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....is when you inquire or express interest in buying an item for sale, and you don't get any reply.
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09-06-2021 08:48 AM
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Agreed. That just happened to me again.
Originally Posted by Woody Sound
#2 is the time I've wasted putting items up for sale there with no results. So then I put them on Reverb at a higher price and they sell quickly.
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I always state clearly that if my post is still up not to ask if it is for sale and don't reply to any message that asks simply "is this still for sale?" Originally Posted by Woody Sound
I also specify that buyers respond with a textable phone number or an actual (non-relay) email and that I'll respond to them likewise. I don't reply if they don't.
Just too many scammers and non-serious folks just fishing for info.
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I’ve had a number of people inquire about a guitar I’m selling (seemingly legit), and when I respond to their question(s), simply never hear from them again. How hard is it to say, “thanks, but not what I’m looking for right now.”? Originally Posted by Woody Sound
Or even more perplexing/frustrating, the people who actually come try out a guitar, say “I’ll let you know in a day or so …” and then completely ghost you. Again, just take a minute to say, “no, thanks, but I appreciate your time.”
At the risk of sounding more ancient than I am, simple good manners seem to have disappeared.
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I used to sell a fair amount of gear on Craigslist when I lived in New England… not so much now that we’re retired in Chicago. My experiences were pretty decent on the whole. That being said, I feel it’s my duty as an old guy to observe that people have become less and less considerate of others for sure… no doubt about. Now don’t get me started on the astounding level of incompetence one encounters every day.
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I figure that if an inquiry goes unanswered it means the item has sold and the seller is too rude to either remove the ad or answer continuing replies to his/her ad. And then I feel glad that I dodged a bullet by not transacting business with a rude person.
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frequently the seller doesn't get the inquiry because it goes in their spam folder and they don't check it.
of all the items I've sold on CL at least half of the emails ended up there.
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Craigslist can be a pain but I sell a lot of bike parts. Yesterday sold a set of pedals. No fees but you have to weed out the spam. Now if I could find a way to sell gift cards. No specific category on Craigslist or Facebook.
Guitars tend to be the worst on Craigslist.
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"Guitars tend to be the worst on Craigslist."
Maybe it's because I live in NYC and there is a large market here, younger and older players, but I never had a problem selling guitars on Craigslist. I've sold to beginners and to pros.
Maybe I had to wait longer than I cared to, but the right people usually surface. I tend to have quality stuff, and I write that into the ad. Yes, I get SPAM a lot, and other nonsense, but its always been worth it. I've had people come who I did not want to sell a hi-end guitar to, and people to whom I wanted to give the guitar to because they played that guitar so much better than I (and the guitar was "made" for them). Always got my prices too.
I always ask for a phone #. I won't return by email. There are people out there just selling lists of email addresses, and Craigslist is a goldmine for them. They claim that they will come over instantly with cash, hoping to snag you and your info. But I've learned to sniff out those kinds of replies. And if I do call them, the calls go dead.
So, I will continue to CL, also, I hate shipping anything.
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Or when you get a reply and the "seller" comes up with reasons they can't meet, or worse still are not there when you arrive for a planned meeting. I've also been asked what I'd be willing to pay as if it were an auction not a sale. Then again there are the ads where the item is a train wreck, or was sold months ago... Sheesh. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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^^ this is one i see a lot. If you want to sell something, you should make an effort to make the meet happen. (I've only bought stuff on CL)
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I have found more than half the time that I have inquired about an item that it has been sold and the seller didn't bother to take the ad down. So it's a legitimate question. Just because you're good about that doesn't mean everybody else is and the buyer has reason to ask. As for providing my contact information such as a phone number or email address, I don't do it when first contacting a seller. Just as there are too many scammers and non-serious folks buying, the same goes for sellers. Both sides have reason to be a little cautious. Originally Posted by zdub
Last edited by Cunamara; 09-10-2021 at 01:26 PM.
