Has craigslist ever annoyed you enough to just keep the car you are trying to sell?

Has craigslist ever annoyed you enough to just keep the car you are trying to sell?

I am currently at that point after the 4th or 5th no show to come look at the car and the constant low-balling. I don't really need 3 vehicles but I guess it is just fate to keep it.

I've never taken the time to put up a CL ad for anything I wasn't actively trying to get rid of though I've mostly been lucky when it comes to asshats responding to my ads.

Close. All the "negotiations", sight unseen can really get to you. People are no fun. Good luck, brother.

Is Autotrader still a legit alternative? Personally, it worked for me in the past very well after a bunch of bs responses to craigslist ads.

In reply to wheelsmithy:

I'm very close to keeping it after running the numbers on fixing it vs selling it and trading my daily on a new Wrangler. I guess $2500 worth of upgrades now is better than $28k on a new wrangler.

I list stuff here and if one of you or a friend doesn't want it I would literally give it away or part/scrap it before selling on CL. This is why I've sold cars to friends and grmers and only one on CL.

There's an easy way to put a stop to 99% of the no-shows.

I set up a time and I tell them: "Call me when you're leaving your house and I'll give you the address"

I continue on with my planned schedule. If they call, I'm usually never more than half an hour from home.

If they don't call, no big deal, I'm busy doing what I had planned anyway.

If they lowball, I just say no, walk inside and shut the door.

Can't for the life of me understand why so many of you put up with stupid people playing stupid games.

You have the item, you aren't starving and don't have to sell it.

They drove all the way to see you and might go home empty handed.

Ball is entirely in your court.

I almost kept the 89 f150 and parted it out over this exact crap last spring. The worst was the people who took it for 45minute plus test drives, at 8mpg that E36 M3 got exspensive quick. ended up selling it locally to a friend of a friend for a slight loss just to get away from craigslist! Its the reason why i quit flipping cars for extra cash.

I've sold three cars on Craigslist (B5 S4, '02 Focus wagon, '07 Odyssey) and I've never had someone no-show -- the worst was on the S4 where I had one guy come, test-drive it, decided he wanted to buy it, find out his bank was closed (it was Monday, which we'd both forgotten was a holiday), then decide the next day that he didn't want it after all.

I post the ad with only the anonymous CL contact info, reply to serious-looking emails with my phone number, then let it go from there. I delete emails with any questions about price in them -- it's a used car, of course it's negotiable, come and look at it before you start asking about price.

In reply to codrus:

Interesting note on your reaction to the email price thing. I offered $200 less on a car in the initial e-mail he countered with $100 off. I said sure. We arranged a meeting the next morning which I walked 20 minutes to then drove it around the block and paid for it.

The last thing I sold on CL was my 2003 Saturn Vue with 265k miles. Non drivable due to bad clutch slave cyl.
I listed it on a Sat night about 9 pm for an asking price of $400.

I near instantly had a guy who wanted to come at 7am. He no showed but the 8am guy did show.
The 8am guy tried to move me on price but also said he wasn't sure when he would come get it towed. He failed to understand m y real motivation that I wanted it gone.

I countered with, "$400 and I'll call my AAA tow right now and get it delivered to you within 100 miles (but local guy) in the next 30 minutes."

30 minutes later it left for full asking price. I feel my asking price was genuinely reasonable.

A month later it was listed on local CL for $1,700 then $1,200 then $1,000. I did see it in a driveway with temp tags shortly after that.
I'm glad it lived on. I'm glad it did not have to live on with me.

I had considered sending him a low offer. I figured the title was still in my name so if I bought it back from him I would not have to re-register it or re-plate it. I thought sell for $400, rebuy for $700...Here's $300 for fixing my car...but really, I did not want it back.

I have not found CL to be too difficult for recent sales and purchases. It has been well worth what it has cost me in both cases to use the service.

