Craigslist Scams

I do cash only & meet at a shop that shares a parking lot with a police station.

 

Weirdest one I got was when I was selling my Firebird. I got a message titled "MY CAR." And basically went on to accuse me of using pictures of their Firebird to sell mine (Pics were from in my own driveway anyway...). He threatened to "call the police on me" if I didn't take down the pictures of "his car." I thought it was hilarious, so I replied that I have no idea what he is getting at, the car is mine (complete with pictures of where someone keyed it with fraternity letters) and it was in my driveway. Told him go ahead and call the cops, nothing would happen because I haven't done crap and have the pink slip in hand. Never heard back, I have no idea what his end game was.

I had another one of those usual "ship the car to me" BS, where they will offer me $2000 over asking but I pay the $1000 for shipping etc etc. One guy wanted it shipped to Greenland I think, claiming it was for a client who "fell in love with the car, its his dream car." Really? A v6 firebird with shitty paint, overheating issues, that's been keyed and it leaks oil is his dream car? That alone says its a scam without the shipping portion...


My ALL TIME FAVORITE OF MINE though, wasn't a scam, just an idiot.

I was selling some OEM wheels for the GTO when I got new ones. They were a bit rough in a few spots and I wanted them gone, so I listed them for $400 (a steal for OEM 18's at the time, an equal set would easily get $600). Guy wanted them, agreed on $400, and came down from Bakersfield, so about 1-2 hour drive.

18 year old kid shows up, he has 2 friends with him, we met in a local lot near the police station (always a good plan). Looks at the wheels, and offers $250. I say no. Offers $275, I say no. He points out a few scratches here and there claiming thats why. I bring up a thread from the forum of someone selling a set for $700 with similar issues, even show him pictures. He offers $300, I say no. Then he says "well, I drove 2 hours, you're gonna let me leave empty handed?" I tell him I sure as hell will if he doesn't have $400, and his drive wasn't my problem. He says he really needs the wheels, and he had a feeling I would be an asshole. I pointed out we agreed on $400, and I'm not an asshole for sticking to it when I can get $200 more if I was patient.

Then it gets fun. He points out "Well, there's 3 of us. So how about we just take the wheels and you get nothing? How's that?" I could tell it was more of a bluff than a real threat, because all three looked nervous as hell like "do you think this will work..." He was just trying to get me to take $300.

"ok, if you want to try it, that's your call. But right over there is the sheriff's station *point across street*. I'm off duty, so I sure as shit have memorized your plates and description, and with the real value of these wheels it would be a felony for you and your friends. ORRRR, I can forget that whole statement, and you can give me the $400 and take the F***ing wheels on the AGREED UPON PRICE."

His eyes damn near popped out of his head. "I'm sorry...I was just hoping to get you to take $300...I didn't know you were a cop." He scraped together another $100 from his buddies and took the wheels for $400. I told him to be more careful, because you never know who you get with craigslist. May be a cop, may be an asshole with a gun that would pull the trigger on the spot. He took off.

kids, man...

 

Shit!

 

When I bought my GTO, I can say I liked the way the seller handled it. I took a test drive, and we agreed on a price.

We then went to my bank TOGETHER, and he waited while I got my cashiers check, so he knew it was legit. He gave me the keys. We then went to his bank TOGETHER, he deposited the check then signed and handed me the title. I then dropped him off back home.

I guess it would weird some people out, but I think it was a good way for both of us to ensure neither was getting scammed with a bad check or anything.

 

yup. thats the way ive done it

 

When I sold my Ranger, I had a TON of those "I'll pay you and have a mover come pick it up" scams, a "I'm a Pastor in Africa, and really need a new vehicle. Can you donate it?" email, and a "My girlfriend is pregnant and I need to take her to the doctor. Can you loan me your truck?" and "I have a new job and just need to borrow it for a week."

x2. Also, this is straight from Craigslist's website:

 

ad on CL for my F350 was plain boring 2 lines, no pic and I skipped over it many times for a few days then decided why not email and find out. got a message to text and not email. So I sent my number over and he sent me a pic. It looked too go to be true with the asking price being about 5k below what others were asking. So I said lets meet and he gave me his address. I took it for a spin while my dad waited with him. steering was loose but it looks great and I said I will take it and get money the next day. Next day he asks if I really want it and I said yes but need a plate to drive it home since it was a weekend and didn't want to drive back n forth an hour a few times. So he let me borrow his plate and I started to drive it home.

The drive was fun keeping in the lanes. I had to really pay attention with its 5 inches of dead space and it really had no power but thought diesels were like that. mailed the plate back and started to work on the steering, Fuel pump, boost leaks and fuel injection orings. After 750 in parts and a few weekends it runs so much better and steers better too.

