Originally Posted by 2fat2fly

Is there anything else, especially on FB and CL. There's no way I'd do an in person deal and accept any form of Paypal.
Its Here's the bike, take it or leave it, show me cash or leave me alone.

Maybe I've gotten a bit cynical lately but I have zero tolerance for all the games people play these days. I've had emails with all sort of crazy offers, they want to trade you a non working microwave and two burned up toasters for a ready to ride bike, and 'They're willing to let it all go out of the goodness of their heart'. I listed a wood stove over the winter, it came from the clean out i did of several trailers and some old guy's house. The thing was in perfect working order, I was asking $100 cash for it. I got offers to trade for four bald tires, kittens, horse manure, and a pet snake. I guess if you don't specify NO TRADES - CASH ONLY, your opening yourself to all sorts of crazy these days.

I listed several complete bikes, the last was a Columbia three speed, the AW hub said 1967. The bike was decent, everything worked and the tires held air. I put $75 on it. It was perfectly ridable, I was using it while we did that clean out to run back and forth to the road during the clean out and was using it around here for a bit. I got no replies at all, other than one offer to trade for a non working Nintendo. It finally sold the other day for $50 to the first person who was smart enough to make an offer and actually drive here with cash. A rare occasion lately.

I made the mistake once of listing something for free here. We had a yardsale and had a ton of old clothes we didn't want to pack up. I posted on CL under the free section and in 10 minutes I had 25 cars here and dozens of women fighting over old clothes. Worse yet, the next day I had two different woman trying to return the 'free' clothes saying they didn't fit.
I'll never do another yard sale and never list anything as Free again here. All day during the yardsale I had to keep stopping people from trying to walk into the house and garage, despite the fact I had it roped off. I had guys showing up asking if I had any tools for sale, and "What's in the garage, can I take a look?". I had to move my car off the street and back behind the house because people kept trying the door handle to see if it was locked. I sold a lot of things but mostly just junk, no one would spend more than $2 at a time.

After that clean out, I've got a ton of things I don't need and will never use, but from what I've seen none of it is worth anything. I listed one of the complete Raleigh Sports in as found condition and never got an email at $150, the bike isn't gone through but its completely ridable as it sits yet the best offer I got was $20 or trade for junk.

Its been my experience that FB is a total waste of time, I get zero response there both as a seller and buyer. CL is a case of 'seller beware'.
I had a guy show up to look at a Raleigh Sprite I listed, the bike was 100% original, from around 1977. Some guy showed up and started measuring the bike and told me I had it mis-listed. The frame was a 23.5" frame, he starts on the bit about it only being 23 3/16", and then starts telling me that the handlebars are wrong for the bike, and he's got a tape measure out to show me that the bars are 1/2" too wide for it to be a 'real' Sprite. At that point I basically threw the guy out.
3/4 of all the people who say they're coming to look at something don't show, out of those who do, about 2% have cash and intend to buy something.

I had a guy drive 400 miles in an old V8 pickup truck to look at a bike I listed, he gets here late on a Saturday, after getting lost a half dozen time trying to find me, then tells me he's just looking, but if he likes it, he'll think about coming back up this way to buy it. I was relieved when it sold the next day to someone else.

I think part of the problem is that people are getting stupider with every generation. Who in their right mind drives 400 miles to just take a look at something? He likely spent more than the bike was worth in gas to just come and take a look.
I don't know what's worse, those who come to just take a look or those who show up driving a mini cooper to by a 14ft aluminum row boat. The guy and his woman flip the boat over on top of the car, tie it all down then can't figure out how to get in the car. after some creative crawling they're back in the car, then they realize they can't see out of the windshield. The boat prevented any of the doors from being opened and blocked all forward and rearward view,. One suggestion I heard was that if he taped the cell phone to the front of the boat, he could use his girlfriends phone to see where he was going. And they were serious. I told the idiot if he tried that I'd be the one who called the police. They messed around for two hours finally getting the boat mounted on top of the car so they could see out of the windshield, but none of the other windows. They left from central PA to Maine at 9pm. I never heard from them after that so I'm assuming they made it wherever they were going. The boat was bigger than the car. They had it tied down with electrical tape and one motorcycle tie down at the rear.