CL Boneheads
 

How many of you have been blown off by CL sellers? It seems like 90% of the sellers I contact never respond back. The last bike I really wanted took 3 tries via email to get a response. Finally, he said "I thought you weren't serious." By serious you mean when I told him "I'd like to stop by and see the bike. If I like it I'll give you your asking price." The guy was about 50 miles away so I needed an address and time. I swear that half the sellers on CL are screw balls.

.....and so are an equal proportion of the buyers.

Maybe more.

Takes the fun out of it.

+1

I'm not a big CL seller so I can't comment on buyers. Basically I'm just buying for parts or to add an occassional bike to the collection. I'd rather sell my good on ebay and avoid the face to face contact.

I'm not anymore either.

Our family has an ample supply of bikes, and that was the original goal.

Goal was achieved a couple of years ago though, and the rest is gravy at this point.

I have found that most CL buyers are not very bike savvy.Most are very inexperienced about bikes. Even when I have sold very high end bikes the buyers have little experience with bikes. Most sellers know little about the bike they are selling. Most sellers of vintage bike did not buy them. The bike was given then and they just want it gone. All the above is good for me.

I have advertised stuff for free on CL, but have not yet gotten rid of anything. The response is that I get a lot of email from people jumping to come to pick things up, but as things sort themselves out (first email gets first dibs, etc.) nobody actually shows up. Half of them don't answer my response email.

-Gary

CL has no corner on the market of boneheads... I saw the following ebay listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/2002-IRON-HORSE-...item2eb5e349da

It contains only a catalog description and a stock photo of a bike that was manufactured 10 years ago... I could use a rail trail rider, though the need isn't great, so I sent a question asking for a size and maybe a picture or two so I could see the condition. The response I got was to come see it myself (location not narrowed down) and a phone number. If I wanted to spend an hour doing that, I would have asked if I could come see the bike. While I appreciate the opportunity to see the bike, I am not even mildly interested unless the bike is pretty much in new shape and the opening bid is the high bid. With a lack of any info, I can only assume less than ideal condition.

You wanna deal with some first class boneheads, try buying a musical instrument off of CL. Musicians are a real adventure to communicate with, and good luck pinning one down to showing you his gear.

Most CL sellers are nice and I enjoy meeting them.
- A minority are absolute unmitigated (insert any very impolite and uncultured word here).

- It seems like there is no in-between.

I'm trying to deal with a guy now who listed a bunch of parts on c-list, I wrote him a detailed note listing what I wanted and supplied all the information he'd need to put a price together. Then I sent the same the note again two days later. Parts are still listed, he never got back to me. Why bother taking photos and posting the ad in the first place? . . . . Maybe he's dead.

Must be what I've run into. This guy is a sax player and has proven to be a real 'blowhard'. I listed a bike high to see where it goes as I have time. This guy gives me a way lowball offer of 60% less and proceeds to tell me all about why the bike is not worth much. Rather funny actually. I decide to respond and explain why the bike is actually much more desirable than he's letting on and why. He then gives me a list of recent ebay sales of 4130 versions of the bike. I give him a list of the sales prices for the Reynolds 531 version I'm selling (which happen to be around my list as well). It's like a page each response of his. Geeze, is this debate class or something? ;)

I normally don't waste my time but the guy is trying so hard that I felt like responding to him . I told him I've run out of patience and he's STILL sending long drawn out emails trying to browbeat me into accepting his price. Maybe that works somewhere in the world but not here...
Now I feel like toying with him just to see if I can get the last word in. I bet I can string him along for a week or two because the guy wont shut up!

1. First, C/L is the wild, wild, west. Totally uncontrolled, and free. Just as many flaky sellers as buyers. I emailed a seller outside of Atlanta several times. Got a response three weeks later (His response: "I've been busy, just getting back to replies now"), and I completed the deal. Realize that most sellers just want to get rid of something, and want zero hassles, have other things to do, or whatever.

2. On free items, just post a curb alert, rather than handle individual requests. A curb alert has always worked for me, and do people a favor and pull the ad down when the item is gone. Most of the time on free stuff, I don't bother with C/L, I just put it on the curb with a free sign. Usually stuff is gone within an hour.