Then I go looking in the back seat to clean out after the kids were in it and their friends and I see a for sale sign from the guy before him with a price of 10k and a phone number. So I called it. Chatted with the guy for 20 minutes and told me he did the mods and sold it because was tired of stick shifts. He was shocked that I got it for 4k less than what he sold it for.

 

Nice looking truck, I must say!

 

Nice rig! Thats a CL steal!

 

thanks and it has 35s with a 4 in lift and gets about 18 MPG around town, 14 when towing 10k trailer loaded

 

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, that kid will likely end up dead or in jail with an attitude like that. I have 0 patience for that kind of crap. I wouldn't have even sold him the rims for the agreed upon price. I would have told him now they are $500 for you.

 

yeah he was an idiot. If I wasn't tired of those wheels taking up room in my garage, I wouldn't have sold them to him. I was just happy they were gone.

 

Not a scam but WTF Craigslist.
https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/bar/6164168121.html

 

CL has been getting shadier and shadier since its inception. While in college I used to do XBox 360 RROD repairs to customers houses. I got stood up 1/4th the time but at least never got mugged or murdered. Would definitely never do that again. Just recently I tried selling my old chopper but I was so paranoid I think I turned a couple legit buyers away. Also no matter the wording *firm* *no haggling*..etc.. I kept getting "What's the lowest you'll go?" idiotic type of questions. I listed it on FB marketplace and sold within the 2nd person contacting me, cash, no haggling.

 

I can't blame people for still trying to go lower, even if the price says "FIRM" or something. Everyone wants the lowest price. A ton of people put the price as "firm" just in an attempt to avoid negotiating. In reality, 99% of the time "OBO" is accurate. That being said, I HATE the "what's the lowest you'll go" type thing. Make an offer, and go from there, I don't like when buyers are ambiguous.

My buddy couldn't sell his truck on CL. He was complaining no one responded. I checked his ad and it said something to the effect of "price is FIRM! FIRM! FIRM! Don't lowball me, I know what I have. " etc etc...it came off like it was written by an asshole. He reposted with the price $500 higher and it sold for his original asking price in a couple days. That's the problem with the "firm" stuff, people come off rude.

My general rule selling something on CL is to list it for 10-15% more than you think you can get. My Firechicken was worth maybe $2500, tops, and I wanted $2200 minimum. Listed it for $3000, sold for $2400 the next day...so I was happy.

 

That's a good rule to have. I also hate the low ball offers, but I also learned that I need to check every source when it comes to cars/trucks. KBB valued my Ranger at around $3500, and some of the local Rangers were being sold for about the same. So I listed mine for $3000 and hoping to get that much, and started getting mad when people kept offering $2500 or less. The guy I ended up selling it to showed me my exact truck on NADA, and it was valued at $2000. Turned out the "low baller" were offering me more than it was worth.

 

I don't mind when people lowball, they just want a deal and that's where they want to start a negotiation. It doesn't mean they won't come up, but if they won't, they don't get the sale. No biggie to me.

I haven't bought in a while. Before buying and selling, I would check 3 sources:
-KBB
-NADA
-Local sales

usually all 3 are good, but as you point out there was a big discrepancy between KBB and NADA, and I don't want to argue about which is correct. The best source is looking at what people are listing and have sold for in your area recently. my GTO, right now, is something like $6500 through KBB. Local(ish) sales, however, have been going for ~$9000 with similar or more miles, salvage titles, etc. So I would be looking to sell around there

 

Sifted through about 30 texts about my civic with a blown headgasket for about 3 days before a guy and his wife drove up to the mason Dixon from Richmond Virginia in rush hour traffic to buy it. Was asking $1000 and the guy gave me $900 for it which is more than I expected. Thought the guy was full of shit until he actually showed up. 5 hour drive for a 04 civic with 175k and a busted motor seemed to good to be true.

 

I'd rather have a cashiers check than a pile of $100's with the possibility a good chunk are fake. Still like the way my seller did it, and that's how I plan to do it. Go to both banks (buyers to get the cash or cashiers check, and sellers to deposit) together.

 

Love this thread...

I sold my Yamaha TW200 a couple weeks ago on CL. Had it listed for $2400 but knew I would accept $2000 cash from the right buyer. I had about 15 responses, 3 said they were on the way to look at it shortly (they never showed up), one guy offered me $1200 lol...

Another gave me a long story that he was soon to be in military deploying at the end of the summer and would I "let him use it as a toy for a couple months if it didn't sell soon and he would give me a couple hundred bucks at the end of August", he claimed that I should be grateful that he was off to serve our country blah blah blah....that blew me away!

Ended up selling it for $2200 to a nice guy who was a school teacher off for the summer. We met at a parking lot, he showed me the cash and handed me his drivers license, he took it down the road and back, agreed on the price, he handed me the cash, I helped him load into his truck, followed each other to notary to exchange title, done deal. The entire process took about an hour.