Craigslist Crazies
Saturday, August 1, 2009
So the hubs and I have started listing things on Craigslist so that when we move, we don't have as much to take and only the essentials will go into our new house (our furniture is fearing for their lives as we analyze each piece). We've sold a desk and chair, a TV, a Wii Fit, among other things I had to pry out of hubby's hands...muuahhahaha. This money will help us to buy a few things "out of budget" which will allow us to be able to do more when we move in (replace the furniture we are selling).
But, the point of this post, is to see what you all think of Craigslist? We let in a man in his mid 40s yesterday to buy the Wii fit. Danny was home (he gets Fridays off YAY), and so was his brother Pete who is approximately 300 pounds and O-lineman for Tulane. Needless to say, I felt completely comfortable. But, I was also expecting a young boy, so that threw me through a hoop. Anyways, we were missing a piece to it and went to look for it and left the man and Pete downstairs. Well, finally we found the piece and got the man out of the house. BUT, was it smart to let him in our house in the first place??? Danny's brother Pete is taking a serial killer course in college and told us we were crazy for letting any of the Craigslist people in our house.
So, I wanted to know, what do you do with Craigslist?? Do you sell things and have people come to your house? Do you meet in a certain location? Do you go to people's homes to buy items? Just wondering how crazy I might be for doing what I did...
4 comments:
I love criaglist, the first time I used craiglist we bought a dryer. I couldn't believe the price. The dryer was only one year old and in perfect condition. I have bought other things from craiglist like a washer, refrig and kitchen table and chairs. I have also sold things and have had great results. Everything has been large items so I have gone to other peoples home and they have come to mine. Hope everything goes as planed for you. GOOD LUCK!!! Geri
Hey there!
We sold some Pottery Barn chairs on Craigslist and had a good transaction. My husband stayed home and helped man the transfer of goods. I was worried because this young Mom in a mini-van showed up alone....It made me worry for her...she said she had bought lots of stuff ..I just wish she would have had another person with her at the time. Ugg...We are nice but I still worry about people going alone to places where they do not know the people selling the items. My advise...don't be or go alone. Do transactions with someone. Good luck on your move!!
I was discussing that with my dad this weekend as I introduced him to the fun of selling old stuff on CL. I've done many a sale transaction and never had a problem. Although I try to have my boyfriend in the house if a man is coming to look at something. If I'm going to buy something from a man, I always take someone with me.
CL has a good community of buyers and sellers. Just be smart, don't do it alone - as Beth said.
I have sold lots of furniture on Craigslist as we prep to move to Germany. I am so naive and schedule appts. when I am home alone because I am TOO trusting and never think that people will be weird, yet that is not a smart way to go about it. I have had many people flake out so it can often be frustrating when trying to schedule people to come look at things. I also realized that you have to be careful of scams. My husband wanted to try to sell a Play Station 2 and a Sony PSP and we kept getting WEIRD responses. Three different people with some weird story involving a relative living in a foreign country and a reason why they could not pay cash but wanted me to ship the item to the relative in the foreign country and do the transaction through paypal. Each of the people said they would pay 85-100 extra dollars on top of our price for shipping and I almost went for it thinking how could THEY scam ME if I was getting the money and didn't have to ship until I was sure I had it, yet the coincidence of three virtually identical stories was too weird and I figured it MUST be a scam.
Anyway, I definitely recommend being careful and not giving out any personal info until the person has committed to buying. I always write "Serious inquiries only" in my ads and never give my address until the very last minute when they are ready to come and look.
-Katie
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