Bang your head!..

..Craigslist Health will drive you mad!

Okay, I haven't tried to sell a car on the thing in years. But SWMBO got another "family discount" on a 1999 Ford Exploder, so her poor, tired old 93 Bravada is going away. When making the listing (on the Atlanta CL), I choose "north otp" (North of the city, outside of I-285), and list the location as "Acworth" (where we actually live now). Asking $900, but hoping for five.

Three replies. I explain details to one guy who never writes back, one girl who says there's too much wrong with it for her to fix, and one guy that's really stoked. He says he can't pay nine, but he's got four in cash in his pocket. I ask SWMBO if she'll take it, she says yes (she may not be a serious gearhead, but she's sympathetic enough to the automobile that she'd feel guilty about sending something that runs & drives to the crusher). So, I tell the guy yeah, she'll take that.

And then the punch line..

"really!man u would make me so happy.ok 2 questions.how far r u from warner robins?and when can i come get it"

Warner Robins, GA..is One Hundred Thirty Five miles from Acworth. And that's if you take the Interstate. An Interstate trip that I'm not sure the poor old Bravada can make without just laying down and dying. She's got another 5-6yrs of local commuting left in her, but a 2hr run at 70mph (or more, this is Georgia, after all..) on an Interstate highway might just be the whipping that would kill the poor old girl. I politely tell him so, and recieve this message..

"maybe we can meet somewhere closer my car isnt the most trustworthy lol"

WTF? Didn't you research the distance? You've got a computer, too..it's just as easy to search Google Maps or Mapquest as it is to look at Craigslist in the first stinking place! I chilled out, and sent him this...

"Sorry, (name removed). I could have sworn I placed the ad on the Atlanta CL, and even selected "north otp" (north of town, outside the Perimiter) when I posted up the ad. IIRC, I also listed the location as Acworth. If economic things were better for us, I'd try to meet you in Stockbridge or McDonough or something, but I just got laid off, and can't afford the fuel right now. Not to mention that my girl just found a job, and wouldn't be able to follow me-I'd have no way to get back home, other than walking. And this thing's fine for just crusing the local streets..but I'm afraid of what a 2hr trip (what Goog maps estimates) on the Interstate from Acworth to WR would do to it. Sorry, dude..I thought you were a little more local when you replied to the ad. Sounds like you got burned by that thing CL does when there's no cars in your local one, and they post up stuff from other cities. I had that s**t do that to me once, gave me a listing from Memphis! That's SIX HOURS away from me!! Have you got family up here that could get it and bring it to you?"

Sorry for the rant, y'all..just had to get it out of my system. If Jay's listening, I think it's time to add another rule to the GRM Drinking Game. Two sips if someone makes a Craigslist rant? I'd go for that..

BTW: The original ad.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/2378547063.html

I need to update it. The thing's got a digital dash display, and the speedo just died. Weird. Everything else (temp, oil pressure, fuel level, etc.) still works, the speedo is the only thing that went dark.

And of course, an apology for ranting. Quiet Riot, original vid for "Metal Health", 1983.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJChh7ghGnE

Mental Health is exactly what popped in my head when I read the thread title.

Craigslist sucks. Every time I try to contact someone or sell something it ends up being a pita. I tried to sell my conversion van for $2500. Everyone that called wanted a brand new gold plated van for that price. Half of them wanted to know if it had work shelves in it. WTF. Do the people even read the damn adds. It's a berkeleying conversion van, not a panel van. There are nice pretty pictures on the listing. Aaarrgggg!!

I finely decided it was too much of a pain to sell it. New ball joints were installed yesterday and she drives as good as new. I run it until it's scrap and have it crushed.

Damn, now you got me all pissed off. See what you started.

Toyman01 wrote: Craigslist sucks.

You guys REALLLLLLY need Kijiji...

CL can best be described as a 'necessary evil'.

Yeah, my last few craigslist experiences have been similar. To the point where I'm considering just throwing up my fancy Camry here and a couple other sites for a few weeks and then just donating it to charity.

On the other hand, there are buyers like us out there, so maybe it's not a totally fruitless effort.

Some CL ppl need beat w/ this:

Yeah, craigslist requires some patience alright. I think that there is something about it that attracts the dullest and laziest of our fellow citizens. Still, it beats trawling 15 different newspaper classifieds and 'car trader' style publications like we did 10-15 years ago.

ShadowSix wrote: Yeah, craigslist requires some patience alright. I think that there is something about it that attracts the dullest and laziest of our fellow citizens. Still, it beats trawling 15 different newspaper classifieds and 'car trader' style publications like we did 10-15 years ago.

Definitely, I think we should be clear....Craigslist does not suck...the mouthbreathers who use Craigslist suck. CL itself is a really great tool if you could just eliminate the idiots.

Well, it's not a "Slick Black Cadillac with solid gold hubcaps" and Kevin DuBrow checked out back in '07 so he won't be buying it...

So it's a functioning vehicle, asking $900 and will take $500. If I remember correctly all Bravadas are AWD and based on an S10/Jimmy chassis. Sounds like a good candidate for the $200X classifieds and Challenge material to me.

HiTempguy wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: Craigslist sucks.

You guys REALLLLLLY need Kijiji...

They have it, but for some reason, it never caught on, just like CL never caught on here.

You still get some idiots, but unless you enjoy the frustration, just delete them, and move on. I suspect it has more to do with your local economy not being very good right now.

