How best to mess with CL lowballers and scammers?

[NOMAD]

So I'm getting annoyed that whenever I put stuff on CL all i get are scammers and super lowballers. I'm willing to go OBO but most of these cats are like at 25% of my reasonable price or less.

So now I feel like I'm not in it to sell stuff but at least I can mess with them.

so far I'm just e-laughing at them or asking them if they meant to buy only half of what I'm selling for that low price.

The worst would be to set a time and location via email for them to meet, like an hour from where they live, fake phone number and all.

I don't think i'm that mean just yet, but damn, how do you offer $50 for something listed over $250?

[e30e]

Which is I was I rather not post here or craigslist, I go straght to ebay ask for a reasonable starting bid price and not get stupid emails or low ballers. I feel your pain though.

[hugh jass]

the only thing craigslist if good for is buying, not selling

[Rigmaster]

Just ignore the low ballers, and when they follow up with an email asking if you got their offer, say "yeah, but I'm still rolling on the floor laughing so I couldn't reply until now" OR "yeah, but I'm trying to find my taser so when I meet up with you so you can buy the item, you definitely go through with the deal and don't try to lowball the shit out of me any more than you already have."


CL is great, but you have to realize that those people are out there and just live with it, if you let it get under your skin, you'll go crazy.

[2Big4a3Series]

If anyone gives me a ridiculous offer, I feel like I at least owe them one opportunity to walk away unscathed by politely telling them "no". If someone puts "OBO" on their ad, it does not hurt to ask regardless of how low it is.

I would agree that you need to go to more extreme measures if a lowballer gets beligerent on you and/or keeps coming back with one ridiculous offer after another but I think that when someone gives you a low ball price, you at least owe it to them to politely reject it.

[NOMAD]

Yeah, I usually just say no, but after about 15 of these cats (scammers included) it really just got comical to me.

[graphikg]

So I'm getting annoyed that whenever I put stuff on CL all i get are scammers and super lowballers. I'm willing to go OBO but most of these cats are like at 25% of my reasonable price or less.

So now I feel like I'm not in it to sell stuff but at least I can mess with them.

so far I'm just e-laughing at them or asking them if they meant to buy only half of what I'm selling for that low price.

The worst would be to set a time and location via email for them to meet, like an hour from where they live, fake phone number and all.

I don't think i'm that mean just yet, but damn, how do you offer $50 for something listed over $250?

OH MAN, Dont do this please. It was done to me, and it realy did suck. There is nothing more expensive then wasting time.

[2Big4a3Series]

There is nothing more expensive then wasting time.

Especially at these gas prices. I'd hate to make someone an offer only for them to say "Yeah, OK" and then send me on a wild goose chase when they were really offended by my offer.

[NOMAD]

Maybe I should just start a collection of all the fake money orders I can get from the Nigerian scammers. I know one guy just had them mail the money orders to the white house. Crazy


I'm not really messin with lowballers. I do it myself on occasion, but not with the aggressiveness of some of these guys. It's just funny to talk about some creative pranks for the scammers though, they get no mercy.

[apexede30]

I've dealt through craigslist, but when it's local, just how many scams can there be? I hear horror stories from ebay, and craigslist warns you..I just can't imagine how little common sense is needed to be scammed...
It would be fun to bait a scammer with a car, follow instructions, just forget to inform him about the GPS tracking you put somewhere in your vehicle.

[2Big4a3Series]

And the pinhole camera inside the dash so you can post his face on Youtube.

[Kwaaahhh]

I usually sign up the scammers or ridiculous lowballer to gay pron sites! LOL!:up:

Most of the time, deals are done local!

[CntrlcoastE30's]

Which is I was I rather not post here or craigslist, I go straght to ebay ask for a reasonable starting bid price and not get stupid emails or low ballers. I feel your pain though.

Selling anything takes time (especially cars) and as such requires a certain amount of patience. There are those with expectations that are unrealistic which make up every facet of life. Those people will never be happy with anything or any service they receive unless they get everything they want at what they think is a "fair" price.

The statement above is very sound. So far there have been a few good guys that have bought parts from me here and it is much appreciated :).
Others have said that they would buy something and did not follow through. Reference below.

Remember that not everyone values their own time. Others do. There are many people that have time to waste and they enjoy wasting other peoples time even more. Someone that is a professional in what they do understands the exchange of time for compensation in some form or another. With the age group of owners here (the majority) those lessons are still to be learned.

Fortunately we get to choose who we associate with and who we do business with. When someone "inquires" about something for sale or says that "they might be interested" those are the red flags. Either a person is ready to buy or they are not.

As mentioned above when I advertise something on eBay I start at a price that is reasonable. If only 1 person decides it is worth that price to them and they bid on it then we are both happy.

Just remember that when thinking of things to do because of someone else is wasting your time or whatever.....what goes around comes around!

[Scotaku]

Lowballers get one, polite no thank you but an offer to show me a competing price if they really feel I'm asking too much. I'm open to negotiate, but only if my own research on what I'm selling has led me to price my item too high. Prove it, and I'll listen. Typically, they shut up.

I sometimes play with scammers though. They're terribly obvious so I try to bait them into meetings at places with live webcams. When the time comes for the meeting, I browse the cam page and see if I can get a picture. No luck so far, but it has worked for others. I always use a throwaway email (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) for CL listings. eBay has a lot more safeguards to rely upon... and sadly they have worked for me before.

[E30ownerwithanopinion]

Blunt is a funny fuck...he forwarded me an email where he was selling a car for 4K or something like that.. some wrote to him and said would you take 3K for the car would be willing to check it out tonight... so Blunt replies back and says yes he would but there is a 1K viewing fee you have to pay to look at the car.....