Craigslist warning

[psbfan9]

Be safe.
This is why I stopped using CL. Something similar happened to a friend of mine. He listed a some RC cars, met a guy at a gas station, the guy pulled a gun and took the RC cars.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-couple-held-at-gunpoint-has-warning-for-craigslist-users-20110301,0,5981698.story?track=rss

 

[its phillip]

Yeah, that's unfortunate. I'd rather meet at a coffee shop or bank parking lot or something along those lines - if I was going to sell or buy something very valuable, I'd ask to meet them in a police station or city hall parking lot D:

 

[just-some-guy]

i went to buy a little pos sub one time. the guy started haggling the price up. i got tierd of his crap and walked away, down his driveway.
i was talking to myself how much of a chithead the guy was. as i walked away, too my truck.

his dad was messing with some stuff in a van in the driveway. i payed no attention too him.

i got in my truck, backed out of the driveway into the street. put it in "D".
i turn my head to my left, and the dad was in my face with a hammer in his hand, yelling at me.

i told him, with ALL SERIOUSNESS. that if he touched me and/or my truck.
that i would literally shove that hammer up his ***.

i then got out of my truck.

the guy and his brother(?) heard the ruckus. came out and pulled the dad away from me.

it was the dads lucky day.

my BS CL story

 

[Patrukas777]

It would be smarter to meet in front of the Police Station...If they are shady, they won't show up.

 

[RayoVac]

This is the town over from me. Its pathetic the state of things these days. Its this kind of crap that will make it difficult to buy and sell anything used that is not easily shipped.

 

[KEW]

A guy responded to an ad for a motorcycle and they met in a parking lot. When he test drove the bike, he never brought it back.

This is hearsay, AFAIK; but you got to figure it has happened somewhere!

 

[10010011]

I have been buying and selling on craigslist for years, never had any problems like this. But then I always meet people in a public place.

I have got ripped off on a few items that did not work correctly once I got them home and fully tested them.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Just recently a guy from this area posted his Harley Davidson on Kijiji. He got a respnse to his ad and provided his address, so that the potential buyer could come and take a look at it. Well, after he went to work the next day, they broke in and took it. Ouch!

I've sold an item on Kijiji before and had the buyer come to my house. I guess I was pretty naive, but he was honest and the transaction went fine. I'll never do that again though. Can't believe how stupid I was...

 

[j_garcia]

I only have people come to my house when it is something that is large and has to be picked up. Otherwise it is always I always meet people at a VERY public place such as a mall or store. I have not had an issue thus far.

In our area, there were guys setting up meetings to look at cars and then stealing them at gun point.

 

[GlocksRock]

I too always meet at a public place, and I always have my gun on me at the time.

 

[Patrukas777]

I too always meet at a public place, and I always have my gun on me at the time.

as do i

 

[darien87]

Yeah I've sold some furniture and a TV off Craigslist, both of which were too big for me to take somewhere. Both of those deals went off without a hitch. Everything else I have sold, I've met the guy at a restaurant parking lot down the street from my house.

I just had my PS 3 fixed by a kid off of Craigslist yesterday. I felt weird leaving it with a kid I didn't even know, but he gave me someone else's PS 3 to hold as collateral. I got it back a couple of hours later and it worked just fine last night. Craigslist is just like anything else, most people are honest, but there are a few out there that are looking to rip people off.

 

[its phillip]

He let you hold somebody else's ps3 as collateral? That doesn't make any sense lol

 

[darien87]

He let you hold somebody else's ps3 as collateral? That doesn't make any sense lol

Well, it was part-way taken apart, but had all the good bits still connected.

 

[armaraas]

Ah, this is rather timely. I just sold my old tv stand tonight to someone from Craigslist. It's not something I could easily transport at this time, so they had to come to our house. A couple of guys from Minneapolis. They showed up an hour early (luckily I left work really early), and of course I was a little worried that I gave them directions to my house when I wasn't home, but they didn't know if my wife was or not and we have 3 dogs, while not vicious, I'm not sure people would want to mess with them (they put on a good show at least).

