Online garage sale stuff: was this unethical (or at least rude) of me?

[Backroads]

So I'm decluttering, which means throwing some stuff up for sale on KSL, the local news site with a classifieds section in hopes of earning a few bucks and getting things out of my house.

Item: simple, obvious.

Prospective buyer: Texts interest. Asks questions. Hey, I ask questions too when purchasing. Ask more questions. Asks stupid questions. This goes on for hours. I mean, I get being a smart shopper, but it was getting weird. Not freaky weird, but it was kind of irritating. Asks me to test things in very odd situations. Had to explain the very nature of what I was selling. I was starting to debate just not responding when I get a phone call. New prospective buyer, friend of a friend, actually. Asks a few basic questions that pretty much cover what was not in the ad, finds matters satisfactory. We make a plan to meet up, and twenty minutes later I have plans and means to buy my eldest child and I a pass to a nearby water park, not to mention one less thing in the house.

I am currently ignoring texts from the other person. I still don't think it was necessarily a bad scenario, and I feel it was almost rude to just cancel the potential sale before I had a proper yay or nay.

[David13]

I'm going thru the same thing right now.  I'll see how it turns out.  In previous cases they turned out to be good buyers.  So one never knows.

It's your right as the seller to cut it off at any time.

dc

[mirkwood]

Tell the weirdo that you already sold it, then block his number.

[pam]

When I sell something like that...it's the first person that gets to my house that gets it.  I don't have time for games.  I usually put in my ad that there are no holds.

[Guest]

FCFS is pretty standard in any craigslist or other local transactions I know of.

[zil]

To answer the title of your post: it was rude of them, and sensible of you.  I would update the ad to indicate the item in question was sold (or remove the ad - however this stuff works), and call it good.

[pam]

Recently I placed an ad to sell a matching head and foot board for a bed.  I had one girl that kept asking me if I could get a frame to go with it since she needed a frame too.  Ummmmmm no.  It's sold as described.  Just a headboard and foot board.  She kept going on about needing the frame too.  I quit responding to her texts.  Eventually I got someone that wanted it and they gave me more than the asking price.   Mainly because they didn't bring the exact amount and I had no cash on me to give change.  Hahaha  And I marked the item as sold on the ad.

[Budget]

11 hours ago, Backroads said:

I am currently ignoring texts from the other person.

 

 

I don't really understand why you were ignoring the texts...  I guess my thought was to text and say "The item is sold and gone.  Thanks for your interest." ?

 

[Backroads]

I did respond shortly after posting here. Yet the conversation was similar in nature to Pam's experience.

[David13]

I just finished with my ad response buyer. 

First class experience as previously.  On time, cash as agreed, no problems or issues, flexible at the meeting, as we had to change location.

It seemed a little suspicious at first, but, then like on previous occasions turned out excellent.

dc

[Backroads]

24 minutes ago, David13 said:

I just finished with my ad response buyer. 

First class experience as previously.  On time, cash as agreed, no problems or issues, flexible at the meeting, as we had to change location.

It seemed a little suspicious at first, but, then like on previous occasions turned out excellent.

dc

Perhaps I would have held on longer if I hadn't had the other buyer step in.

However, I made more money than I asked because the guy had only twenties. Just started handing me the cash, looked at it, and said to just have the extra 10.

[pam]

35 minutes ago, Backroads said:

Perhaps I would have held on longer if I hadn't had the other buyer step in.

However, I made more money than I asked because the guy had only twenties. Just started handing me the cash, looked at it, and said to just have the extra 10.

That's exactly what happened to me.  I was asking $30.  They brought $40.  I didn't have change so they told me just to keep it.

[Jane_Doe]

In my experience with Craigslist and other venues, I have some rules of thumb:

1)  the best way to make a little buck and not get a migraine is to post it, post it cheap, and "first comes with cash gets it".    

2)  There is no "dibs" in Craigslist, buy it or don't.  

3)  If you goal is to get rid of stuff, then don't keep holding out for "maybe I'll get a better buyer"-- that's like having a garage sale every weekend for a month!  Come on, you're time is worth so much more than that!

[Backroads]

1 hour ago, Jane_Doe said:

In my experience with Craigslist and other venues, I have some rules of thumb:

 

3)  If you goal is to get rid of stuff, then don't keep holding out for "maybe I'll get a better buyer"-- that's like having a garage sale every weekend for a month!  Come on, you're time is worth so much more than that!

