Craigslist Posting????

[Carroll Courtney]

Guys,in your area when you want to post is the site asking for your phone number for verification?Where I'm at, CL just started and I was wondering if this is just some type of trick to geather infor to sell.Just wondering----Carroll

[Matt Meiser]

I had to do that a long time ago here.

[John McClanahan]

I had to do it, too.

[Brian Elfert]

Craigslist wants you phone number as they call you to give you a verification code that you then enter.

It isn't like your phone number isn't in 100s or 1000s of databases anyhow. So far as I know Craigslist has never tried to contact me by phone. It is much harder to sell phone numbers with the DNC lists these days.

[Jacob Nothstine]

Is it just here in Michigan but as soon as I post a tool for sale the first response is spam. "I will take it can you ship it to me I will send you a check for more then you want" never get spam on any other item I post.

[Matt Meiser]

No, I think that's everywhere. When I list something I put right in the add to send a phone number and I'll call you back--no phone, no response. Though I do sometimes respond when I can tell from the email headers that its legit. Usually its obvious--name and email address don't match, odd phrasing, etc.

[Carroll Courtney]

Thanks guys,I feel better now.Just had to ask for some guidence----Carroll

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Is it just here in Michigan but as soon as I post a tool for sale the first response is spam. "I will take it can you ship it to me I will send you a check for more then you want" never get spam on any other item I post.

You always wish you could send them a really mad honey badger or something.

[harry hood]

Only communicated over the phone cuts down on the number scammers that will contact you over email but those are easy to spot. I prefer email since at least you have a written record of what was agreed upon (although it might not be a record in a legal sense). I also require people who schedule a time to come look at whatever I'm selling to send me $1 via paypal and I return $2 in cash when they show up. That eliminates all of the people who, as far as I can tell, have a hobby of pretending to buy things but don't actually have any intention of buying.

[Myk Rian]

I have never given my phone number to CL, for anything.
Verification is by e-mail.

[Myk Rian]

Is it just here in Michigan but as soon as I post a tool for sale the first response is spam. "I will take it can you ship it to me I will send you a check for more then you want" never get spam on any other item I post.
I always put in my ads; "Scammers will be reported to the FTC".
Cuts down on crap 99%.

[Van Huskey]

I also require people who schedule a time to come look at whatever I'm selling to send me $1 via paypal and I return $2 in cash when they show up. That eliminates all of the people who, as far as I can tell, have a hobby of pretending to buy things but don't actually have any intention of buying.

That is interesting, did you come up with that or is it a "thing" I had not heard of?

[Matt Meiser]

That is interesting, did you come up with that or is it a "thing" I had not heard of?

I don't know but before seeing it here, if I had someone do that, I'd assume it was a scam.

[Myk Rian]

If I was selling a $500 machine, I might be tempted to ask for $1. Hmmm. I like that.

[harry hood]

I came up with it but I can't really claim any originality here though. It's not really any different than things like public lockers in train stations where you have to put a quarter in that gets returned to you when you unlock it. The quarter doesn't cover the cost of re-keying the locker when somebody doesn't return, it just exploits people's irrationality around investment so they are more likely to return.

I don't sell a lot of stuff on Craigslist but I realized that I was avoiding selling things that I wanted to just because it was always such a time sink having people say they wanted to come over at a certain time and then never show. Several times I left work in the middle of the day only to wait around and if/when I'd finally get them on the phone they say "Oh yeah, forgot about that. I'm not interested". It's only a dollar (and you can double your money!) so it wouldn't be much of a scam and as long as I clearly state in the posting that I want you to put up a trivial amount of your money as collateral for my time at worst it probably just selects out people that you wouldn't want to deal with anyway.

[harry hood]

Yeah, I mean with a $5 item it would definitely be sketchy but I've sold a 2 or 3 sub-$1000 machines, a washer and dryer, $100 worth of bike stuff, things like that using this method and it's worked great. I recommended it to my neighbor after he lost a couple days of work and I don't know how many Saturday afternoons to flakes while trying to sell some expensive car parts on CL and it the next person he scheduled showed up 15 minutes early and had his cash in hand.

[Jim Matthews]

You always wish you could send them a really mad honey badger or something.

What does a Happy honey badger (http://www.cracked.com/article_18860_6-animals-that-just-dont-give-f2340k_p2.html) look like?

I have two strict rules for Craigslist postings;

No phone number, no response. (I can at least check the area code to verify they are local.)
No cash, no negotiating on price. (I won't be knocked down on price, online... this turns into the starting point for REAL negotiating.)

Craigslist produces one of two responses for me; people that show up that day with cash and bottom-feeders.

I think I should hire a honey badger to weed out the latter...

jim
wpt, ma

[Myk Rian]

Craigslist produces one of two responses for me; people that show up that day with cash and bottom-feeders.
What about us bottom-feeders with cash? :)

[Bob Lloyd]

I don't know but before seeing it here, if I had someone do that, I'd assume it was a scam.

I have to agree with Matt. I think that it would put too many people off.

[Jim Matthews]

What about us bottom-feeders with cash? :)

I dunno what it's like, dealing with Yoopers, but around here (Mass Southcoast) bottom feeders are offering less than scrap value.
This part of the country - either the asking price is spot on or it's a time-suck. Who needs that? If you want to horse trade - go to the swap meet.

Some people I would rather not have come to my house.

I like the PayPal solution - I'm going to try that next time.

"$1 buys your appointment time. It will return $2 against your purchase if you're prompt..."

[harry hood]

I always give them the $2 regardless of whether they buy or not.