Recently, I advertised a truck for sale on Craigslist-I got the usual Nigerian-style scammers, but also a weird collection of emails offering “at home employment” (must have a computer), and offers to clean my house. My question: with all the scam artists out there, is Craigslist worth the bother? It seems that thousands of people troll Craigslist, all looking for victims-has this been your experience too?
It can be quite useful to buy and sell things. I’ve used it here and there.
No. I’ve used it to buy (an oak desk) and to sell (several kids bicycles). I tried to sell my car, and had a serious potential buyer who came and looked at it, but there were too many problems with it.
When I was selling, I made sure to specify cash only. It also seemed like I could tell who the real buyers were, just from the emails they sent (most seemed legit).
I didn’t get any Nigerian responders or “home employment” offers.
I found my current apartment there. No issues. Certainly a lot of fake scam apartments/houses for rent advertised on there, but they’re pretty obvious (A four bed, 2.5 bath townhouse in downtown Bethesda for $800/month? I don’t think so!).
Mostly I just use it for “curb alerts” when I’m throwing furniture out. Usually whatever I put on the curb is carried away within an hour.
The personals section is endlessly entertaining.
50% of house rentals are a scam. “Oh, we are missionaries in Africa, and we had a bad experience with a property manager. Send us a deposit, and we will send you the keys, you can show yourself around.”
There is a large amount of scamming on CL, but I still use it extensively. When selling, I put a qualifier in the ad something like “put your first name in the subject line with the item name or the email will be deleted without opening”. The people who can read and follow instructions get responses. The scam emails get deleted immediately. Conversely, when I’m interested in buying an item, I read the listing carefully and follow the seller’s instructions.
The only part of CL I don’t use anymore are the Job Listings. It’s exceedingly frustrating to spend time replying to job postings that turn out to be fake.
I bought a tortoise off Craigslist and my fiance has bought some woodworking tools off there without any problems. You can usually tell if someone has put some thought into writing the ad that it’s legit. Many of the job listings are scams (never give them your social security number!!!) but some of them are legit. I know several people who found jobs on there. I feel like looking for the Job Fair postings is the most productive, since those are often legit (except when the ad lies about a “job fair” to get you to fill out an application that gives them your SSN).
When my fiance tried to sell some computer equipment on there he had a lot of flakes and lowball offers.
I’ve had good experiences. I use it for things too bulky or awkward to ship. For everything else there’s eBay.
I haven’t gotten any scammy emails that aren’t related to what I’m selling. When I read your post I wondered if maybe you’re not checking the box that says “it is NOT okay to contact this poster…” (or unchecking it, however it’s supposed to be for the result you want.)
I stopped looking at the personals there. shudder
We ran into a scammer last week, and I’m just sorry I didn’t jerk her around a little more. I saw an ad for an older RV at an attractive price. The ad said the owner was changing jobs and had to get rid of it, and the location wasn’t too far from where my mom lives, so going to see it would have been a two-fer. So I responded asking if we could come by on Saturday to see it and oh, by the way, were there any more photos? The pics in the ad were not very good.
Well, I got a response the next day. She had reduced the price almost by half!! :dubious: She had to sell it by the 17th! :dubious: It was in perfect shape, ready to go, but it turns out rather than being in North East, MD, it was in Oklahoma City, OK, but that’s no problem - it was all prepped to be shipped to me on approval at no cost to me! :dubious: And there were beautiful photos attached - of a completely different RV from the one in the original ad. :dubious: All I had to do was go to a website and open an account… Yeah, right.
Had I been more on the ball, I’d have responded with “What a coincidence! I’ll be in OK City tomorrow on business! What’s a good time to meet up with you and see it?” Instead, I wished her luck in scamming someone else. :smack:
On the other hand, I sold a washer-dryer pair within minutes of posting the ad. I placed an ad for my mom and she got $50 for a decrepit riding mower that she was just going to throw away. Due diligence is essential as far as I’m concerned.
