly detail. Give me a ring and we can discuss all kinds of things and go into excruciating detail. From the oil I use to the compression results. Stuff I never put in listings.

The unbelievably obvious cut & paste scam attempt.

Not everyone has a digital camera, and most are not gear heads, so they no very little about their own car. They research a bit, and copy what they find to describe it to you.

foxtrapper wrote: I'll negotiate over the hood of the car, not over the phone. Oh, I'll talk with you over the phone about the car, but we ain't haggling. Piss me off enough, and I'll start raising the price.

Let me tell you that from the perspective of someone who has bought a lot of cars, that this is a frustrating attitude to deal with. It sounds like you think it's some kind of game, when really, it's business deal. I find that getting the negotiation out of the way over the phone is by far the easiest way to sell something. I sold a truck last week. Guy calls, we talk about the condition. He asks, will you take X? No. What is your bottom line, then? I'll take Y. OK, I'll be there in 45 mins. Deal done, he gets what he wants, I get what I want.

Craigslist is basically an online yard sale. If you doubt me, check out the personals. Yokels now have computers. Ten percent of humanity is worth talking to. I think the equasion is pretty clear. All that said, I'd love to tit-f*ck the next person who haggles before seeing a car I posted for sale with his own spleen, and napalm as lube.

Sorry, I gotta back all the negotiate in person crowd. Trying to discuss price on a car you haven't personally evaluated is just a big circle jerk. How can you honestly make a fair offer on a car you havent checked out in person? Photos lie, sellers lie, in truth you arent making a legitimate offer when you negotiate on the phone or email, you are just feeling out a starting point for further negotiations when you come see the car.

I played the game once on purpose to have fun with it since every looser on CL wants to negotiate without seeing the car.

I had a $100, at best, honda I posted for $800. Anyone who called with an offer I accepted it but told them it was the first to show with cash and the offer they made on the phone was final since they didn't want to see the car before making the offer I wasnt going to renegotiate when they showed up.

Of course the 1st guy to show up (offered 400 on the phone) starts to pick apart the car and tries to renegotiate to 200, just then the next buyer to call me pulls in the drive way, I told him cash or walk. :) I sold the POS for 400 and the buyer got burned but he got burned by himself because he wanted me to agree to a price before he inspected the car. Sorry, but if you are serious about making an offer without seeing the car be prepared to send me a non refundable deposit before coming out. Otherwise you are wasting my time and yours.