I work as a baker in a cafe, and sometimes people complain about, or are surprised at prices, or the cost of a catered meal. I too have heard complaints like “I could make it for …”
What people don’t see is the overhead. It’s not just the materials. There’s my payckeck too. And gee, profit is not a diety word.
I had an old stacking set washer dryer–the washer stopped working but the dryer was still more or less okay, then again I bought it used and worked it hard for about five years so gosh knows how long it would keep going. Anyway, I bought a new washer and dryer and decided to put the old one up on Craigslist. I was very clear about what was wrong with it, how old it was and made it very clear it was pretty much scrap and that it would go to the first person who showed up and took it. This was my first use of Craigslist as a poster, so I was stupid and put my phone number in the ad so they could call for the address.
Good gods, big mistake. “I want to give this to my mom as a gift, does it work?” “Can you deliver it?” “Can it fit in a Honda hatchback?” “I want it but I can’t pick it up until tomorrow, will you hold it?” On and on and on and on. Finally some dude came by, picked it up and I could finally tell the rest of them to fuck off. The wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensued–“I wanted it, I told you to hold it for me!” FFS, I could not possibly have been more clear.
Now I use only the anonymized email contact method and ignore anything that’s obviously from a person too stupid to function in any context more complicated than pre-K. Which weeds out about 90% of the responses. If it’s a giveaway item I’ve taken to putting it out a block away, posting the location in the ad and also hanging a “FREE” sign on it–and my neighborhood metal scroungers usually snag it long before the CL people do but I have no idea because on giveaway items I don’t allow any contact at all.
I’ve gotten my craigslist postings down to a science. Local interested parties only. If you are reading this, I still have it. Cash only, no trades. Text/email with phone number when you are ready to come see it/pick it up. No holding until Tuesday. If it’s a big free item, bring your own help to carry it to your truck.
Sometimes people actually read the ad. Mostly it’s - “Do you still have it?”
“Prophet” is, though.
lets see theres the guy who knew how to switch the cartridge chips and sold us 15 Mario/duck hunts in other cases …
the neighbor kid who would sell us games from other kids with out their permission… although most of the time that happened we got the money back
in the early 90s recession we were hit by a professional bad check crew …thees fools went from town to town buying stuff In small amounts because as we found out the la county da’s office wouldn’t go after any check under 300 …
although I did realize why people asked “do they work?” (I wanted to slap everyone who ever asked that) because the yard sale types would sell people stuff that hadn’t worked in years …
i have tons more …
Especially if the prophet is named Agatston, Sears, or Atkins…
I recently had a large wooden dresser to sell. I put it on offer up with a photo. One woman said she’d like to pick it up so I sent her email. “Let’s pick a time Saturday. Be sure you have a pick up and at least one friend with you. It won’t fit in your car and I will not be helping with the lifting. It’s solid and heavy and that’s why I’m selling it.” I told her the name of the complex where I live so she’d know how far to drive. 10:30 Friday night, I get a message through offer up: Hey, I’m here.
I wrote back “Are you nuts? Or do you think I’m stupid? I’m not about to let complete strangers into my place at 10:30 on a Friday night. Deal’s off. Go away.”
I had another day and a half of stragglers who thought they could move it by themselves or in their Mazda hatchback (Nope and nope). Then one guy said “I get off work at 7 and can be there at 7:15 with cash.” And he was.
“Pro-fat” isn’t.
When I posted some free furniture on Craigslist, I jumped one guy to the front of the line–because he was the only one who wrote a coherent response. :rolleyes:
Craigslist is weird. So many people are so flaky and incapable and unreliable that it makes you wonder how they manage to accomplish basic tasks in their lives.
And that’s even after you filter out the ones who are just lowballing you or jerking you around.
Selling a car once, I had a guy call me and say he was on the street, but he couldn’t find my place. I asked if he was sure he was in the right place, and he read off address just under and just over mine. Even addresses. My address was odd. “Turn around.” I said, “It’s on the other side of the street.” This guy showed up on time and seemed to be a serious buyer (he didn’t end up buying the car, but he seemed reasonable). How do you reach middle age without knowing how street addresses work?