I only post stuff I want to get rid of that I figure I could sell quickly if I price to sell. I just don't think such sites, minus cars/homes/etc., are really meant for business purposes.

[Jane_Doe]

1 hour ago, Backroads said:

I only post stuff I want to get rid of that I figure I could sell quickly if I price to sell. I just don't think such sites, minus cars/homes/etc., are really meant for business purposes.

Agreed.  But there are people who will try to sell to make money on stuff.

[anatess2]

Unless he offered to buy the product and made arrangements for pick-up you are under no obligation to not sell it to someone else.  So you can answer 20 callers about the product and sell it to 1.  Thereby only needing to answer the next questions with - it's already sold.  So, yeah, I don't quite get why you felt you needed to ignore the questions instead of just saying you already sold it to end the conversation.

Edited June 6, 2016 by anatess2

[NeuroTypical]

Craigslist and want ads and whatnot, are a pipeline into a rarely-seen dark, odd, seedy, and sometimes dangerous world.   There are, literally, people whose time is spent largely attempting to connect with people through venues like this.  Most of them are harmless cranks, nonviolent mentally ill, lonely morning drinkers, neckbeards living with mommy being forced to make a friend or get kicked out, etc.  Some of them are evil and mean you harm.  

Don't expect commonly held standards of decency and civility to apply with these people.  Do not trust them.  Do not turn your back on them.  Deal with them only from a position of anonymous strength.  Treat every inquiry as a potential attempt to rob you.  When thinking of how to be with them, think of words like "firm" and "civil".  Not "polite" or "friendly".  They don't tell you what's civil, you tell them.  

And watch this.

 

 

Edited June 6, 2016 by NeuroTypical

[Guest MormonGator]

7 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Craigslist and want ads and whatnot, are a pipeline into a rarely-seen dark, odd, seedy, and sometimes dangerous world.   There are, literally, people whose time is spent largely attempting to connect with people through venues like this.  Most of them are harmless cranks, nonviolent mentally ill, lonely morning drinkers, neckbeards living with mommy being forced to make a friend or get kicked out, etc.  Some of them are evil and mean you harm.  

Don't expect commonly held standards of decency and civility to apply with these people.  Do not trust them.  Do not turn your back on them.  Deal with them only from a position of anonymous strength.  Treat every inquiry as a potential attempt to rob you.  When thinking of how to be with them, think of words like "firm" and "civil".  Not "polite" or "friendly".  They don't tell you what's civil, you tell them. 

 

We hear about the bad things that happen on Craigslist but we don't hear about the thousands of transactions that don't end poorly.  It's like plane crashes. We hear about the ones that crash, we don't hear about the ones that don't. When planes don't crash it's good, but it's not news. When two people freely agree to a transaction that benefits both and ends well it's also nice, but it's not news. 

While it's true, we need to use common sense in all of our transactions if Craigslist were as dangerous as you are describing no one would use it. 

[anatess2]

1 hour ago, MormonGator said:

We hear about the bad things that happen on Craigslist but we don't hear about the thousands of transactions that don't end poorly.  It's like plane crashes. We hear about the ones that crash, we don't hear about the ones that don't. When planes don't crash it's good, but it's not news. When two people freely agree to a transaction that benefits both and ends well it's also nice, but it's not news. 

While it's true, we need to use common sense in all of our transactions if Craigslist were as dangerous as you are describing no one would use it. 

I just hired a woman to clean my bathrooms off of Craiglist... great woman!  Cheap too!

[NeuroTypical]

All of my Craigslist transactions (about maybe a dozen) have gone perfectly.   Sold rims, bought everything from a fish tank to free lumber.

Didn't mean to imply all of Craigslist is like this, just that there's a pipeline in Craigslist to this sort of stuff.  

[Guest]

Meet in a public place, deal in cash only, FCFS. The only weird Craigslist transactions I've had have happened at my house or someone else's. 

[Backroads]

On 6/6/2016 at 3:18 PM, Eowyn said:

Meet in a public place, deal in cash only, FCFS. The only weird Craigslist transactions I've had have happened at my house or someone else's. 

Was that the thing with the TV?

[Budget]

Over the past week there have been numerous stories re; the guy that sold a $40 printer...  to a habitual 'lawsuit filer' and now, 6 years later the lawsuits are still coming in and the amount was up to $30,000 in 'damages' from a printer the habitual lawsuit filer (it's how he makes his living) claims to have suffered due to a printer that didn't work.  Crazy but true. Our system is sooo messed up.