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Craigslist Darwin Awards


mpitzer

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A little bit bored right now so I wanted to throw out a discussion topic.  I just recently sold a tank on craigslist that I bought back in August 16' and never used for a little more than half of what I paid (sold for $200).  I was not at all angry about selling it cheaper than I paid because the guy that bought it was nice and because I rushed in thinking I wanted a cube and later changed my mind so I was willing to take a loss for my dumb decision.  However, in my dealings on craigslist, I ran into quite a few a-holes (not scammers) that would contact me about the tank and then try to substantially decrease the price and barter with their "super special water" that I would never be able to find anywhere.  I would consider this an isolated incident if it only happened 1-2 times but it happened about 5 times in two weeks.  Then, when I would politely tell them I was not interested in water as currency, the majority would try to demean me or my tank as not worth their water anyway.  It was quite humorous dealing with these people but it made me think whether this is a normal occurrence in the tank resale world. 

 

Ill see if I can find any screenshots of the conversations when I get home :)

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Ha!

 

I listed an elliptical on CL less than a year ago. I had the usual "I'll pay you more than you're asking but..." contacts. I ignored them.

 

I had one guy, though, that was very interested in it but needed help with delivery... to New Jersey. Said he owned a gym there. He asked me how much it would be to ship. Whaaa? You gotta be kidding. It's not a small piece of equipment and you can't find another elliptical within a few hundred miles of you? You had to come to Northern Virginia?

 

Our back-and-forth conversation ended just about there.

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I always get the "Is this still available?" message by several people be it here, CL, R2R or anywhere really. I respond yes it is still available. Never to be heard from again. So what was the point of that?

 

While not CL but related One of the most frustrating experiences was when I sold a WWC Bounce on R2R. Toooons of back and forth with several people. One guy asked for pics and videos seemingly very interested. Negotiated a price. Late night he texts me pictures and videos of his WWC Bounce collection. He was just trolling me the whole time...

 

Next person says they will take it and send payment in the A.M. Cool. Well next day he says he was about to send payment but after consulting with an expert he determined it was worth $200 less then my asking price (I had priced it very fair as it was a large piece). If I agreed he could send me payment in 2 days....

 

Another one goes into great detail to get the lineage on my peice. I told him everything I could and we negotiated a price as I told him I just wanted it sold after dealing with so many tire kickers. He said he hated wasting peoples time and that he was very interested no BS. Next day he offers to trade me what essentially amounted to a pack of bubble gum...

 

Last guy messages. "Ill take it what is your PayPal address?" 15 minutes later I received payment. Easy peasy no BS no drama. Where was he the whole time?!?!?!

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I've sold a few tanks on Craigslist and have not run into this phenomenon. However, they've all been standard sizes, fairly small (the largest being a 55) and pretty inexpensive, so it probably wasn't worth trying to get me to bite on the "magic water."  :wacko:

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if it makes you feel any better, I wanted to name it "Craigslist Jerkoff Awards" but thought I might catch some flack for that.

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darwin awards are for those who kill themselves doing stupid things

 

 

oh too bad.  I just thought it was for dumb people.  guess I can give myself a Darwin award too.

 

No worries. The definition just evolved with your post. 

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I've done tons of wheeling and dealing on CL, from most of my cars and motorcycles, to flooring, and renting out places. Like with most sales, you just have to sort through the bs and the serious buyers. If somebody asks "Is this still available," I don't reply. If somebody tells me they can get it for a better deal somewhere else, I tell them they should do that, it sounds phenomenal! If somebody asks me to ship, I don't even talk to them, probably a scam. 

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I had two incidents. all from this forum not even from CL tho.

 

One guy didn't show up.. I drove 40 min .. and drove back 40 min. no message or anything.~

 

other guy negotiated the price before we met and tried to cut more .. i explained and gave him all the description so that wouldn't waste each other's time.

 

He wanted at that price again. i said no deal with you man~.

 

Manners, Maketh, Man

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As a buyer and seller, I haven't had any bad experiences from CL. Knock on wood.

 

As a buyer, I have better outcome through Reef Central than WAMAS. Here, I've met with quite a few misrepresentations of the products. And worse, IMO, the seller sold the product while we were in the process of arranging the pick up place and time. I chalk it up to greed and lack of principles.

 

However, WAMAS also gives me the opportunity to meet a handful of really awesome reef enthusiasts, and I appreciate that. That's why I'm still a member.    

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The vast majority of my dealings, whether on Craigslist, here, RC or R2R have been good. But, regardless of the community, unless you know who you're dealing with, you need to be careful. The way I read it, this thread is about our more "interesting" dealings that make us question whether the party at the other end is a few fries short of a Happy Meal or if they are treating us like they believe we are....

 

From the original post, I'm still curious how they tried to "sell" that "super special water" and if the approach ever worked for them.

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Yea I was going to clarify that as well Tom.  I expect people will ask for price decreases but I never expected so many people to offer water as currency.