Monday I sold my 1994 ranger for 1400. The guy was willing to pay my 1500 asking price but on the way to meet him the wiper motor literally popped apart. So I took 100 bucks off. 53 dollar part at Autozone.

Wednesday I sold my 2008 for Focus for 2400. I asked 2700, hope to get 2200, was happy to meet at 2400 with very light and easy going negotiations. Both cars sold to the first people to come look.

Not personally but my dad has taken a few cars down and went back to the ol' fashioned for sale sign in the window plus a price and phone number. The cars have still sold in a reasonable amount of time.

I really don't understand the "no shows." If you don't want the vehicle/part/whatever, why do you contact the seller in the first place?

I'm getting ready to post Subarust on the 'list in the next few days, since I couldn't get any local SCCA interest and you guys let me down.

I do not look forward to vape-smoking dude-bro's offering $1k or other shenanigans. I did sell my old xB without too many hassles a few years ago, so maybe I'll get lucky.

I've never used it but I like the "call me and I'll give you the address" approach - if they balk and you tell them why and they still balk, then you probably already identified your no-show. I've sold a boat, car, boat trailer, child hiking backpack and I'm sure other stuff on CL and have always had great interactions. Frankly the initial discussions with the potential buyers gave me confidence they were really interested. I've bought a lot more, also with great interactions. I honestly can't think of a bad experience right now. I guess I'm fortunate.

I went to google images looking for Cartman saying "suck my balls". I found something even better: a GIF of naked cartman rolling around in a pile of cash saying "suck my balls". I did a screen grab of it and send that to anyone who texts me with retarded offers.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

This is going on my phone tonight.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

Best response ever.

I pay my daughter 10% of sale amount for anything she sells. That way I don't have to deal with the idiots until the deal is done and money is ready to change hands.

MrChaos wrote: Has craigslist ever annoyed you enough to just keep the car you are trying to sell?

Having to deal with Craiglist people is generally why I throw things out rather than bother listing.

I had one nice CL transaction, I got 15 responses in the first 24 hours. After deleting the ones that I clearly did not want to deal with (if they ask questions about the car that are clearly answered in the post, that doesn't bode well for their general intelligence and therefore likelihood of ease of transaction) I narrowed it down to three that were worth replying to. Car was gone the next day.

The rest... Not worth it. If I need the space that badly, I'll just Dumpster the stuff or add it to the recycling pile at work.

I am now keeping the samurai and waiting for next paycheck to order stuff for it. I guess it is just fate.

Yep. Instead I gave it to another person here on grm.

I listed my Accord for $5,500 on a few sites and I was clear it was CASH only at my local Chase Bank. I had a few - hey, what's the lowest you'll take for a CASH deal? Uh, $5,500 and it's only cash. Would you take $4,000?

Yup, short summary:

Me: Car, $3900 OBO

Idiot on cl: Hey man, what's the lowest you'll take?

Me: I'm asking $3900, open to offers.

Idiot: So what's the lowest you'll take?

Me: I'm open to offers.

Idiot: Yeah man, you already sed that, I just wanna know how low u'll go.

Me: Are you trying to make an offer?

Idiot: Nah, man. I don't wanna waste my time with all that. I just wanna know how low you'll go before I drive over there.

Me: The price is $3900. That means if you show up with $3900 cash, I'll sign the title over and you can drive home. If you want to check the condition in person, drive over, I strive to be a straight shooter, and you want to make an offer after looking at the car I'm open to offers. I might say yes and I might say no.

Idiot: Why U make this so hard?

Me: I have a car for sale. Your flurry of texts/emails indicates you want to buy a car like mine. What's the highest you'll go....before you drive over? Hmmmm....oh....what's that?....Yup....didn't think so....:(

Idiot: Why do u have to be such a dick?

Me: The price for you is now $5900. For any other human with at least two brain cells to rub together and make a tiny effort to grasp the concept of an offer, the price is $3900 OBO. Oh yeah, also, you can go berkeley yourself!