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I’ve had a good experience overall. I sold a rehabbed ‘70’s Electra bass to Conor Oberst’s guitar tech. He told me Conor would probably use it on his next recording.
One good thing about the Midwest is people are generally pretty plain spoken. If a guy tells me he will meet me at such-and-such, he’s usually there.
I have had some great deals on CL, including the $150 MIM Tele I got from a kid needing college money, and the Taylor 12-string I got for about a third off retail.
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I've done a lot of buying & selling on CL. Music gear, bicycles, hobby stuff, even a kitten!
I like it, but I do believe FB marketplace is a bigger market these days.
Not everybody on CL is cool, but it's not too difficult to sniff out a turd. A couple of e-mails back-n-forth will set the tone.
If they are "text only" I don't even bother. If we actually end up talking on the telephone, that usually works out well.
I was looking for a Siamese cat last year -- and they are not easy to find where I live -- but a CL listing came up & I called on the spur of the moment & Voila! a woman actually answered the phone! Next morning we met in the parking lot of her apartment building (she had two toddlers in tow) -- five minutes later I brought home the new feline addition to my casa.
Sometimes it works out, sometimes you have to walk away.
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I got a great deal on a nice dark bronze floor lamp with adjustable reading lamp, frosted floral glass globes, $20. Exactly what I had been looking for for our guest room. Beautifully and heavily built, not the modern plastic crap. The guy was very communicative and polite, was moving into a new place. I picked it up last Saturday, he couldn't have been nicer.
But here we go, I just noticed the ad is still up today, Thursday, 5 days later. I imagine anyone else inquiring now gets ignored. Strange. Or maybe I just have an old person's taste and nobody else has been interested in it.
Floor Lamp - furniture - by owner - sale
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Or maybe he has a container full of them. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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may be moving and forgot to delete the ad. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
I got a great deal on a nice dark bronze floor lamp with adjustable reading lamp, frosted floral glass globes, $20. Exactly what I had been looking for for our guest room. Beautifully and heavily built, not the modern plastic crap. The guy was very communicative and polite, was moving into a new place. I picked it up last Saturday, he couldn't have been nicer.
But here we go, I just noticed the ad is still up today, Thursday, 5 days later. I imagine anyone else inquiring now gets ignored. Strange. Or maybe I just have an old person's taste and nobody else has been interested in it.
Floor Lamp - furniture - by owner - sale
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Yup. I've never had issues with a person on CL (i.e., the stuff mentioned here about people being flakey or uncommunicative) in terms of Q&A about an item or actually getting a deal done. There is a baseline level of scammer ads and non-serious lowball offers you have to filter out, but that's not hard to do. My issue with CL is that I find it doesn't work. Some years back, I had good luck both buying and selling gear (sold a guitar, traded an amp, bought and sold misc. smaller items). More recently, I've struck out. Originally Posted by Phil59
For instance, I had been trying to move a guitar and a bunch of effects and to buy an archtop for quite a while (on and off, probably a couple of years). I would search for archtops and find nothing, and I would post ads and hear crickets (or get lowball and/or scam responses), and this is in NYC, which is a big market. Finally, I bit the bullet and put everything up for sale on reverb and focused my archtop search there. All the stuff sold in a couple of weeks, mostly for my asking price, and I found a great guitar via a sale that came off without a hitch. I think being able to deal face-to-face with another person and avoid shipping costs and hassles are very big advantages. So in theory I would rather use CL, but it's not worth the time/effort.
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Well, much wider audience with Reverb. Originally Posted by Phil59
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Yup, either too lazy to remove the ad or they don't know that there's a way to do it. It is annoying Originally Posted by Stringswinger
I figure that if an inquiry goes unanswered it means the item has sold and the seller is too rude to either remove the ad or answer continuing replies to his/her ad. And then I feel glad that I dodged a bullet by not transacting business with a rude person.
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