Craigslist....sometimes good...sometimes bad

It's called "curbing" in our state. And you loose your dealers license when you get caught doing it.

Yup, you win some and you lose some...similar to deal hunting I've done anywhere. I've found you can judge the seller a whole lot by how much they're willing to tell you on the phone and how courteous they are. One guy I called was a straight-up a-hole on the phone, I had him on the phone for about 15 seconds and had asked the basics (manual trans, clear title in hand, driveable or not)...my next question was if he'd ever done the timing belt on it and he busted a gasket about "are you going to buy this thing or not" and of course after a thorough round four questions I just wasn't ready for that level of commitment. Good luck selling it buddy, your price wasn't that good! On the other hand, some people are willing to tell you why they're selling it, the history of the car, and are generally courteous. I have had much better luck with the courteous folks and have slowly learned to know a skunk deal before I get sprayed with it. Even then, sometimes you just gotta scratch the itch and go against your best judgement.

Bummer about wasting gas for a dead end, but you guys there in the GRM office have scored plenty of good deals to make up for this one. :)

Bryce

I hope I don't have a much trouble as you've had, Per.

I find it interesting that most of these sellers don't act like they really want to sell the car. I've emailed and left messages for about 5 cars and have heard back for one (after 4 days).

Craig's isn't the best, but it's about the only thing out there, anymore. My local paper pretty much just has ads from dealers as does the Autotrader. Where else is there to search?

(Looking for a Neon sedan, 5 speed with A/C if anyone knows of one around Central Texas)

-Rob

Don't forget the local "nickel ad" type papers Rob, free papers tend to attract people interested in cheap/near-free stuff. We got our LeMons Impreza for $300 out of the Spokane area Nickel Ads, it was actually in Montana. I find the nickel ads to be too much to crap too wade through for any decent stuff here in Portland, but my dad and brother watch them out there in north Idaho as it's still used pretty regularly (craigslist in Portland is huge, but in Spokane/north Idaho it's still not used very much).

Bryce

Perhaps a future GRM article? As in, "watch out for this E36 M3"...

Per-you guys visit Ocala often enough. Try all of the "4sale" sites. The sub $1500 section on Ocala4Sale.com is incredible. The tampa4sale, Jacksonville4sale, Gainesville4sale sites havent quite grown enough to be as good as Ocala, but they still seem to be filled with quite a few just need to get it out of my yard type sellers.

I've bought 3 cars off of CL (2 BABE, 1 DD) and haven't had a problem with any of them. There are certain cues that say whether a car is legit or not and it tends to work. If the price looks unreasonably low for the picture, its not legit. If the spelling sucks, the guy is not worth dealing with. If the pictures are bad, the guy sucks and is not worth dealing with. If the buzzwords exceed the prepositions, the car is not legit and the guy is not worth messing with (he'll be persistant in his fraud). Sorry this guy wasted your time. E36 M3 happens, but CL is still an awesome place..properly filtered.

One of the problems with craigslist is there is no commitment to anything. When you publish and ad or use ebay, you have money invested.

craigslist allows you to try to sell anything for any crazy money and there is no loss of anything.

So you end up attracting a bunch of goofs. I did buy a 1971 Datsun 240Z parts car from craigslist and I was happy how it went. My next 1971 240Z died on the vine as the owner disappeared.

Tim Baxter wrote:

Per Schroeder wrote: At least Tom and I got to discuss our plans for the impending zombie-filled apocalypse.

You need rice. As I understand it the undead, or walking dead or whatever you call them -- "vital-sign-challenged persons" -- are inherently obsessive compulsive and will have to stop and pick up the rice. Then you run them over with the Battle Wagon. If the folks in the zombie movies would just do some basic research, they'd be in way better shape.

Didn't I see that in an X-Files episode where molder was about to be killed by an obsessive compulsive vampire, so he knocked over a bag of sunflour seeds to slow him down before he attacked him...

See! If it happened on x-files, it's got to be true.

craigslist is great if you do not expect anything ,

but many people selling used cars are "used car salesmen" with all that implies,

A salesmen wants you to show up so he can sell you something , even if its not whats listed ! They think tthat they can sell you on the car and you will be blind to the cars faults , as long as you show up,

you just get a weird mix on craigslist , but you also get some good deals.....

I've bought and sold off of C/L. I bought my trailer off of C/L, it was exactly as described, person was real, and the deal went smoothly. When I sold my motorcycle, I was upfront and said it was in storage for the winter. One guy called daily until I told him it was ready. Then he disappeared. One woman made 3 appointments to see it and never showed. One guy called, showed up with cash, and left with the bike 45 minutes later. It's the typical sales process: for every buyer, you have 7 to 10 time waster / bottom feeders.

i've bought and i've given away on CL, but i don't think i've ever sold. tried once, got so fed up with no-shows that i won't advertise anything for sale on CL again. for giving away big dumb stuff, it's easier than hauling it to a recycling center.

i'll post details of my latest CL find next week. it's an excellent challenge piece.

I bought my car from craigslist, but I had to look at hundreds of adds posted by idiots before I finally found a good one.

