Phew...all this hate lol. Makes me glad I've been out of college....for 4 months! (but nevertheless, economy sucks and my degree sucks. I just want a job!!)

I used the "I'm a college student looking for a bike to get around" for a while when I first got into bikes (and already had one). But I always try to sound as courteous as possible and always offer my phone number, available for text/call/email. If there was a great deal, I'd usually try to arrange a meeting with the person asap (cause there are a lot of CL snipers in Austin!). I almost always try to negotiate the price too, but I don't whip out the numbers until I'm face to face with the seller, because it puts them on the spot to respond right there, rather than mulling it over over e-mail/text. But most of the time, the sellers I'm faced with aren't retrogrouches and usually don't know as much as the typical C&V-er =P

I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to save some money on a used product. If you as a seller are broke too, your buyer isn't going to know that, so you can't hold that against them.