And yet...and yet. Sometimes there are nice people out there too.

Found a bike I wanted out of state (WAY out of state), sent the guy an e-mail, called a friend who agreed to go by, pay the asking price in cash and ship it to me. Called the guy- who hadn't seen my e-mail yet- explained that I wasn't some scammer, and he said "Hey, no problem. If you're willing to call me and explain all this stuff YOU MUST BE MEANT TO BUY THIS BIKE." I swear, that's exactly what he said.

So...sometimes the person on the other end of a CL sale is actually a thinking, literate, friendly person who's just trying to sell a nice bike at a reasonable price.

Not always, but sometimes.