I watch CL incessantly. Even though I just bought the car I'll likely have for the next 10 years, I'm sick with watching the CL. I check the local areas and surrounding states for deals on cars with no intention of buying. Now that I think of it, its kind of a strange pastime. Whats even more strange is that I work for a company that lists cars on CL and ebay for dealers. It's really a small facet of what we do for dealers, in fact most of the time its software that generates the ads. Point is, I see alot of CL auto ads. Most of the time its the little car dealers that are trying to rip your head off on every deal that have the shady ads. Some of these guys don't even have true lots, they rent parking spaces in a stripmall and use the office as a mailing address. These are the guys that put up the '06 STI for $16,500 bait and switch ads. No, that car sold BUT we do have.... and so on. I've bought and sold several cars by owner off of CL and for the most part have had good experiences. The car I have now I found in MN CL and took a train up there and bought it. I subsequently sold my 02 Jeep on StL CL to a lady that found my ad that lived 3 hrs away. Point is, CL is as good as the people that use it. Just my 2 cents.

I use CL regularly to buy and sell cars.
Most people are flakes when it comes to buying and will low ball whatever price you are asking.
On a rare occasion a good deal will pop up, but there are people out there who must have CL streaming and call / email on the real good deals within minutes of it's being posted.
example. last tuesday I was perusing CL at the shop,and I saw an ad for a $300 caravan near me. It had been posted 10 minutes earlier. I called on it and she had already recieved 10 calls on the car and had 1 guy on his way. I went anyways, the other guy arrived a little after me and a 3rd guy arrived later. Me and the 2nd guy ended up flipping a coin for it. I won. it is now sitting in my garage waiting to be put into use for my wife to put her van in the shop and then be used when our friends come in later this summer.
I have found that Wanted ads in the forsale section work OK, not great, but you have to put up with constantly being flagged and needing to repost them. I scored a $700 96 maxima this morning like that.
Now I have a few too many cars.
Anyone want to buy a non-running 87 formula?

internetautomart wrote: I use CL regularly to buy and sell cars. Most people are flakes when it comes to buying and will low ball whatever price you are asking. On a rare occasion a good deal will pop up, but there are people out there who must have CL streaming and call / email on the real good deals within minutes of it's being posted. example. last tuesday I was perusing CL at the shop,and I saw an ad for a $300 caravan near me. It had been posted 10 minutes earlier. I called on it and she had already recieved 10 calls on the car and had 1 guy on his way. I went anyways, the other guy arrived a little after me and a 3rd guy arrived later. Me and the 2nd guy ended up flipping a coin for it. I won. it is now sitting in my garage waiting to be put into use for my wife to put her van in the shop and then be used when our friends come in later this summer. I have found that Wanted ads in the forsale section work OK, not great, but you have to put up with constantly being flagged and needing to repost them. I scored a $700 96 maxima this morning like that. Now I have a few too many cars. Anyone want to buy a non-running 87 formula?

if you email me at sacranoidclub@yahoo.com i might be able to get you in touch with somoene who might want it. jason

T-tops?

neon4891 wrote: T-tops?

yah
TPI too
Performance suspension package
it has the good stuff, that's why I bought it originally. I've just decided to stick to running projects nowadays. I had some nice plans for the car once upon a time. oh, and it's an A/T

.

I wish GM had been smart and done a car with a 350, TPI, Standard transmission and NO t-tops!

I loves me some 5 speed f-body action! (Currently putting a used 350 into my '83 Z28 5 speed car!)

Back to CL. I just sold an ugly '90 Supra on CL. Put an ad with photos and description on CL. I said my price was firm. Had one guy email saying he'd "Pick it up today" for 20% of my firm asking price. Had another guy drive 2+ hours to come get it and drive it home. I got lucky on that one. It takes all types!

Clem

I just sold my '99 328i on CL to the 2nd emailer. The first appeared to be a flake - asked if I'd take 7500 (I was asking 8500) without seeing or driving the car, I responded back, don't you want to see it? But yes, I'd take 7500. No reply to that one. Fast forward 4 days, I get an email from an interested guy at 11:45 last night. I had my blackberry sitting next to me so I replied back, we met at 8:30 this morning and he offered a price that was middle of the various "books" - KBB, Edmunds, NADA - taking into account condition (some rust and minor mechanical issues and some deferred maintenance needs addressing) and mileage (170,400). The wife wants it out of the garage so it was sold. Not a bad experience; I'd list another car there.

I also bought my road bike (Jamis Ventura Elite) on CL a couple months ago. It's an uncommonly large size, I low-balled the seller the 1st day he had it up and he was insulted. He stopped being insulted 3 weeks later and called me back, and we worked out a fair price for what's essentially a new bike. I then promptly crashed on my 1st ride so now it has "character" LOL.

Scott

That's a fine line as a buyer between insulting and being realistically interested to something that the seller obviously wants too much for.

There's a guy on our local CL trying to sell a 2WD Samurai with the engine sitting in the backseat for $700. I want the thing...but he obviously thinks it's actually worth something beyond scrap value. Hard to work those angles...

You know in the end it's going to go to the guy who's willing to come get it at his (the buyer's) price when the seller finally cracks. The trick is being that guy.

Clem

I need to find a Vortec head TPI lower intake...

pigeon wrote: I just sold my '99 328i on CL to the 2nd emailer. The first appeared to be a flake - asked if I'd take 7500 (I was asking 8500) without seeing or driving the car, I responded back, don't you want to see it? But yes, I'd take 7500. No reply to that one. Fast forward 4 days, I get an email from an interested guy at 11:45 last night. I had my blackberry sitting next to me so I replied back, we met at 8:30 this morning and he offered a price that was middle of the various "books" - KBB, Edmunds, NADA - taking into account condition (some rust and minor mechanical issues and some deferred maintenance needs addressing) and mileage (170,400). The wife wants it out of the garage so it was sold. Not a bad experience; I'd list another car there. Scott

And now my buyer is getting slightly flaky - wants his mechanic to take a look at it. Grrrr....

It's not sold (and he's not a buyer) until the cash is in hand....