Has craigslist ever annoyed you enough to just keep the car you are trying to sell?

I blame reality TV shows for the "what's the lowest you'll go" BS. Anyone who asks me that question I will decline to sell to.

I'm so glad my house has good frontage.

codrus wrote: I blame reality TV shows for the "what's the lowest you'll go" BS. Anyone who asks me that question I will decline to sell to.

The correct answer is $300 higher than whatever the ad was for.

The last time I tried to sell a car on craigslist, someone threatened to the call the cops on me. That was the end of craigslist selling for me. Also had someone argue with me that a car with an airbag light on can't be inspected, at which point I flashed my NY State Inspector license and assured them that I was probably more familiar with DMV laws than them.

In reply to NickD:

What's the story behind the cops, man?

In reply to Appleseed:

Was selling a rust-free TN-sourced 1990 Acura Legend L 5-speed sedan with a ton of new parts, including a fresh 0-mile clutch, for $1500. Kid comes and looks at it with his mom, really wants it, going to be his first car. Comes back a few days later with his dad. Dad's a real jerk, tries to to tell me it won't pass state inspection because the airbag light is on (Due to pretty nice aftermarket steering wheel), I point out that it will but I agree to put the stock steering wheel on. Keeps looking under the rocker panels going "Well, all the GMs rust out here" Okay, except, it's not a GM and it has never been driven in a NY winter. Finally he grudgingly gives the kid the okay, we settle on $1300 (I remember wanting a cool first car, figure I can help out someone in the same boat) and they give me a $200 deposit.

A week later, I get a text from the kid saying they are coming out to my place, but not to pick the car up, but to get their deposit back because his father found a '99 Grand Am for him. I politely text back that a down deposit is to hold onto the car because you are buying it, not so that you can search for other cars in the meantime, and that I had had to turn down other prospective buyers in the meantime. Father gets on the phone and starts being a real jerk and says I'm being a sore loser and that's not how things work and if I don't return their money that day he knows my number, name and address and will call the police on me. Go talk to the salesman at work, learn that although it's a E36 M3y way to do business, I do have to return the deposit because I never explicitly stated it was nonrefundable. Then when the a-hole shows up, he's saying "Oh, well, it's nothing personal. No hard feelings. I just found a better car for my son" You did something kinda jerk-ish, then threatened to call the cops on me, sorry, but there's hard feelings. Good luck with that Grand Am, pal.

dean1484 wrote: Yep. Instead I gave it to another person here on grm.

Yup! I gave up on CL and started just selling my cars to you guys. I've put four into the GRM hive so far. Now I'm just waiting my turn with the free Europa.

Never sold a car on CL, only locally or enthusiast forums.

But as for regular parts and such? I have always sold them for 50-75% less than FMV to friends, or just given them away, so they went to someone other than what is on CL.

codrus wrote: I blame reality TV shows for the "what's the lowest you'll go" BS. Anyone who asks me that question I will decline to sell to.

Incorrect. Then again growing up my dad had numerous different jobs, owned a liqour store, drove a cab, ran a car lot, etc.

In 1998, when I was 16 looking for my next car, I called on an '88 300ZX and asked "What's lowest cash price you will take?" They told me, and I was there 30 minutes later for a test drive, then handed them 36 crisp $100 bills. It was $800 less than they were asking.

They got the car sold, I got a car I wanted, done deal.

I think some of you old guys are mixing in the present/past/TV with reality.

I find it funny that you guys not only complain about "what is the lowest cash price you'll take" but you also complain about low ball offers. If you put OBO in an add you have already decided in your head what the bottom dollar you would take. If I see something I want but think the price is say $500 to high I want to know if they will come down that far. I'm not going to drive clear across town if the guy won't come down that much. That's a huge waste of time for everyone.

Unfortunately I have a tale directly from one of these inept Craigslist buyers. His name is Eric. If you're in the DC area selling a car and are approached by someone named Eric, just say no. Don't risk it.

He goes to look at a car he wants to buy that he found of Craigslist. Doesn't really know what he's looking at so he is sending my friend Mike long texts about the car while he's on his test drive. When Mike realizes he's actually driving the car, he stops responding. Eventually Eric decides he wants to buy the car so he takes it back to the seller and makes the deal. Then they can't get the plates off because rust.

Eric then tells the seller that he doesn't have plates to put on the car anyway and has to drive it home. Nice Craigslist seller man offers to let him drive the car home and mail the plates back. Eric accepts and goes home.

