I look at Craigslist specifically for bargains. Last weekend I saw an ad for parrot toys, and it was local. I texted the person and offered to buy them. They wanted to meet in a public spot, so twenty minutes later I was at a pizza shop parking lot.
So, the seller is a woman. I figured she felt safer meeting in public. But her behavior was odd. She was nervous, furtive, wouldn’t make eye contact, etc. I couldn’t decide if she was incrediably socially inept or if it was drug related.
The parrot stuff was all new-in-box, and a fantastic deal. Like $200 worth of stuff for $35 fantastic deal. I handed her the cash, picked up the box, and she was gone. I actually stood there looking at her tail lights, wondering WTF?
When I got home I thought about another explanation for the situation. The stuff was all brand new, yet there were no price stickers. They were all manufactured by the same company. And it was an assortment that most people would not purchase; multiples of the same identical toy. All that, plus her behavior and the lowball price could be explained by the stuff being stolen. It’s possible that she or a friend works in a pet store and took a shipment of stuff home.
I think you fell for the old fake Rolex scam, except this time it was the enticing lure of contraband bird toys. I would expect a visit from customs or the FBI at any time.
I don’t think anyone counterfeits pet toys or that the FBI would concern itself with $ 200 worth of items. Perhaps they were gray market goods, but I’d bet they were stolen.
Craigs list is often where people who steal things choose to sell them. People who with drug problems often steal things to feed their habit.
My sister of questionable morals chooses to take advantage of this. She is in a poor urban area with many drug users. If she wants something she’ll try to find it for sale on craigslist. She can often negotiate the price of said items based on the going rate for a hit of heroin.
Yeah, I was looking on Craigslist for a Nikon strobe to replace one which I had dropped. One of the ads was for a Nikon D800 camera, lens, and strobe for $200.
My problem with CL is that when you list something, most of your buyer offers are scams. i listed a 20 year old pickup truck once-most wanted to “pay” me twice what i asked-of course, they would send me a check , and ask me to send them the difference back. I have stopped using CL.
Fun thought: Stealing $200 worth of pet toys is probably a misdemeanor. Receiving stolen property is a felony as far as I know. Hardly seems fair. Squak!
In my defense, I never considered the possibility the stuff was stolen until an hour after the completion of the transaction. Although if I see the same ad posted I’d be tempted . . .
There was astoryon 20/20 a while back about a guy who claimed to have made millions shoplifting and reselling the merchandise. He says he sold some of the stuff to fences and some through eBay. IIRC, he liked to take small, relatively expensive stuff, and cram it into the box that a large, cheap thing came in. Then he’d go through checkout and pay for the cheap thing. I don’t know what foraging toys are, but if they’re smallish and you can stuff a bunch into a big box, it’s probably a good deal for a shoplifter.
Ok, but let’s look at the seller being honest as a counter-idea. Say her parrot died (insert Dead parrot sketch here) or she had to get rid of it as she was moving to a new apt that said no pets. And she had $200 of toys. Now- really what can you do with $200 of parrot toys other than selling them on CL for pennies on the dollar?
Pawn them? Open a store? Sell them bit by bit on eBay?
Sure there are some things which are usually convertible to cash by only taking a 50% loss… or even less, maybe. But parrot toys are not one of them.
Never, ever, ever buy something from a stranger that’s in the box, without looking in the boxes. The boxes could be filled with newspaper for all you know. Even a sealed box is easy to fake.
I had one other strange Craigslist experience. I bought a beautiful dining room table from a woman and went to pick it up. She was literally moving that night, and the truck was full. Anything still in the house was for sale, no offer refused.
I saw a very nice pencil sketch of a female nude in a perfectly chosen frame. It was signed, but I didn’t recognize the name. I jokingly offered her $20, and she accepted. I took the piece home and hung it.
Maybe a month later the woman contacts me via email (our original craigslist contact was email). She was apologetic, and explained that the model in the sketch was her sister, who was totally freaked out at someone having the sketch and she wanted it back. I gave her my phone number so the sister could call.
The sister called me and I told her I was sorry she was upset, then before I even had a chance to offer it back she started screaming at me! I eventually calmed her down and told her she could have the sketch. I asked when she wanted to come pick it up and she told me she wasn’t driving to get it, I had to bring it to her. And she kept saying nasty things about me. So, I told her I would UPS it to her if she would pay for shipping, plus the $25 I paid for it.
She lost it. Called me a fucking scammer, and more. I hung up, blocked her, and emailed the other sister a description of what happened. She replied, “Yeah, that’s how she is”.
My workplace came up missing 100 32g memory cards a few years ago. While investigating the variance, I checked both eBay and CL. The dumbasses didn’t even have sense enough to get a throwaway phone from the next area code. :smack: They lost their jobs and were prosecuted.
It also resulted in changing our packaging to something that would set off the metal detectors at the security checkpoints.
Flea Markets are still the popular choice for the dumber thieves among us. Just north or Kayaker and me two dudes were busted and a “ring” exposed because they were unloading their merchandise ------- from the pillow cases and sheets they hauled it off in. :smack:
If you are going to be stupid, try not to be stereotypical about it.