Selling on Craigslist

[Ed62]

I just sold my 10" bandsaw because I picked up the Rigid 14" deal. The first guy to look at it bought it without offering less than the asking price. That worked out well, and almost cut my cost in half for the new bandsaw.

But I sure got a large number of junk e-mails offering things too good to be true, and one asking me to visit a website, so I could give my opinion on a product this guy was considering. Needless to say, this stuff immediately went into the trash.

Bottom line is that Craigslist will get interested people replying to your ad (I had at least 10 inquiries), but get ready for all the junk that comes with the territory.

Ed

[tommyt654]

Yeh, I,ve noticed that too a lot lately, guess its just the way the world is now Ed,Folks just seem to have to find a way to be greedy and rip off everone else,In my earlier yrs(not that I,m that old) I remember a time when it was share and share alike with your neighbors and friends, Now it,s me,me,me and screw that other guy. It is a shame.Prime example were my postings on the bandsaw deal you got. Oh, Well it,ll al be over in another 30 yrs or so, Tommyt

[atgcpaul]

I haven't had that experience on CL but what I have experienced a lot of is
what I call Craigslist Flakes. Those are the people who respond to your ad,
feign interest, but never act on them even though you've set up a time to
meet, etc. It just irks me that they don't have the common decency to tell
you they're no longer interested or need to break the appointment.

[Knottscott]

In the early days of CL, it was purely people...few scammers, etc. It seems CL has gained alot of popularity and is attracting riff-raff. I've had good luck overall both buying and selling, but the email junk is fairly new IME. Still a nice alternative to the high fees of Ebay.

[Mr__Bill]

I managed to sell my old Bronco yesterday via Craig's List. I'm glad that's over, every time I re-listed it I got a bunch of, 'go to this web site and click on this' type of emails. Often with a note telling me that I am asking too little and to click here to see what it should be. Most were Tiny URL's. Then there were the ones asking if I needed money and if so to click here to see how to make money without selling my stuff.

I have gotten to requiring a phone number and I'll respond to that and not with an e-mail. Now if I can just sell my Jøtul GF 300 DV Allagash Gas Heater I'll be a happy guy with more room in the garage.

Bill
time for a Sunday Brunch

[Uncle Cracker]

One thing I have tried with a measure of success is to state in my ad that e-mails to the CL ad number will be ignored, and then put one of my own secondary e-mail addies in the body of the ad. Then, I just trash all the replies to the CL listing at one time without reading them (you will still get them, despite your instructions to the contrary), and just deal with any replies you get to the secondary address. The logic behind this is that most scam offers you will receive will come from bots or scammers that harvest the CL address from your ad, but nothing more. The people who are genuinely interested will read your ad, and respond to it as you have instructed. This method throws most of the riffraff off your trail.