3. Sold an accordion a couple of weeks ago that my wife picked up at a garage sale. Took a while, but finally someone drove two hours to get it. Musician potential buyers were no better or worse than the bicycle folks I have dealt with.

4. I always keep my responses to ebay sellers brief, like: "Here is my phone number, I am available to come by now." I don't ask for additional details, or pricing flexibility, or anything else. A lot of sellers are lazy, and they want the easiest deal possible. While other potential buyers are trying to get better pictures, sizing information, year, model, component information, or whatever, I am out there picking up the bike.


Personally, I prefer the flaky sellers as I figure that seller is treating all potential buyers equally poorly, so it eliminates the competition.

I don't like to get into eMail wars. Instead, I filter any messages from anyone I don't want to deal with. That includes argumentative types, ridiculous low-ballers, as well as any individual sending monosyllabic "tex" messages devoid of punctuation &/ capitalization.
- With their e-Mail address filtered, I know I will never waste my time with them again.

Interestingly, people that post in the Detroit area aren't necessarily in a hurry to sell. I've found if I'm patient and persistent, I can sometimes snag a deal. I was able to purchase a Bridgestone T-700 simply because I was around at the end!

People aren't savvy on craigslist because whatever they're buying or selling isn't their profession. Why should I expect a bike seller to care as much about a three-speed as I do? If he did, he'd have an asking price I'm not willing to pay. People have other things on their minds, so when something important comes up, they may not answer their craigslist email. They may not even know how to answer.

The last bike I sold had 6 responses.

1) Women asking the right first question, will it fit? 19" frame is not right for a 5'2" person.

2) Flake- no show

3) Flake- no show

4) Found another bike, cancel

5) Offers $60 for a $125 bike

6) SALE! For asking price and she said thank you.

And a handful of folks who can get me a free Ipad. Including the CEO of Craigslist herself. Twice.

It's a free service. It works. Got me a good condition 27" wheelset (F&R) complete with tires for $25.00 today. Just used the search feature. Can't look too hard at a free anything.

I listed a bike recently and got a few calls and emails immediately. One of the callers starts out by asking for my "best price." I got the distinct impression that she was going to be a headache, so I tell her that I'm not ready to entertain offers yet, since the ad just went up.

She replies with "oh, that ad has been up for a long time!" :twitchy:

I don't think it's time to negotiate on price unless the buyer is present with the seller and the object for sale.

Exactly. No negotiations over the phone. There are plenty of low ballers out there, no need to encourage them.

I guess one of the reasons I like CL is I was a real estate sales person for a few years and I go at it like I did RE sales. I asked the person right up front are you ready to buy today if I show you a house that has all that you asked for. I did very good with this approach. When a CL customer calls me I ask him if he is now driving to wards my house so he gets here first. This question almost always gets rid of the guys who are going to wast my time and the guy who is serious will try and get here with in a few hours. "Are you going to be home tomorrow?" Most of the time my answer is I will be but the bike will be gone. If I don't sell the bike in three days I take down the add and redo it. New picture and rewrite the add, maybe make the price a little higher. I am retired so I can play these games. I seldom ever show a bike on here if I intend to flip it. If there are two Cannonades for sale for $250 I ask $240. Mine will sell and the $250 bikes will not. I have been at this a long time selling audio equipment before I got into bikes.This winter I bought up all the doll houses I could find and two weeks before Christmas I sold over 50 doll houses. My grand kids went crazy playing with all of them. I am a tough skinned old fart but a young girl and her mother bought a bike off me this morning and it was nice to see her so happy.
EddyR

On the other hand, I'm not willing to drive well over an hour unless I know the seller is willing to sell in my price range. So for those that list high expecting to negotiate down, if they will only do that in person, they just lost quite a few potential buyers.

When the seller is far, I assume that when the listed price is too high, we won't manage to make a deal. If he's close, I'll make the trip hoping we can make a deal.

When the listed price is reasonable, I still offer a little less than the listed price. Most of the time, the seller accepts my offer.

Quoted for truth! I played bass guitar for years and musicians are some of the flakiest people on the planet. And terminally broke too :D

I just delete those emails. I do not want that person getting my email, and I don't want them wasting my time.