does CL make you lose faith in humanity?

ponykilr

Guest
I mean, if the majority of responses from a CL ad are from crazy or slow sub-humans, does that mean we as a species are doomed? Will we make it to see another century tick by? Would selective breeding help?

Golly pete there are some freakin' imbeciles out there LOL
 
In deed. Most of the people I actually meet and buy stuff from on CL are great, but most of the emailers and texters are an embarrassment.
 
We have gone away from Craigslist for selling stuff online and toward Facebook's online yard sales. There is one for Davidson County that we have sold a BUNCH of stuff on. The nice thing about the Facebook sales is that you can scope the potential buyer out a bit before hand. You can see if you have any common friends, etc. It's a bit like profile creeping, but it actually does tell you a bit about the person.

With one exception, everything was bought the day we agreed to meet, no haggling over prices, no scams and no weirdness.

The story out of Colorado with the pregnant woman responding to a Craigslist ad for baby clothes and ends up getting stabbed and the baby removed REALLY wigs me out. That's 50 Shades of Crazy. I can't even imagine the horror for the expectant mother.
 
The world of buying / selling used goods is evolving. Ebay put the flea markets out. And was as awesome as the invention of sliced bread in it's day. I made a killin 16-18 years ago on Ebay. Even had a fellow worker invest heavily in stock when they started out. Then came CL and stepped Ebay down about 10 steps due to dealing local meeting face to face / no fees and free market. My buddy said he'll hang onto his stock til the end since he's done lost his ass.

I met a customer about a month ago accidently on CL who said I'd benefit greatly to have a Facebook page. I never gave it a thought when FB came out due to the initial time involved. But I'm slowly seeing it's benefits...

As for the CL people / 90% of my life revolves around people I met on CL. And now best friends for life!!! It wasn't that bad when it started up til the "CL killers" found their place and pretty much destroyed it with a bad rap and opened it up to be a place for losers to go. Jeepinmatt said it best. It's definitely the texters and emailers you got to weed through to get to the good ones.

I always get a name, phone number and home address (nothing else just a general) before meeting in a public place the first time when dealing with CL even if I got to trailer something out. Giving out a home address is like picking up a hitch hiker. Or Russian roulette. And places everyone at my house (not just me) in danger!

I see FB compared with a forum. You get to know someone first. And you have sort-of a back-up plan if things don't work out.

But the bad thing, I started a FB page when it first came out and was immediately found by several ex-girlfriends. And my wife went off!!! Needless to say I had to delete it to settle my marriage.
 
I don't mind folks asking questions, but the attempting to haggle without ever even seeing the veh makes me angry. "I will give you X today cash" but the offer is half the worth or even worse the people who ask you to hold it til their car sells or take payments.

I went back and forth with an obvious teen who could not understand that I won't negotiate over email or phone. Come look at it with cash in your hands and make your offer.

Then there are the trades. Geez. No, I don't want your Pacer, no matter if your grandma owned it.
 
ponykilr said:
I don't mind folks asking questions, but the attempting to haggle without ever even seeing the veh makes me angry. "I will give you X today cash" but the offer is half the worth or even worse the people who ask you to hold it til their car sells or take payments.

I went back and forth with an obvious teen who could not understand that I won't negotiate over email or phone. Come look at it with cash in your hands and make your offer.

Then there are the trades. Geez. No, I don't want your Pacer, no matter if your grandma owned it.
Click to expand...

Uhhh , did you state your intentions in your ad clearly??? Mind sharing your current tactics that prompted this thread aggression? :) I'm sure NC4x4 members would gladly pick at it like a sore butt zit to present to you your current flaws. :lol:

Read some of the disclaimers that others are now adding and consider yourself to rid of your issues. I think the ones I read now would eliminate most of this?

I for one am always open to trades but I always state the fact when I am firm on my asking price in cash dollars.
 
Seriously? Most of those subhumans are running this country. Yes, we are doomed..
 
It does! However I've had a few surprises. I had an 82 Toyota pickup for sale on cl and of course got the usual lowballers text about it. A guy called (not texted) and asked in a very country accent if he could come over to see it. I agreed, game him coordinates, loaded both barrels of the 12 gauge and waited outside. He showed up driving a ratty old f350, paid me cash on the spot and asked if I'd follow him home and said that he lived right around the corner. I did. We pull up at the guys house and I was stunned. Little did I know he is a very wealthy construction contractor. This was about 5 years ago.
The other day I was out cruising in the jeep and passed a square body suburban on massive tires. (Dana60/11.5, linked on 49" iroks, with a juiced 454 BBC, I later discover). I chirped second gear going past him hoping he'd follow me. Minutes later he's following back to my house. We pull in the driveway and sure as shit, its the same cat that bought my Toyota! Lol
One of the few non idiots I've met.
 
