Craigslist laugh

[Martinjmpr]

Craigslist can be great but you have to have the right mentality. If you're the kind of person who gets easily flustered by the stupidity or laziness of others you won't have a good time on CL. But if you can let that stuff roll off your back it can be helpful and you always come up with great stories.

I love when you list some large, cumbersome item for free and you get a response from someone who will be glad to take it as long as you deliver it to them. Sometimes I don't know if the people who respond like that are serious or if they're just seeing how far they can push people.

Couple years ago we had an old china cabinet that was in our house when we moved in (gorgeous piece of furniture, but a big, heavy thing!)

We thought we'd sell it on CL, well, nobody wanted to buy it. Eventually we listed it for free and I think I had someone respond to my ad saying she wanted it but didn't have a truck so could I deliver? To Bennett (about 60 miles East of Denver.) Also she has a bad back so she can't help get it out of the truck or carry it into her house. I laughed and told her "no" but it's one of those things that is funny to recall.

I guess you can't fault someone for asking - hey you always miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right?

I've never had anybody "argue" over a price but just a few weeks ago I had an old keyboard I was trying to sell (we had got it for our granddaughter but after we bought it we realized it was too advanced for her.) We had paid $25 for - on CL - and needed to get at least that much for it to break even. So I had it listed on FB marketplace for $40 and I get a response "Sigue disponible?" (is this still available.) It irks me a bit when people respond to an English language ad in Spanish, but business is business so I respond "yes, available."

So then he replies "$20?" I replied "we'll take 30."

His response "20 please."

Um, NO dude. I rejected your offer and counter-offered. That's how this works. Saying "please" doesn't change my mind.

Never heard from him again but sold it later that day for my full asking price.

Like I said, if you're the type of person who gets angry when people shamelessly beg for something, CL is probably not a good place for you to do business. But it's been good to me.

Now FB market place is taking some of CL's thunder. CL is still better for a buyer who is searching for a specific item (like shopping for a car or motorcycle) while FB Marketplace is good for "impulse buy" items. I've managed to get rid of quite a bit of old crap by just snapping a photo and posting it on FB Marketplace.