I had one woman who wanted to set up a time like a week in the future to come get something write me multiple emails about how unreasonable and rude it was of me to let her know that someone else was coming before then, because she had already told me she wanted it.
I think the best was once, when selling some stuff and moving out of an apartment, I got a response about a bookshelf from a woman who was interested. She called or emailed me no less than five times that day, telling me she had arranged for a truck, that she was coming, no, sorry she was late, etc. I told her I’d be there all day cleaning out my place so she could come by whenever. Finally, around dusk, I called to see if she was still coming.
“Oh, I came by a while ago and decided I didn’t want it.”
“What? No you didn’t. I’ve been here all day and nobody’s come by.”
“I drove by and saw that it wasn’t what I wanted.”
“What are you talking about? The windows are closed. You can’t have seen it.”
“It wasn’t the one on the sidewalk?”
<finally getting it>
“You mean the broken-in-half bookshelf leaned up against the garbage can that looks nothing like the one in the ad? The one I’m clearly throwing away? No, it’s not that one. Seriously?”
I’ll admit I got a little mad at that one, since she had interrupted me so many times that day in what all amounted to a massive waste of time.
I assume “Do you still have it?” is just Craigslist-speak for “I’m interested in it.” Lots of people who say they’ll take the ad down when it’s sold don’t actually do so. I always just start with “I’m interested in blah. When can I come see it?”
I just spent ten minutes on the phone with a guy who says he’s coming to buy a car I have up for sale.
We’ll see…
I’ve seen this more than once.
“$800 for my 3 year old laptop. I only want to get back what I paid for it”
Only? Do you think you’re cutting someone a deal? That old, beat up laptops age like fine wine and increase in value, but you’re so generous you’re only charging what you paid for and not trying to take a profit out of it?
I saw something I wanted to buy once from a guy that was 15 miles away. I sent him an e-mail and said “I’ll take it. I can come pick it up tonight if you need me to, but I’m going to be not too far from there tomorrow at noon, is it alright if I come pick it up then?” “Oh yeah sure see you tomorrow”
Then I text him tomorrow. “Oh, I sold it”
What the fuck? If he had told me “I just want to get rid of it, the first person who shows up to buy it gets it” or “Yeah I’d appreciate if you came tonight” I’d have gone to get it right then and there. But the guy was totally fine with me coming tomorrow and then acted surprised when I was like wtf.
But the other side of that is: “Had a guy say he’s coming tomorrow, but who knows if he’ll show, or maybe he’ll start arguing me down… you showed up tonight with cash, so it’s a deal.”
So then tell me that it goes to the first person who comes. Don’t tell me that you’re fine with seeing me tomorrow and then sell it anyway.
I ended up being the flake once due to a problem with the Craigslist anonymous remailer. I’d sent a couple of emails to a guy to buy a center speaker, and the last one I sent was “let’s meet tomorrow morning at this coffee shop half way between Ft. Collins [where he was] and Denver [where I was].” I never heard back, so I didn’t go.
The next afternoon I got a series of emails in this order all in less than a minute:
“I guess another Craigslist flake”
“I’ll stay another 10 minutes”
“I’m at the coffee shop”
“Yeah, I know that place, see you there”
I let him know what happened, and gave him my real contact information. I ended up driving most of the way up, verified the speaker worked, and paid cash. We both ended up happy, but I sure felt like a jerk.
You want real Adventure? Try Craigslist Personals.
That is fucking beautiful.
Unless craigslist etiquette differs significantly where you live, I’d say you had unreasonable expectations here.
Craigslist, unless otherwise stated, is first-come first-served. If you expect someone to hold something for you, you should explicitly ask them “Will you hold it for me until [time]?”
I easily get a dozen emails and four claims that someone will show up at some future date for every one person who actually shows up. And sometimes the person who shows up tries to lowball me, or pulls the lame “Oh, I only have [$10 less than the price] on me” game.
Person who shows up with money gets thing.
This is actually kind of fun. Can’t say, “NO!” fast enough. They already drove 20 miles to the middle of Nowhere, what are they gonna do? Go home empty-handed?
“Ad said, Price is Firm!” 
Obviously not a believer in prosperity Gospel.