6BangBronk said:
Uhhh , did you state your intentions in your ad clearly??? Mind sharing your current tactics that prompted this thread aggression? :) I'm sure NC4x4 members would gladly pick at it like a sore butt zit to present to you your current flaws. :lol:
Click to expand...

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/4940132429.html

I am up for some scab picking....no homo.....

I guess a few paragraphs in the ad about etiquette and common sense would be too harsh. I assume when a person says something stupid to me, they probably are. One guy via phone finally admitted he didn't have enough cash but was just trying to see if i would come down sight unseen. To what end? I don't know.

Show up, be nice, show me your money and we may strike a deal. Send me an email with some stupid $%^& and I wanna box. I guess people are after all....people.

I added some more text at the bottom to buffer some of the chaff.
 
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I hate when people will make up their own prices on things when they text me.

Buyer - Do you have this?
Me - Yes, let me check condition.
B - $50 for those
M - Um, haven't even told you the condition or a price, and they are worth $100 because I just sold three last week for that.
B - OK, that's fine, how about these other things too?
M - $300 for all of it.
B - Sounds good, let me know when they are out.
*a few minutes pass*
B - $250 for that stuff.

At this point I normally just stop responding. I am already giving him a good discount over what I would normally get for the stuff. :lol:
 
Welp, I took a wild stab at asking before I saw it. But the problem with your ad ponykilr is pretty straight forward. You are trying to sell one of the most drooling of all trucks to a general public made up of 1 million teenagers that have an AP on their phones that warns them when something like this comes up on CL for sale...

With a truck like that I would list it on Ebay and probably get more than you are asking! And probably won't get a single question...
 
Disclaimers on craigslist are pointless, and might even make things worse. I had one at some point, and got more emails about how "mean" I was than actual interested replies.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Disclaimers on craigslist are pointless
Click to expand...

What he said.
I've started putting "offers for less will not be responded to". I wonder if those people ever realize why they didn't hear back from me.
I also once had a teenagers grandmother call me to tell me how offended she was that I wouldn't accept a personal check from her for a CBR I sold.
If I can at all avoid CL I will. I much prefer the people on the forums I have things in common with. It cuts down the crazy just a bit and I tend to worry less about things I buy.
 
ponykilr said:
I mean, if the majority of responses from a CL ad are from crazy or slow sub-humans, does that mean we as a species are doomed? Will we make it to see another century tick by? Would selective breeding help?

Golly pete there are some freakin' imbeciles out there LOL
Click to expand...

Check out the personals sometime.:eek::shaking:
jeepinmatt said:
In deed. Most of the people I actually meet and buy stuff from on CL are great, but most of the emailers and texters are an embarrassment.
Click to expand...
It never fails that they text me at bed time or during the night.I always turn the ringer off when I go to bed.

ManglerYJ said:
We have gone away from Craigslist for selling stuff online and toward Facebook's online yard sales. There is one for Davidson County that we have sold a BUNCH of stuff on. The nice thing about the Facebook sales is that you can scope the potential buyer out a bit before hand. You can see if you have any common friends, etc. It's a bit like profile creeping, but it actually does tell you a bit about the person.
Click to expand...

I have been told by numerous people,numerous times that I need to be sellin on FB.I dont even have a personal account much less one for business,maybe Im hurtin myself but I don't want the potential drama.

ponykilr said:
I don't mind folks asking questions, but the attempting to haggle without ever even seeing the veh makes me angry. "I will give you X today cash" but the offer is half the worth or even worse the people who ask you to hold it til their car sells or take payments.

I went back and forth with an obvious teen who could not understand that I won't negotiate over email or phone. Come look at it with cash in your hands and make your offer.

Then there are the trades. Geez. No, I don't want your Pacer, no matter if your grandma owned it.
Click to expand...
Ill ask if the price is negotionable any,I wanna know what to expect dollar wise before I drive 3/4 hours.People always wanna trade and tradin is good and all but at some point I gotta sell.When the mort is due the bank don't care how good ive traded.
6BangBronk said:
The world of buying / selling used goods is evolving. Ebay put the flea markets out. And was as awesome as the invention of sliced bread in it's day. I made a killin 16-18 years ago on Ebay. Even had a fellow worker invest heavily in stock when they started out. Then came CL and stepped Ebay down about 10 steps due to dealing local meeting face to face / no fees and free market. My buddy said he'll hang onto his stock til the end since he's done lost his ass.

I met a customer about a month ago accidently on CL who said I'd benefit greatly to have a Facebook page. I never gave it a thought when FB came out due to the initial time involved. But I'm slowly seeing it's benefits...

