urbanknight

It happens. There's also the scammers, pulling all sorts of stunts (The Google Voice one is hilarious). One thing for sure is once they burn me without a reasonable explanation, there's no second chance. If they're irresponsible or dishonest with meeting up, they're probably like that with their merchandise or negotiating practices as well.

Chuck M 

I know a lot of folks here on BF don't like facebook. But the one thing that is good about facebook marketplace is the ability to facebook stalk these weirdos before you invest too much time in them.

prairiepedaler

I found this skit highly amusing -

Phil_gretz

I was finished dating [anyone other than my wife] before e-mail existed outside of university computer science departments, the widespread use of cellular telephones, or the emergence of "the internet". Fortunately... we just celebrated 38 years married.

Chuckles1

I put a bike on CL for $800. A woman emailed saying she wanted it, but was out of town on business. I was suspicious. Then she wanted me to ship it. Then she sent a check for $2,800, said extra was for shipping. I wasn't born yesterday, so didn't attempt to cash the check from a title company in CA. The woman said she was in FL. I'm in ME. She wanted me to ship my bike and return any excess payment after taking my $800 plus shipping fees.

Life's too short for dealing with these fools. I showed my banker brother the check and he said the bank routing number or acct.# (I forget which) was not legitimate. It can take a couple weeks to find out a check from a business is no good, so if I had deposited the check and shipped the bike and sent her a check for the excess, I'd have lost the bike and a wad of cash.

Milton Keynes

Yeah, that's an old scam. Be VERY wary of anyone who wants to send you a check for way over the asking price and asks you to send the extra back to them via Western Union or a gift card. Anyone sending you a big check and then having you wire the extra back to them is running a scam, because the checks always turn out to be fake and you'll be out the money.

Sempervee

They are also Phishing for phone numbers I have read including from other countries. I keep it anonymous email thru CL. Going thru that now with 3 No shows and 1 low ******.

Sempervee

They are sometimes only phishing for phone numbers also.. Keep it Anonymous thru CL email. Dealing with that now 3 Nshows and 1 Lo ball offer.

rosefarts

I once had an Acura CL.

Basically a sporty little Honda Accord 2 door. The plan was to use it to commute. It’s age and problems became more than I could bear so I decided to sell it.

It checked all sketchy boxes - Honda motor of a certain era, sporty, beat up and cheap. Holy cow did the weirdo’s come out of the woodwork.

I managed to filter the scammers out.

It was the real ones who showed up. Most looked less than a month out of prison. Never once did I see a forward facing hat. Facial tattoos. Always super interested, never had any money. Some wanted me to personally set them up with a payment plan (ie, give the car away since I’d never see them again). Others wanted me to drop the car off for them, in a sketchy area, very late. Usually I’d get endless nearly unreadable texts and emails with sob stories (sorry, a zippy Acura will not fix what’s wrong with your life).

This was all over a $1000 car. I was one more dirtbag away from just donating it to NPR when a young kid who already had a car and wanted something to tinker with finally bought it.

I’ve bought and sold a lot of bikes. Usually it’s an overwhelmingly positive experience. Any occasional flake I’ve experienced is nothing compared to what I went through with that stupid car.

rsbob 

I use CL to get rid of stuff I don’t want to haul to the dump or is questionable to throw out. I just put FREE and people are beating the door down for whatever. Had a stereo that went mono and had 10 replies. A sofa with a shot spring had a few takers, but looked nice, old light fixtures, you name it. Free is the best way to get rid of stuff you thought no one would want.

OTOH, put a price on something and the flakes come out of the woodwork. Am very used to being stood up or trying to reduce the price. CL is always a crap shoot when selling.

Lazyass

Giving out your address was your first mistake.

