Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

[wildmaninal]

If you can't even advertise the item for sale with a complete detailed discription then you don't need to be advertising!!! And Most likely you don't need to be on the internet!!!

I emailed a man about a $150 boat with an I/O in it last night. I asked him like this

Hey

Do you still have it? If so......What type of moter is in it? Mercruiser, or, GM,? What is the outdrive? OMC, Volvo, Mercruiser?

Is the trailer in good enough shape to tow a long distance? I live in Gadsden.

Thanks

myname

In which he replies back with this.

Need one tire and a shot of grease. Motor good, does not shift good. Boat needs work.

I reply back one more time with this. Not going to lie I was a little ill.

I ask again
W.H.A.T
T.Y.P.E
O.F
M.O.T.O.R
D.O.E.S
I.T
H.A.V.E > THAT IS THE MAIN THING THAT I'M INTERESTED IN! I live in Gadsden an I'm not about to drive out to look at a boat which I don't even know what kind of motor is in it!

Then yet another deal, this one here thinks I'm a sucker. Anyhow I email about a ColorClector which was on craigslist in a packaged deal with a depth finder, tubing equipment blah blah blah. I emailed and asked if he would sell the Colorclector seperate. He emailed me back and said sure, the price on it is $80.

I just was looking at another (but out of state) for $25, had a picture of it and all. I was also looking at some of the Colorclectors on Ebay, not bad prices for what little was on there.

Anyhow I reply to him like this.

Good g** man is that thing made out of gold?? I seen one for $25 on craigslist just after I seen your ad, then I found them on ebay for just as cheap if not cheaper. It is the one with the dial isn't it?
Looks like the one on this link? http://lansing.craigslist.org/for/933500822.html

Sorry I'm no sucker!!! I'd hate to see someone else fall for that also.

I'm very tempted to flag his ad.

Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.....Oh wait my bed is in a corner . Then you get these people that discribe just the boat in the ad and don't say a blessed thing about the motor, even though that is shown in the picture and sure enough for the price the motor must be included, but yet we have a mystery motor!!!! Probably is the same guy that advertised the boat that I emailed about for $150, that is advertising these other boats.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

when i get to those, they usually know nothing about their boat, so knew nothing about maintainance. i just keep on looking. my pet peeve is no pictures.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

when i get to those, they usually know nothing about their boat, so knew nothing about maintainance. i just keep on looking. my pet peeve is no pictures.

The worst thing is he had 2 pictures of the boat on the advertisement but no picture of the "good motor". By his signature on the email there was a website address of a marina, so if it is a marina advertising it then they need to do a better job.

I doubt I'll be looking at the boat, may not even get a reply on the email. I figure if he can't tell me what motor is in the boat when I asked, he wont get my business. But it would be my luck that he has the same exact motor that I could use parts for or use mine for parts.

The one man did reply back about the colorclector, he claims it is like new blah blah blah, said he's not trying to sucker anybody. I must admit I don't know what they cost new but seeing the average price of a used one is $25 something seems fishy. Which his is used, it was considered used as soon as it left the store.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

Personally, I would have simply moved on.
Like you say, if there's a plethora of Color-C-Lectors out there for $25, why even waste you time.

 

[BF]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

In general, I see more and more email replies that are one liners that don't answer the original Q.... blackberries/iphones/whatever phone that can access email is usually the problem I think. The response is short like a text message... probably done while driving, eating breakfast and ranting about all the bad drivers.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

Personally, I would have simply moved on.
Like you say, if there's a plethora of Color-C-Lectors out there for $25, why even waste you time.

Oh I've moved on from the Colorclector for sure, I just thought I would point it out to him that he seems to be way over priced.

I just thought that maybe some of these advertisers would get the message if I point out certain things to them, like the make of the boat motor.

I personally don't love craigslist, mainly because of there spammers, scammers, and all that mess. Had several incidents where scammers replied to my ad, I always like messing with them. Another reason is for there layout of the website. If I could only get my local free classifieds website up and going.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

In general, I see more and more email replies that are one liners that don't answer the original Q.... blackberries/iphones/whatever phone that can access email is usually the problem I think. The response is short like a text message... probably done while driving, eating breakfast and ranting about all the bad drivers.

The one about the boat may of been one of those, replied by cell phone. I have a phone with email alert, I wait till an appropriate moment to reply to or make an email. Most of my emailing is done by the computer though.

I must ask isn't the one liners aggravating? It darn sure is to me! My brother has been known for one liner replies, sometimes even 2 word replies , and he does all of his emailing through the computer.

Still he should of had the I/O listed in the advertisement.

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I agree. I was looking at a decently priced older evinrude a while back on CL. All I needed to know was if I could hear it run and was it a short or long shaft motor. I wasnt going to drive across town to find out it wasnt going to run or it was a long shaft motor.

all I got was, "you can come look at it" for a response. Well gusee what I DIDN'T do????

thats not asking too much. If I can hear it run, even if it runs bad Ill probably buy it.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I agree. I was looking at a decently priced older evinrude a while back on CL. All I needed to know was if I could hear it run and was it a short or long shaft motor. I wasnt going to drive across town to find out it wasnt going to run or it was a long shaft motor.

all I got was, "you can come look at it" for a response. Well gusee what I DIDN'T do????

thats not asking too much. If I can hear it run, even if it runs bad Ill probably buy it.