I bought my current car on CL, and probably saved a few thousand over what a used car dealer would have cost me. The first seller I contacted turned out to be shady, though. He wanted me to believe he was selling me his “baby” that he hated to let go, but a little digging turned up the fact that he had at least three other cars for sale, all of which he represented as his personal car.
When I did find a good seller, we were both very careful about the transaction. I had to bring a mafia-wad of cash because they wouldn’t take anything else, and they had to meet me at DMV so we could get the paperwork taken care of on the spot.
It works, but you have to be careful.
I sell things on C-list, usually items that are too big to ship (rims) on e-bay or too small to hassle with (PS2 games).
I get a lot of spam, the obvious ones have an attachment or a text number. But I also get a lot of responses that don’t seem to be spam but aren’t serious. Those are really frustrating. I don’t understand the endgame there. What do they get from answering (or placing) an ad and not taking the next step?
I also have a hard time negotiating a price. I want to negotiate a price and people just write back and say “what’s the lowest price you will take”. What the heck is wrong with negotiating??
[not sarcasm] Exactly. Only deal with people who seem as distrustful of you as you are of them and you’ll be okay. [/not sarcasm]
No problems here. Used it for years. Common sense is your best defense against scammers.
Don’t dwell on the scammers, just delete and move on.
No issues. Most expensive thing I sold was an i7-3770k. You won’t have any issues as long as you only deal in person, and don’t take anyone’s word for anything.
That means no checks (which are a promise to pay). For things like cars, don’t trust them to do/fill out any paperwork - meet at the DMV or (in many states) at a private auto title provider. Biggest problems I ever had are people who set up a meeting but don’t show up.
As far as negotiating, I tend to have the best luck if you start out with a price close to what you want to sell for, and just tell people no if they offer much less. If you price it high stuff tends to sit; and I tend to see lots of continually reposted ads with insane prices for old tech.
it works, as others have noted, you just have to weed through the crap to get to the legit stuff. i got really fed up with it while looking for a job, but i did find my last 2 jobs using it. i’ve heard from my current employer that craigslist has started charging for job postings, though, and i wonder if that’s going to cut down on the legitimate ads. (answer: probably)
This is interesting. We are moving soon and the dresser we bought a year ago won’t fit right in the new bedroom, so we were hoping to sell on CL so we can use the cash to buy the ‘chest’ from the same set (it’s still being sold at the furniture store). I have never used CL to buy or sell and I hope it doesn’t end up being a huge PITA.
Answer: “What’s the most you’ll give me?”
I normally state in the ads I place that the price is firm and can usually back up my price with cites on similar pricing. If someone gives me a lowball offer I normally don’t respond. What irks me the most is getting a meeting set up and when the person gets there, *then *they want to deal on price. “I know you wanted $80 for this, but I only brought $60.” Then I have to decide if I let this moron skate, thereby validating her method, or try again with another buyer and eat the time I wasted. Fortunately that has only happened to me a couple of times.
I sold my old iPhone recently and everyone else selling one had theirs priced at $200. I priced mine at $180 Firm. I got many emails and even though the buyer I lined up never showed and I stood waiting for her at the hot bar inside the Whole Foods for 45 minutes, I had a second buyer ready and it was sold without incident 2 hours later.
I’ve run into a few scammers/crazy people on CL, but overall it’s worked out well for me. Things I’ve found on CL include: my current job, current apartment, odd jobs for extra cash, concert tickets, obscure DVDs, etc. We’ve also hired some decent people at work who responded to CL ads. That said there are postings, mostly for jobs and apartments, that seem “too good to be true” which I’ve responded to just in case and of course I was right, they were scams.
Bought and sold a number of tools. Received a few Nigerian emails, just flushed them away.
For sellers: I’ve posted and sold probably a dozen items over the past couple of years, ranging from $5 video games to a $3500 motorcycle. I have NEVER received a scam-ish inquiry. For the few items (old video game books, for example) that never sold, I never got a single inquiry at all, from anyone. Is the lack of scammers something about the Atlanta CL?
The only thing that makes sense is that I always use the “reply-to-ad” feature, rather than including my actual email address in the ad itself. Do you do the same, or are you posting your email address?
(BTW: not complaining; just puzzed)