TakingMyTime

Maybe I'm the exception to the rule but I've never had a bad experience selling on C/L. I describe the item as best as possible with accurate and detailed photographs. I only initiate a conversation through the C/L email feature and once the buyer's intentions have been confirmed I will exchange phone numbers, speak to them, and THEN give them my address. I believe in always speaking to the buyer before giving them my address and making the sale.

rumrunn6

the most trustworthy seem to be the ppl who want my stuff for free. they are certainly the most grateful. lots of ppl out there need free tires

big chainring 

dmanthree

I've had that happen for Craigslist and for the regional "yard sale" sites on FB. The reason? They're just *******s.

Milton Keynes

I've even had people flake on me when I was giving away stuff for free. I guess free is too expensive or not worth their time. Which really doesn't bother me much, because as far as I'm concerned when I'm giving stuff away, first come, first served. But I had a lady say, "I want that" and then totally ghosted me. I ended up giving it to someone else.

rsbob 

I have had a couple of those too. Or people with limited reading comprehension whom suddenly realize I don’t live next door which suddenly becomes too inconvenient

SurferRosa

Wait. You gave her your name and home address?

I either use cash or PayPal. If the buyer can't do either, then there's no sale.

Metieval

I definitely like Facebook market over CL, because I can stalk the buyer/seller before replying.
Not just marketplace , but the buy/sell group pages are beneficial too. Especially with bikes and bike parts.

BikingViking793 

Weird things on Craigslist are normal.

Darth Lefty 

For free stuff we also have a local Facebook group, called "Buy Nothing," sort of a franchise. It's dominated by moms in apartments. There's a lot of stuff when you have kids that still obviously has value but professional organizations are not allowed to take - like formula or opened bags of diapers or basically any kind of plastic chair (rocker, high chair, car seat) that a baby might have pooped and barfed on. I've been surprised to find that smaller things go easier, something like a crib is a harder giveaway. Sometimes you come to recognize that the same person is showing up all the time because her kid is exactly the right age for the stuff yours has outgrown. People come and go from it and there are definitely some hoarders who will show up for anything. You can make rules up like "tell me why you want it" or "first 'new' respondent gets it" or a lottery. If the first one doesn't show you can go to the next respondent on the post. I've gotten called out once - I put up a kennel and someone posted "You should take this to such and so rescue in Placerville" (hour round trip away). I responded great, are you coming to get it for them?... and I guess that was scathing enough or he wanted it enough because he did.

The crowd from "free" on Craigslist has been different. Clearly poorer, more careful of trouble. They tend to not want to pick stuff up off a driveway unless the home owner is there to ensure it doesn't look like stealing. I don't have any problem with that, they usually need it worse than anyone. I guess I shouldn't care what kind of person is getting this stuff but I do find the hoarders more offputting.

Charliekeet

I’ve also had a higher % of “real” responses when posting stuff for free, and I’m always shocked at how quickly things just left out with a “Free” sign are snapped up. Even big things, like heavy coffee tables, tall bookcases…

dedhed

Free stuff I put on the curb of my busy street and it disappears.

travbikeman

Many years ago had someone flake out on me to pick something up at my house via a CL sale. I attempted to get back to them to find out if they were coming, but they never responded to me after I gave them my address.

Had a bad feeling on it, so I made sure my garage door had the extra locks set on it.

Sure enough, someone came around 1am and attempted to open my garage door. My dog is growling and on edge. I was ready to pound the guy with an alum baseball bat. The idiot whom tried to break in never thought for a moment, that an old (4 cylinder ) car without a muffler isn't exactly sneaking in when he drove through my quiet neighborhood and into my driveway.

I now primarily sell things via Facebook and will charge for shipping. But still have these weird flakes whom tell me some really stupid things. Had a guy once tell me on a Facebook sale that he would have bought the bike had it been a size large. I was like really...let me run out and buy a size large bike to sell you....sheesh some people are just plain bored in life. There really is no need to strike up stupid conversations like that when you had no intentions to buy. But get that too often with Facebook.

Milton Keynes

If you want real weird, peruse the personals.