That hoovers!! No that wasn't asking much at all Shizzy. In the same amount of time he took to type "you can come and look at it" he could of responded with the answer that you was looking for. The worst thing is he might not of had a clue on if it ran or might not of known the difference between long and short shaft, but all he had to say is "I don't know", or "I'm not for sure", and or "I'll find out". Granted the price of gas is down but still some of us can't afford to drive out just for the heck of it, then like you said find out it isn't what you want.

I still can't find a price of a new colorclector. I even went by academy and they don't carry them .

 

[DJ]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

when i get to those, they usually know nothing about their boat, so knew nothing about maintainance. i just keep on looking. my pet peeve is no pictures.

They can also be a great deal. I do a "Drive by". Even a look, you NEVER know.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

They can also be a great deal. I do a "Drive by". Even a look, you NEVER know.

In my case a drive by would be a 100 mile round trip even for that boat I mentioned earlier.

I or I should say we (my father and I) have learned our lesson on boat trailers, that's why I am starting to ask when I inquire about a boat. The last boat that we brought had a broke spring on the axle and the middle brace between the 2 axles was broke loose. After 3 days of fooling with it we finally brought her home, the 1st day we looked at and paid for the boat, the 2nd day we worked on the trailer some, the 3rd day we finished up on the trailer and brought the boat home. That was about a 120 mile round trip each day.

Craigslist finally posted our city a couple of months ago and it hasn't picked up popularity/users yet in our area so that's why we end up going out of town for the deals.

 

[wajajaja02]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

In defense of the sellers, I never sell my junk on craigslist or a yard sale or what ever sale, cause it just ain't worth given up the time and effort from "boating or what ever to do it. so perhaps the sellers are listing these "deals" instead of just throwing the crap out figuring somebody might get something out of it. U

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

In defense of the sellers, I never sell my junk on craigslist or a yard sale or what ever sale, cause it just ain't worth given up the time and effort from "boating or what ever to do it. so perhaps the sellers are listing these "deals" instead of just throwing the crap out figuring somebody might get something out of it. U

You know I haven't had anything much other then an antique refrigerator that worked, that I have ended up scrapping after trying to sell. I put it up for sale, had a few calls but nobody came out to look at it. I hated to scrap it but that's what I ended up doing.

As for the boats I haven't advertised any of them as "project boat" I had a man that was looking for a project boat and posted an ad on craigslist. He's wanting something for nothing. When I emailed him to tell him what I have, I told him I have a Cobra bass boat which is the newer style V hull, told him the HP rating of the hull and length, and that the main deck needed replacing. I told him $100 for the hull by it's self. After giving him the option between that Cobra and an older runabout, he seemed very interested in the Cobra. Then he emailed me and asked about where he could find a trailer, I told him that I had a trailer that I would sell for $250 (I believe it was), which for the trailer is a fair price probably worth more. He never emailed me back.

Now the same guy has another advertisement for a boat project, the ad is basically worded the same as before.

Thought about putting the boat up for sale for $100 with option of the trailer for $250 more and see if he responds .

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I think I just need to stay away from Craigslist. Nobody is patient enough to wait for us out of towners to come and buy from them anyway.

That guy finally replied back about the boat on the 16th.

All he said was

my name, This boat has a V8 Ford 188 hp. Come get it.

Didn't tell me any directions or nothing . If I new "come get it" meant free I would half to think about getting it without a doubt.

Then I replied to another ad that had a deal on a nitro R/C car. I asked this man on the first email "where are you located at" he never gave me an answer. He had the RC up for sale or trade. I mentioned that I had a few items to trade. He emailed me back about the one item that he was interested in, he wanted some details so I gave him the details. He waits a couple of days and emails me back and says alright I am interested in the item but I need money to boot. So I agreed to give to swap my item towards his and give him money to boot, and I also asked again for his location, still no answer to my question. He emails me back and says "Sorry I sold the R/C Car a minute ago". I wasn't very happy, I was already to arrange my time for the "trip" (where ever I was supposed to go). To be honest I've been wanting one of those gas powered R/C cars for the longest. Words were swapped and he threatened me on the final email from him. Funny thing is he told me the name of the store to meet him at (which is his work place) but he forgot HE DIDN'T EVER TELL ME WHERE HE WAS LOCATED. Needless to say I'm not going to stoop that low.

For those people who advertise online, if your not a 100% sure that you would want to trade your item for something else then don't put "will trade" or anything hinting that you are willing to trade. If nothing else list the items that you are willing to trade for, some people don't even do that though. Then when you ask the seller if he wants a certain item to trade for the seller wants to complain about it by saying "don't try to swap your junk for this item" I've seen that before, all because the seller didn't list the items he was interested in trading for.