As for the CL people / 90% of my life revolves around people I met on CL. And now best friends for life!!! It wasn't that bad when it started up til the "CL killers" found their place and pretty much destroyed it with a bad rap and opened it up to be a place for losers to go. Jeepinmatt said it best. It's definitely the texters and emailers you got to weed through to get to the good ones.

I always get a name, phone number and home address (nothing else just a general) before meeting in a public place the first time when dealing with CL even if I got to trailer something out. Giving out a home address is like picking up a hitch hiker. Or Russian roulette. And places everyone at my house (not just me) in danger!
Click to expand...

Like it or nor Ebay is still where its at,nowhere can you list an item that will get as much coverage as on Ebay.Its sucks and I fuss every month when I get my bill but its still the king.Alot of time when I go to someones house to get something I wind up getting stuff they didn't even mention/list on the ad.People usually just list the items they feel are the most valuable and over look the other stuff.
 
6BangBronk said:
I met a customer about a month ago accidently on CL who said I'd benefit greatly to have a Facebook page. I never gave it a thought when FB came out due to the initial time involved. But I'm slowly seeing it's benefits...
Click to expand...

I'd definitely give it a look. Not really the same thing as running a business, but you know me, always buying pre-80's Ford parts. Where I used to search the forums, where demand kept prices high because everyone wanted the same thing, I'm spending a grand a month now on FB purchases on NOS parts alone...regional pricing is different, and you find a lot more people that just want to get rid of stuff or cleaning out their grandfathers barn.. I admin a dozen Ford, offroad and ford engine pages with 5,000 to 25,000 members, hasn't done me wrong so far.

The side landscaping/power wash business page my brother and I have, only nets us about 20% of our business...but our plates were pretty full to begin with, it could be quite a bit more if we actually dedicated time to the page.

I personally spend way more time these days on the fb pages than I do the forums.
 
I am glad this is a thread. I've been asking friends the same questions this past week since I NEVER post anything on CL... mostly because i never sell anything period lol. I had my first "FLAGGED" post the other day.. I am polite even when their lowballing me hard, its not in my nature to be an a-hole... yet, I get flagged. Thankfully it was a one time thing, ive seen posts stating "PLEASE STOP FLAGGING ME" on craigslist before, never understood it till now hahaha.

But even though faith is lost during these times, it only takes a couple of really great people to turn your opinions back around :beer:
 
I think it depends on what you sell. I've listed some oddball stuff like my last one, a 3 phase electric motor. Guy wanted it to run a lathe, nice dude, made me a reasonable offer, done deal.

I've also recently listed an iPad...holy shit do they come out of the wood work. I had a guy low ball me, tell me I would never sell it, I would be stupid not to sell it to him at his lowball offer because "that is what they go for", then casually be a dink and name call as replies. I sold my mint iPad for a good price but it took going through countless trolls to get that one good buyer.

Even though there are a few great people in the world, the overwhelming majority really should just be put on a barge and dragged out to sea. It's like they go out of there way to ridicule you if you say no to a stupid offer. I'm pretty sure I never held a gun to someone's head to make me a lowball offer...
 
ALL of the above is why I started here with my nephews wrecked truck and questions.......CL has always been a freakin yardsale to me. One with a whole lot of fleemarket suits chasing change to make a dollar. And the stranger meets stranger sales puts me on edge. Just a few times I sold stuff there and each time I got worried and or pissed at the type of people who showed up. As a general bred population, I think God the Devil and Mother Nature need to and is gonna eventually even things out. I just hope were not going to end up some other species Dinosaur's.
 
I don't think it is CL at fault, it is just technology in general. I'm 32 so my generation has pretty much had a cellphone in their hands for the adult life so far. People in their 20's don't even know what a CD player is!

Having said that, you are now dealing with a large group of people that have no other reference point for human to human interaction. Email, online chat, Facebook, and CL have been around to them pretty much forever. I think that has really hurt communication and how people handle themselves or treat others. A lot is said through an electronic device that would never be said face to face. I really think this has hurt how people speak with each other in the real world. I can find no explanation other than that when you try to sell something, a buyer low balls you, you don't accept, then they tear you a new one for not accepting, and now you are less of a person because you don't accept them as a person. It just all spirals out of control.

I still advocate that there are lots of truly great people in this world...hell in this country! Hard to find them lost in a crowd of WalMart sheeple though :)
 
I just talked to a nice older man in VA who is coming to take a look. He sounded smart and articulate. CL is a good tool. It's just that there is so many idiots to decent folks that it makes it a very aggravating experience.

I am sad, my wife says I am ill acting. Sometimes the "practical" side does not correspond to the "want" side.
 
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