Why bother putting an ad on CL if you aren't going to respond. I pinged 3 (three... 2+1, 4-1... THREE) different people selling trailers and I have not one response in several days. WTF. I have the god damn cash - sell me your berkeleying E36 M3.
edit: Why can't I fix my spelling mistakes in the subject?
Because people are lazy.
Those same people who never reply to you don't have the smarts to list their phone number most of the time either.
Or remove thier ad once they have sold the item in question.
I have a theory on this, because it happens a LOT with CL. I think that the fact that it's free makes people less "committed" to selling. It takes 5 minutes or less to post an ad, so you can do it even if you aren't all that motivated. Then when emails start pouring in, if you don't really care anyhow, you don't bother answering them. Still doesn't make much sense, but it's the best I've come up with, because I don't run into similar issues when dealing with sellers on places like eBay or Autotrader, where they have to pay to list something.
No doubt, though, CL attracts the lowest common denominator of both buyers and sellers.
Whenever I've posted on craigslist all responses went into my junk mail folder. Unless I thought to go look for them, I never saw them.
There's a 351 RX-7 for sale locally. I e-mailed the guy, got a response, worked out him delivering the car (and me paying EXTRA!), and he never brought the car. WTF? Now it's back on CL! What part of, "I'll take the car, when can you deliver? The cash is here waiting plus the gas money." Did he not understand? 
P71 wrote: There's a 351 RX-7 for sale locally. I e-mailed the guy, got a response, worked out him delivering the car (and me paying EXTRA!), and he never brought the car. WTF? Now it's back on CL! What part of, "I'll take the car, when can you deliver? The cash is here waiting plus the gas money." Did he *not* understand?
email him again, maybe he forgot or something and thinks you are done with him, or he's embarrassed to email you and say "hey, im a dumbass, still want the car?"
I've not responed to only one person, once. That was because I got a better offer at the same time and took down the ad within the next 12 hours. I think the person probably figured out what happened.
Also, the economy (or something) is really making people really shifty about prices.
Someone was parting out a 280ZX locally- I contacted them with an exact list of the suspension/brake parts I wanted for my 510, then said "I want this to be a hassle free, one-trip transaction, and can be there this weekend with cash and tools in hand. How much do you want for the above listed parts?" His response was "Well, I want fair prices for the parts- why don't you stop by this week to look and make an offer?"
I also saw something new to me this week- we've all seen cars listed on eBay with the "This car is also for sale locally.." disclaimer, but this week I saw the opposite. Guy on CL was offering a 510 for $2500, with the disclaimer that "This car is also listed on eBay, and if it gets lots of bids, i reserve the right to refuse to sell it at this price."
mistanfo wrote: Or remove thier ad once they have sold the item in question.
This
After buggin a guy about a 1985 BMW he sent a note that he sold it two weeks ago. I suggested that he remove the add :(
Works both ways - I'm trying to shift the Integra Type-R in my profile[1]. Got a call from someone who was really keen and we agreed on price etc. He was supposed to pick it up yesterday. Funnily enough, he didn't show, his phone goes straight to voicemail...
But yeah, I've had my share of "oh, I sold that three weeks ago" recently while shopping for the Integra's replacement.
[1] No need to get excited, there's a berkleying Ocean between the car and the US...
You'll need to log in to post.