I would like to make a list of tips/advice for the sellers to post on that website, but then again it probably wouldn't do any good. Please tell me your CL's advertisers in your areas are smarter then these people down here . I'm going to try to wean myself off from that website, might be hard but I'm tired of the goof balls. Anybody know of any other site?

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I think I just need to stay away from Craigslist. Nobody is patient enough to wait for us out of towners to come and buy from them anyway.

I only respond to Craigslist ads that have a phone number. I never play the email game and if I list something I expect people to call. I never have a problem either way.

As for time of response on something I list, sorry Bud, first come, first serve. I quickly learned to never 'save' an item until someone showed up. Invariably they never did and I usually had turned down other callers in the mean time. It's real tough out there WM.

Just hope your local CL gets active 'cause it is a valuable resource.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I only respond to Craigslist ads that have a phone number. I never play the email game and if I list something I expect people to call. I never have a problem either way.

As for time of response on something I list, sorry Bud, first come, first serve. I quickly learned to never 'save' an item until someone showed up.
Just hope your local CL gets active 'cause it is a valuable resource.

In my case I had already agreed to purchase the item for sale (the R/C car), but he kept goofing around and wouldn't tell me where he lived. All he had to do is tell me the name of the street and city with street number and I cold look it up on the map online if nothing else. I told him "I was willing to travel for the item", "just tell me where your located".

I give up for real. I can understand the valuable recources, but this means there has got to be people with more brain power to back up their ads, or valuable recources or items however you wanna put it.

We need the Iboats moderators to help straighten that website up .

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

To me, Craigslist is a mixed bag. It can be a great way to buy or sell something, but you do have to weed out tons of idiots and scammers.

I just sold a 4WD pickup on CL. I moved the truck in two days and ended up selling it to a very nice guy. He knew what he wanted, showed up to look at the truck when he said he would, and paid my asking price.

BTW, I never publish a phone number on Craigslist. Doing so is a very good way to have every wacko in the world calling you about more nonsense that you could ever imagine existing. As far as I am concerned, a serious buyer will invest in one email to get my number. If he/she won't do that, I'm not interested in dealing with them.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

To me, Craigslist is a mixed bag. It can be a great way to buy or sell something, but you do have to weed out tons of idiots and scammers.

See I'm just now finding that out. So far 80% of what I dealt with are the idiots. When advertising 80% of the replies are scammers. My figuring might be a little off on both of the above.

BTW, I never publish a phone number on Craigslist. Doing so is a very good way to have every wacko in the world calling you about more nonsense that you could ever imagine existing. As far as I am concerned, a serious buyer will invest in one email to get my number. If he/she won't do that, I'm not interested in dealing with them.

That could be part of my problem, being that I have dealt with some of these guys by email alone. Some of my problem is something I have brought up/posted a thread about in the past here on Iboats, anyway to sum it up I feel more comfortable inquiring by email then I do by phone. Still to me even though I've only inquired by email a majority of the times, there is no reason I should be going through the problems I've been going through. All the ads I've had problems with have not had phone numbers listed on them.

OK I've got to go to bed now, screwing up on my typing to much :redface:. Good night Iboats.

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I have had mixed results selling on CL as well. I was selling a broken motorcycle for $100 or best offer. one guy shows up and tells me its junk and thinks I should just let him take it off my hands for free. I ended up parting it out for $700 instead.

I was selling a Kayak last summer. I put a low dollar price on it since I just wanted it gone. I had a few people contact me on it. one lady was vry excited and quickly arranged a time to come see it. she showed up on time and bought it on the spot.

I had given another guy my adress and Phone number with instructions to call when he wants to see it any time after 5:30 during the week. He calls that same evening at about 8PM sitting outside my house. No call to let me know he was coming so I wasnt able to tell him it already sold.

I simply told him I gave it to the lady with a handfull of hundred dollar bills.

I have had more luck buying things off enthusiast forums. I nabbed a trolling motor off someone on the local fishing forum for $50. it was darn new, no problems with it and he was full of answers and always responded to my emails.

 

[wildmaninal]

Re: Good Grief Craigslist Advertiser Come On

I have had mixed results selling on CL as well. I was selling a broken motorcycle for $100 or best offer. one guy shows up and tells me its junk and thinks I should just let him take it off my hands for free. I ended up parting it out for $700 instead..

I had a guy try to chew me down to such a price that I might as well given the Motorcycle to him, but I stuck as close to my price as possible and still came out with a little prifit. It was one of those times where I just needed the money, I hated seeing the bike go, it was like a twin to my father's motorcycle but a year older. This was all over the local swapper they sell in the gas stations.

That guy tried to sucker you on the bike, that is a heck of a turn around parting it out for $700.

I simply told him I gave it to the lady with a handfull of hundred dollar bills.

I have had more luck buying things off enthusiast forums. I nabbed a trolling motor off someone on the local fishing forum for $50. it was darn new, no problems with it and he was full of answers and always responded to my emails.

I guess I'll half to start looking for those type of websites, probably the only way I'll be able to actually buy certain things that I'm looking for.