I think CL works well and as you are seeing, it is so easy that even an idiot can use it. There are endless samples of these idiot buyers and/or sellers.

Last ad. I placed in ATL said "Car is located in Jasper, GA; 1 hour north of Atlanta. Not interested in "meeting" or driving out to your place."

How many berkeleying replies do you think I got which either read "How far ru from atlanta?" or "I'm interested. Can you meet me in Norcross?"

But after selling 2 newer cars on craigslist for my dad, that were gone THE SAME DAY, I think I finally realized it's just the people that (like me; no offense to them) are doing sub $2k searches.

I posted an ad for my truck on CL. In the ad I was asking for a trade for a 4-door car. Someone offered to trade for a lowered 2-door Integra.

I think some people just don't read the ads

I think a lot of people just don't read the ad or look at pictures. I currently have an ad up on CL for some used tires with plenty of life left. I included a picture of all of them together and a closeup of the tread with a penny to show the depth. I still got an email asking for a picture of the tread.

PS friedgreen:

I NEVER EVER EVER negotiate price via email. My response is always "Why don't you come drive the car and then make me an offer."

This idiot is kicking tires. God forbid you drove the thing down there, he'd offer to "meet" somewhere and wouldn't show up, or would show up with less cash than the price that was agreed upon. I swear some people just get a kick out of seeing how bad they can hammer you on price with no intention of pulling the trigger.

poopshovel wrote: PS friedgreen: I NEVER EVER EVER negotiate price via email. My response is always "Why don't you come drive the car and then make me an offer." This idiot is kicking tires. God forbid you drove the thing down there, he'd offer to "meet" somewhere and wouldn't show up, or would show up with less cash than the price that was agreed upon. I swear some people just get a kick out of seeing how bad they can hammer you on price with no intention of pulling the trigger.

You know, I agree to a certain point, but the last two cars I've bought and the last I sold went down like that. Price was pre-arranged. It worked great, seriously.

tuna55 wrote:

poopshovel wrote: PS friedgreen: I NEVER EVER EVER negotiate price via email. My response is always "Why don't you come drive the car and then make me an offer." This idiot is kicking tires. God forbid you drove the thing down there, he'd offer to "meet" somewhere and wouldn't show up, or would show up with less cash than the price that was agreed upon. I swear some people just get a kick out of seeing how bad they can hammer you on price with no intention of pulling the trigger.

You know, I agree to a certain point, but the last two cars I've bought and the last I sold went down like that. Price was pre-arranged. It worked great, seriously.

Never seems to work that way for me. Maybe it's a regional thing.

poopshovel wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

poopshovel wrote: PS friedgreen: I NEVER EVER EVER negotiate price via email. My response is always "Why don't you come drive the car and then make me an offer." This idiot is kicking tires. God forbid you drove the thing down there, he'd offer to "meet" somewhere and wouldn't show up, or would show up with less cash than the price that was agreed upon. I swear some people just get a kick out of seeing how bad they can hammer you on price with no intention of pulling the trigger.

You know, I agree to a certain point, but the last two cars I've bought and the last I sold went down like that. Price was pre-arranged. It worked great, seriously.

Never seems to work that way for me. Maybe it's a regional thing.

Maybe personality - I'll bet if I was selling a car to you it'd be cool.

poopshovel wrote: PS friedgreen: I NEVER EVER EVER negotiate price via email. My response is always "Why don't you come drive the car and then make me an offer." This idiot is kicking tires. God forbid you drove the thing down there, he'd offer to "meet" somewhere and wouldn't show up, or would show up with less cash than the price that was agreed upon. I swear some people just get a kick out of seeing how bad they can hammer you on price with no intention of pulling the trigger.

Good point. Thanks for the heads up.

...so you wont bring it to NC???

I hate selling stuff on there. The last thing that I put up was a non-running 1986 Chevy C10. I said it in the ad multiple times. I was asking $750. People were calling telling me that they would give me $500 if I got it running, or can I pay for towing to their house. It got sold within 2 hours, to the first person with cash. I tried to be considerate and call the others that were dropping by to look (2-3 other people) and I got cussed out every time for selling it. What dont these people understand. I am not K-Mart Lay-Away.

Cole_Trickle wrote: ...so you wont bring it to NC???

I'll box it up if you'll pay the shipping..

And yeah, I hate that begging stuff, too. Only accepted the $400 because she's ready for it to go, and I respect her decision not to just call the "junk car" guy to kill it. But haggling on the price is pretty much the end of my empathy. I know there's a lot of poverty & pain out there, and even a few hundred bucks is a lot of money for them..but no, I'm not going to fix something just so they can enjoy it. Like your C10..hell, if you got it running, you might as well keep it! Gotta admit, nobody's tried the layaway approach on me yet, but I really don't sell cars very often in the first place.

Rob_Mopar wrote: Well, it's not a "Slick Black Cadillac with solid gold hubcaps" and Kevin DuBrow checked out back in '07 so he won't be buying it... So it's a functioning vehicle, asking $900 and will take $500. If I remember correctly all Bravadas are AWD and based on an S10/Jimmy chassis. Sounds like a good candidate for the $200X classifieds and Challenge material to me.

Same chassis as the Typhoon...

Last week, the local pic-a-part was paying $260/ton for scrap cars. This vehicle probably weighs over 2 tons. That's $500 and no idiots.