They came in and looked at it, commented on the basement and setup. Asked if I'd take $100 for it, I said no, I just dropped it from $200 to $150 a couple of days ago. The guy said he'd take it, and handed me a wad of cash with a $50 bill on the outside. I put it in my pocket while they carried it upstairs. I went back down to grab the drawers and glass top, checked the cash while down there and it was $57.

My first thought was, great, I'll go up there and they'll accuse me of taking the $93 and trying to get them to pay more. I just said 'Hey, the money you gave me is a little short'. They asked how much and I said it was only $57. Their response was, that's not a little short, that's a lot, there should have been 3 $50's but they must have given me the wrong set of cash. He pulled out a white envelope and sure enough there was 3 $50's in there, so we exchanged. They insisted it wasn't done on purpose and was an honest mistake.

Most of my transactions are typically much smaller dollar amounts, so it's not that big of a deal that it needs to be counted (usually like $10-$20). But I've learned my lesson from now on in such cases, always count immediately. And I'm a little wary of having people come to the house for things, but sometimes that can't be helped. I almost always look up the persons email/name/phone number when it looks like I'll be doing a transaction. If they use a work email (like this guy did), and I can find out where he lives and age online, I'm typically ok with it. I just usually tell someone where I'm going and who I'm meeting then, just in case I don't come back...

 

[psbfan9]

Public

My buddy met the guy that robbed him at a gas station. I'm off CL. I'll stick with eBay and boocoo.com


https://www.boocoo.com/auction/index.asp

 

[just-some-guy]

i went to someones house to buy something, CL. i don't remember the particulars, but the deal went perfectly. at the end of the deal, i told the people
"you should be A LOT more carefull than you just were. if i had been a bad guy, god only knows what could have happened. and you(them) could not have done anything about it"

 

[Whitey80]

As alot know, I buy and sell A LOT on Craigslist. Have, thankfully never had a problem.

Did have one deal that I didn't like that much at the first thought. I was selling my newer supercharged Mustang that had a ton of stuff done, and the asking price was somewhat high for a cash deal.
The fellow buying didn't speak english and had his cousin on the phone as a translator. Met him at a gas station near my house to check out the car. Had my power-lifting brother come with me and needless to say we both felt it wise to carry guns with us (we do both have concealed carry permits and were completely legal) They guy was quite young and it did seem a stretch that he would have that much cash to spend, but we went for the test drive, with my brother and I sitting in back behind the buyer and his cousin, in case they weren't too friendly.

All the concern was, fortunately, unnecessary. He had an envelope packed with $23,000 in hundreds, checked them to be real, signed the title and went home happy.

That was the only time so far, that I have been uncomfortable with a deal.

 

[j_garcia]

I've sold a couple of cars on craigslist and never had a problem thus far.

I got in a heated discussion the other day with a guy who said I was paranoid for not letting people come to my house, meeting them in a big public place, etc... I told him he was foolish for NOT doing that. There are good people out there, but there are bad ones too.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

As alot know, I buy and sell A LOT on Craigslist. Have, thankfully never had a problem.

Did have one deal that I didn't like that much at the first thought. I was selling my newer supercharged Mustang that had a ton of stuff done, and the asking price was somewhat high for a cash deal.
The fellow buying didn't speak english and had his cousin on the phone as a translator. Met him at a gas station near my house to check out the car. Had my power-lifting brother come with me and needless to say we both felt it wise to carry guns with us (we do both have concealed carry permits and were completely legal) They guy was quite young and it did seem a stretch that he would have that much cash to spend, but we went for the test drive, with my brother and I sitting in back behind the buyer and his cousin, in case they weren't too friendly.

All the concern was, fortunately, unnecessary. He had an envelope packed with $23,000 in hundreds, checked them to be real, signed the title and went home happy.

That was the only time so far, that I have been uncomfortable with a deal.

Take a step back, look in the mirror and then decide who should be scared of who....