Dealing with Craigslist Idiots

[AdRock]

So far I've had good luck selling stuff on craigslist. I still get the real lowballer messages. If they try to really lowball at first I tell them no. If they persist I become a complete asshole. Or I'll ask them to give me a few weeks and if it doesn't sell I'll take the offer if they still want it. If not, no big deal.

I never get mad at the first lowball offer because I do the same thing when I first contact someone. You never know until you at least ask. If they say no, cool. I don't push it after that. For instance, there was a guy selling a 1960A cab and had it priced at $325. I sent him an email and told him I only wanted to spend $175, and that I knew it was a lowball offer, but I still had to at least ask. He came back with $200 so I bought it.

I've pretty much given up selling on Ebay. The last time I sold a guitar the guy tried to fuck me over. Little did he know that I videotaped the guitar, the case, the entire packing process I did inside the lobby of the local Fedex office, and me paying for the shipping and giving it to the guy. When he got it he tried to claim that it was busted when he got it. I emailed him a copy of the video and told him to contact Fedex. I then emailed a copy to a contact at Ebay. That was the end of any dispute. I do the video thing with anything I sell online and have to ship so that I have proof that the itme was in said condition when it left my possession.

[straycat]

Its full of re sellers looking for anything they can make a buck on.
Thats capitalism and I don't have a problem with that at all just don't lowball me LOL

[Newc]

I see these commercials for Lists where you can check real-world references of contractors and such and get reviews of them from other "regular people".

Maybe it's time we build such a list of buyers.
-"Guy was a dick, but paid the asking price without crying."
-"Douchebag lowballing punk-ass bitch. Avoid this guy."
-"Champagne taste with Beer budget - avoid."
-"No problems. Kinda creepy, though."

[lepard]

I see these commercials for Lists where you can check real-world references of contractors and such and get reviews of them from other "regular people".

Maybe it's time we build such a list of buyers.
-"Guy was a dick, but paid the asking price without crying."
-"Douchebag lowballing punk-ass bitch. Avoid this guy."
-"Champagne taste with Beer budget - avoid."
-"No problems. Kinda creepy, though."

You know, I kind of do something like that already. In my business, I get spam phone calls to the tune of about 20 a day. I use 800notes.com to report them. People that are especially douchey and just want to waste my time and lowball me, I report them there too. That way I have a reference for if they contact me in the future, I can see they already wasted my time and just ignore them. For all advertising, I use Google Voice phone numbers so I can block the especially obnoxious ones.

[pianoguyy]

Its full of re sellers looking for anything they can make a buck on.
Thats capitalism and I don't have a problem with that at all just don't lowball me LOL

I don't have a problem with it. I have a problem with the way it gets enacted. People problem, not idea problem.
For me, living in a CL area with less than 1000 45-day ads (which is far different than Los Angeles having 14,000 7-day ads) --- let the musicians have the chance to buy and sell gear, most of them don't even get paid, why dick them on prices too. Plus, the flippers around here are the always the ones I mentioned above -- they get fairly irate when you tell them no. It doesn't take much to set them off. Unfortunately, blocking/reporting them is only good for one ad. It doesn't block them from contacting you on another ad.

I see these commercials for Lists where you can check real-world references of contractors and such and get reviews of them from other "regular people".
Maybe it's time we build such a list of buyers.

There have been sites like that. They go out of business. They get more spam than CL, lol.
Plus, since you don't have to register to use CL, the names change constantly. It doesn't take much to create a new free email account, or to go in to the settings and change the display name so that today you are In the God of the Vita and tomorrow you are Connie Shewa. Even phone numbers, with things like burn phones and online numbers or spoofers, can change on any given Sunday.


It is a great idea. It just doesn't seem to work.

[Jackson8090s]

So far I've had good luck selling stuff on craigslist. I still get the real lowballer messages. If they try to really lowball at first I tell them no. If they persist I become a complete asshole. Or I'll ask them to give me a few weeks and if it doesn't sell I'll take the offer if they still want it. If not, no big deal.

I never get mad at the first lowball offer because I do the same thing when I first contact someone. You never know until you at least ask. If they say no, cool. I don't push it after that. For instance, there was a guy selling a 1960A cab and had it priced at $325. I sent him an email and told him I only wanted to spend $175, and that I knew it was a lowball offer, but I still had to at least ask. He came back with $200 so I bought it.

I've pretty much given up selling on Ebay. The last time I sold a guitar the guy tried to fuck me over. Little did he know that I videotaped the guitar, the case, the entire packing process I did inside the lobby of the local Fedex office, and me paying for the shipping and giving it to the guy. When he got it he tried to claim that it was busted when he got it. I emailed him a copy of the video and told him to contact Fedex. I then emailed a copy to a contact at Ebay. That was the end of any dispute. I do the video thing with anything I sell online and have to ship so that I have proof that the itme was in said condition when it left my possession.

I do the same thing... yrs ago we sold an Alesis DM6 electric drum kit with amp/ipod doc , kit was practically brand new , we recorded ( date and time on the screen)the kit being played , broken down, packed, shipped just incase. Sale went smooth! I've not sold anything on ebay since. Like you the idea was to protect myself from shipping company/ new owner from saying I sold them a piece of crap. As to lowball offers, I don't blame anybody for trying to get the best deal they can get, it's when you decline and then get the nasty email filled with abusive language and threats , some are hilariously funny... I never respond once it goes that way. I was looking on CL and seen an ad selling 7 beer guitars by different companies, 2 of them were Dean's with shrimpfork head stocks Bud/ Bud Lite he wanted something like 1,600.00 for all.. but was willing to sell individually, asked what he wanted on the 2 Deans , he replied 500.00 each , I downloaded the images and asked someone more knowledgeable than myself what they were worth and he laughed at the quoted price, said do not give that for them they will never be worth anything that $200 in collector condition was all they are worth each... so I message the guy back with the info, and he said he would use them for fire wood before he sold them that cheap. I left it at that and thanked him for his time. People are crazy these days, piss em off too much they will hunt you down and kill your ass over a lowball offer that turned into a shit storm , not worth it.

[Mr Sandman]

Sending messages that irritate the fuck out of sellers who have ads listed on these sort of sites seems to be great way for some people to fill in the day when they got fuck all to do...