 

My personal favorite rebuttal when I politely declined the offer for water was "The fact that you haven't sold your tank yet and I sell 1000G of water a month tells me all I need to know about your crappy tank.  I didn't want to buy your tank anyway." 

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The magic water thing is strange.  Never heard of that before.

 

I can say that every single person I've had come to my house from WAMAS to pick something up was really nice and I never felt uncomfortable letting show up here.  Craigslist folks have also been generally decent too. 

 

My wife dislikes when WAMAS guys come to pick up stuff because I don't often get an audience that would enjoy looking at stuff that I like to point at in the tank.  I tend to keep people here too long. 8)

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My personal favorite rebuttal when I politely declined the offer for water was "The fact that you haven't sold your tank yet and I sell 1000G of water a month tells me all I need to know about your crappy tank.  I didn't want to buy your tank anyway." 

 

So, is this "super special water" supposed to be good for drinking (alleged health benefits, etc) or for your tank(s)? And how did this guy come to be the "exclusive" vendor of this wonderful stuff? :why:

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A little bit bored right now so I wanted to throw out a discussion topic.  I just recently sold a tank on craigslist that I bought back in August 16' and never used for a little more than half of what I paid (sold for $200).  I was not at all angry about selling it cheaper than I paid because the guy that bought it was nice and because I rushed in thinking I wanted a cube and later changed my mind so I was willing to take a loss for my dumb decision.  However, in my dealings on craigslist, I ran into quite a few a-holes (not scammers) that would contact me about the tank and then try to substantially decrease the price and barter with their "super special water" that I would never be able to find anywhere.  I would consider this an isolated incident if it only happened 1-2 times but it happened about 5 times in two weeks.  Then, when I would politely tell them I was not interested in water as currency, the majority would try to demean me or my tank as not worth their water anyway.  It was quite humorous dealing with these people but it made me think whether this is a normal occurrence in the tank resale world. 

 

Ill see if I can find any screenshots of the conversations when I get home :)

 

So, is this "super special water" supposed to be good for drinking (alleged health benefits, etc) or for your tank(s)? And how did this guy come to be the "exclusive" vendor of this wonderful stuff? :why:

 

Like most criminals, scam artists have a sense of entitlement to what you have and when they can't get what they want they tend to become angry.

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I had a really nasty set of responses to a CL ad for a bunch of FREE furniture from two separate residences, because I stated that I was giving preference to charities. One guy said a bunch of cr*p, then wrote that if I replied, he would report me to CL for harassing him. The next thing I know, my ads for free stuff were flagged and removed, and every time I tried to re-post, those ads were removed.

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I had a really nasty set of responses to a CL ad for a bunch of FREE furniture from two separate residences, because I stated that I was giving preference to charities. One guy said a bunch of cr*p, then wrote that if I replied, he would report me to CL for harassing him. The next thing I know, my ads for free stuff were flagged and removed, and every time I tried to re-post, those ads were removed.

 

CL has always been a cheaply and poorly managed website that I have found little use for. The government had to threaten legal action against them to make them remove the rampant prostitution and other illegal stuff from their website. 

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I used FB marketplace for the first time this past weekend. I listed 3 bar stools, and within 15 minutes has TONS of legitimate inquiries. I was busy and made arrangements with a lady from Ft. Belvoir telling her to pick them up outside and leave money under front mat. She drove over an hour each way for 3 bar stools I was selling for $30. Money under mat. The others messaging with me were very pleasant and shared the positive feedback they had on marketplace. 

 

Definitely a nice resource. Also, you have the ability to SEE who they are etc prior to the transaction, which I like.

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I used FB marketplace for the first time this past weekend. I listed 3 bar stools, and within 15 minutes has TONS of legitimate inquiries. I was busy and made arrangements with a lady from Ft. Belvoir telling her to pick them up outside and leave money under front mat. She drove over an hour each way for 3 bar stools I was selling for $30. Money under mat. The others messaging with me were very pleasant and shared the positive feedback they had on marketplace. 

 

Definitely a nice resource. Also, you have the ability to SEE who they are etc prior to the transaction, which I like.

 

Good info, interesting!

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I used FB marketplace for the first time this past weekend. I listed 3 bar stools, and within 15 minutes has TONS of legitimate inquiries. I was busy and made arrangements with a lady from Ft. Belvoir telling her to pick them up outside and leave money under front mat. She drove over an hour each way for 3 bar stools I was selling for $30. Money under mat. The others messaging with me were very pleasant and shared the positive feedback they had on marketplace. 

 

Definitely a nice resource. Also, you have the ability to SEE who they are etc prior to the transaction, which I like.

 

Neat. I'm over here still on Ebay. 

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Neat. I'm over here still on Ebay. 

The best part is you can narrow your search down to as little as a 2 mile radius. It's actually pretty use friendly, and appears to be well managed.

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