Over a week later, Eric has not returned the plates and the seller texts him asking when he is going to be able to send them. Eric's reply? "chill, I'll get around to it eventually." Next thing you know, police officers are at Eric's door. He somehow explains it away and they leave. Last I heard, the car didn't pass inspection thanks to a headlight and tires, and Eric was planning on holding the seller's plates hostage until it passed inspection or the seller gave him his money back.

Eric is not currently in jail so assume someone talked some sense into him.

Yes.

In reply to D2W:

Except I never ask "what's the lowest you'll go?" That just sounds way too d-baggy. If there's a price in the ad and I think I can get it a little lower (or he says OBO), I'll ask "Would you take xyz?" At least gives me an idea if he's willing to bargain or if he's sticking to his guns. Chances are he has a bottom price in mind, and by text he can even take his time to mull it over.

In reply to z31maniac:

I think this is one area where dealers are very different from private party sales. When I'm selling a car on Craigslist, I don't take credit cards or trade-ins, and I don't extend loans, so cash up front is pretty much a given. It might be a lot more of an incentive for a dealer or car lot.

In reply to D2W:

My beef with coming to an agreement over the phone is twofold. The first issue is that a lot can happen between the time we agree to a price over the phone, and the time the potential buyer actually shows up to pay.

If someone else shows up with more money in the interim, I'm in an awkward spot. If we agree to $1300 and the buyer shows up with $1000 and I hold fast to $1300, and then the buyer wants me to wait while he runs around to an ATM/his buddy's house for a loan, etc. I'm in an awkward spot. If I take time out of my day and the buyer doesn't show at all, it's a hassle. An easy way to solve all that hassle is no deals are struck until we are face-to-face. If someone feels like driving across town is too much of a hassle, they aren't likely to buy IMO. I'll throw that fish back and wait for another that bites harder.

The second issue I have with it is that I'm pretty good at sales, and I can sell a lot better in person. I'm seeking a "best" offer. There's not really much that is "best" for me about handing over a big chunk of my negotiating power right off the bat. If you want a chance to talk me down, you're also going to give me a chance to counter, which I do best with the car in front of us and a chance to read the buyer.

I have responded to the question, "What's the lowest you'd take?" with, "More than you've probably got in your pocket." more than once. I haven't been wrong, yet. I've also countered with, "What's the highest you'd go?" That has produced a couple sales. It depends on the mark. Er, buyer.

ae86andkp61 wrote: In reply to z31maniac: I think this is one area where dealers are very different from private party sales. When I'm selling a car on Craigslist, I don't take credit cards or trade-ins, and I don't extend loans, so cash up front is pretty much a given. It might be a lot more of an incentive for a dealer or car lot.

I've typically sold cars for cashier's checks, rather than for cash, but then I've typically been selling cars in the range of $5-20K, rather than $1-2K. Cash holds no magic for me, cashier's checks are just fine (when given in person and drawn on a local bank -- I'm not sending change to Nigeria, thanks) and being less of a theft target are actually preferable in some ways.

The reason I find the "what's your lowest price" thing so offensive is that it's a blatant attempt to short-circuit the whole negotiation process in the favor of the buyer. That's not how it works. The seller asks for a price, the buyer makes an offer, and that repeats until either an agreement is reached or someone gives up. If I've posted an ad I've already presented my price, and it's up to the potential buyer to either agree or to make a counter-offer.

As for why I don't reply to emails that ask if I'll take $XYZ, this is simply a heuristic. I'm looking to sell a car for a fair price, and that means finding a buyer who's willing to pay a fair price. The guy making email offers without having seen the car isn't that buyer, he's someone out looking for a deal and trying to find out if I'm desperate enough to sell to him. No thanks.

Even if he were inclined to be serious, he hasn't looked at the car therefore he doesn't know the condition and he doesn't know if I'm representing the car accurately. That means that if he's got any sense, he's adjusting his offer downwards in order to include a cushion to cover that possible misrepresentation. I know that I'm representing it fairly (because that's what I do), and I don't want to give that cushion away. So any price I agree to over email like that is never going to be a fair price.

I have sold two cars on Craigslist. Both went fine. I always price them higher than what I want to get out of them. I listed my miata at $2200, I wanted $1800. I waded through at least 20 "I'll give you $1000 cash today" texts in the first two days before the guy who bought it scheduled a time to come look at it and actually showed up. I got $1800 out of it. I thought that was fair considering after you take the torsen, hard dog, and ground controls out of it you already have most of your money back and the rest of a Miata to sell.