People suck

Having been on the seller side of this a fair bit lately, I'd say about 30% of the people who say "I'll be there tomorrow morning" to take a look even bother to show up, so I'd for sure sell to whoever the 1st person there with money regardless of any other conversations....If you'd already paid them, that would be a different story.
 
I don't do much buying/selling on Craigslist anymore but recently I was looking for a spare fridge. The problem I found was almost all of them were sold and the people don't take them off CL or you send a message and never get a response. I finally found a decent one and I sent a message with my phone number and the lady called me back. Picked it up the next day without issue. It's a real pia though.
 
I was raised to the FACT that you are only as good as your word. I've taken that lesson to heart all my life and my circle of friends are the same. I would not hesitate to give any one of my friends a bag with 10 million $$ in it and when I pick it up in 5 years every last cent would be there.
 
After 40 years in sales and marketing ,a very of those with the general public. When I buy its only from known sources .Even if it costs more.

When I sell something I try and sell to someone I know or who knows me. Even if its less.
I very rarely look to the open market to buy or sell anything.

The general public on either side of the buying or selling have no trouble screwing over you these days.
Between the frauds and strokers ( tire kickers) it can be a headache. I got no problem with those that don't mind doing it.

I have had good luck on a few hunting forums purchasing. But I considered those known sources.
 
It’s tough as a seller too though. You just want to get rid of something and the people that were 100% committed never show up. Meanwhile your other prospective buyers have moved on.
 
Sometimes it is with the extra money to just buy a new one vs used and saving a little money. A wall tent would be one of those things I would much rather save the headache of people and buy new.
 
I do my best to avoid dealing face to face with people, and when I can't avoid it, I find after a few minutes, they wish I had. :)
 
Any non commercial based purchase/sale is always buyer beware...without a sale, receipt and or bill of sale, it always is a gamble. I've had all good transactions on Rok. But agree, with online classified sales, it's a total sht-show, and super frustrating
 
Elon Musk recently made a statement about deal making: " If you have two offers; one with a known and trusted person and another higher offer with an unknown, take the lower trusted offer."

I was recently closing out my fishing partners estate and I was hearing all sorts of values on his cabin in the
$200 K range from a realtor and I then got a call from an unknown claiming Ron had given them first right-of-refusal. The only person having my phone number was the realtor. When I stopped by the property, the old neighbor guy came over to chat and asked about the property. He wanted it for his daughter and didn't want unknown neighbors. He offered me $150 as-is. We went to town and closed the deal.
 
When my father died I had people show up to say he had given them my gradmothers trailer. I guess they were too dumb to understand that mobil homes have a title like a car. Nothing had ever been transferred.

Over the years I have grown some crust and tend to make dishonesty painful.

I had another ding dong that said he liked to give talks to kids about rocks. He wanted me to give him a gold nugget about thumb size so the kids could see it easily. Talk about the balls of a brass monkey.
 
I sold a truck on FB a few years back. Never again. A firm price should be self explanatory. Some guy even agreed to the price, then showed up with a big green egg in his truck, saying he would throw that in but he could only pay 1k less than agreed. Told him to get lost. He leaves in a huff and didn’t have the egg secured in his truck. Egg fell over and broke mostly in the truck bed.
 
Short whiny rant. Last month was set to go look at a wall tent that I was assured I had first dibs on once it was back from Davis for a zipper repair. After a few strange messages where it was evident the dude thought he was messaging someone else, he miraculously decided "we're going to keep it ".

Yesterday I had agreed to drive 4 hours to Craig to purchase another one. Dude messages me at midnight that his neighbor offered him $200 more than he was asking so he sold it to him.

Decency seems to be lacking for some people.
Short whiny rant. Last month was set to go look at a wall tent that I was assured I had first dibs on once it was back from Davis for a zipper repair. After a few strange messages where it was evident the dude thought he was messaging someone else, he miraculously decided "we're going to keep it ".

Yesterday I had agreed to drive 4 hours to Craig to purchase another one. Dude messages me at midnight that his neighbor offered him $200 more than he was asking so he sold it to him.

Decency seems to be lacking for some people.
Happens on like 50% of meetups, both as seller and buyer..
 
It use to be a person's word was good enough. A handshake was a done deal. Some of us still live by this but others don't.
I've had my share of no shows.
Imo, if they're looking for the best offer, they should indicate it.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top