Anyone who has ever sold anything on Craigslist has probably encountered this problem: people contact you expressing interest in an item, you respond to their inquiry letting them know that the item is available, then you never hear from them again. Whatever, their loss. If you sell, or have sold, a lot of items on the site you have probably had this taken a step further and had to deal with a no-show. A Craigslist flake.
For those who have never had the thrill of hawking wares on Craigslist, this is how it goes down. You list your item for sale on the site, with a price. Someone, via email or phone, agrees to meet you at a time and place for a transaction. If the item for sale is something big, like a large piece of furniture, odds are the meeting place is your home. If it’s something like concert or event tickets, a public place is usually better. Some people like to do all transactions in public places like a grocery store parking lot, which is completely understandable. But sometimes after establishing a meeting place and time, the interested buyer never shows up. They flake.
Dealing with a no-show at home is one thing. Sitting in a parking lot waiting on a stranger who never shows is another.
My wife and I recently moved, and when we did we decided to get rid of all of our furniture and just start over with new stuff. Since we had some time left in our old place after we had moved into our current apartment, I turned our old bedroom into a veritable Craigslist showroom and filled it with our old furniture. For the first week or so while selling, I could not believe our luck.
No no-shows, no flakes, no one wanting to dicker. People showed up, checked out the item(s), paid us in cash, and hauled our old stuff away. Some of them were even really nice. Then that luck ran out. I started dealing with no-shows, non-responders, spammers—flakes. I tried to figure out what happened, but found no explanation for our change in fortune. Just like the items that did sell, I was posting each item with multiple photos, providing good descriptions, etc. The only thing that changed was the price of the items.
What I suspect is that there is a tipping point in prices of items for sale on Craigslist that determines the likelihood of dealing with a flake. That is, a minimum price threshold exists and once you price an item below that threshold you are more likely to get flaked on. All of the items we did have luck with and easily sold were not that cheap, although we priced it all to move since we were dealing with a time constraint.
This is a list of items we had no trouble selling, except for a few non-responders or people trying to talk me down on price (who I either trolled or ignored):
Bedroom dresser: $150
Futon: $100
Leather chair: $75
Trekking backpack: $35
Leather couch that my cats destroyed from the inside out: $25 (was surprised to get this but it was still a pretty sweet couch)
Here is a list of items that caused my Craigslist misery:
Exercise mats + inflatable ball: $15
Pair of plastic IKEA chairs: $10
DSLR bag: $15
Old trekking poles: $10
Booda cat litter box: $15
With the items on this second list, I got spam, flakes, no-shows, no-shows who apologized for not showing who then became non-responders because, gullible me, I tried to reschedule a meeting, non-responders who showed up when we weren’t home because I foolishly gave them my address before confirming—on ALL of the items. And we kept lowering the price because we wanted to get rid of this stuff (we eventually put all of this on the curb). As I lowered the price, the amount of crap I had to deal with increased as I was contacted by people treating Craigslist like a yard sale, which it basically is. Well, this comparison holds true except for the ‘personals’ ads and the Craigslist forums that have basically become the Wild West of the internet.
And so I now have an interesting research topic: When selling things on Craigslist, does a relationship exist between item-price and probability of dealing with a flake? From my very small sample size it looks like once something is priced below $20, you’re more likely to deal with bottom feeders and flakes. This of course requires further investigation.
Love this article. I can only imagine people sitting at home replying to one post after another without any intention of surfacing. Craigslist has become famous for it’s underbelly of scams.
That said, I did use CL to get rid of a houseful of furniture once. I’d already experienced a few rounds of no-shows and decided to post a lot of items as free. I was moving across country and just couldn’t deal. (Lazy, perhaps?) As each person showed up for one free item I’d posted, I (conveniently) walked them by other items which had price tags proudly displayed. I actually sold a few things that way, but even if they didn’t buy anything, I sent them out the door with more goodies than they came for, quickly removing everything I didn’t want to move, or better yet, pay someone to haul off.
My funniest experience was when I posted about 45 original recent VHS movies for FREE on Craigslist about 5 years ago. No catch, no strings attached, most watched once or twice, all working good condition, all titles were listed, etc. etc. etc. Some guy contacted me about these FREE movies and said he wanted to have a movie night. I replied “that’s great, when can you come and get them?” He said he wanted me to deliver them to him (about 20 minute drive). I literally laughed out loud and told him they’re free, and that he should make the effort of coming and picking them up. He then tried to negotiate with me that maybe I can meet him half way. Once again I told him no way and if he wants them to come and get them from my house (he was mobile with a car since he was willing to meet me half way). Somebody else ended up picking them up the same day but the original idiot called back again asking again if I can meet him half way. I told him he should have picked them up because now they’re gone. He got upset and hung up. What a moron.
Ha, that’s great Mike. The negotiation is the best part. You have to give the guy credit–he’s seriously committed to being lazy.
I love Craigslist. Have used it many times to get / sell items. A great free service and I have met many nice people.
After several years of selling items on Craigslist, I think I have sorted CL flakes into 3 categories.
1. Spam Aggregator – Usually an email with the only phrase “Is It Still Available”. These are meant to get a live email address for selling to spamming companies.
2. Mind changers – Impulse emails who did not read correctly or decide item is too far away and they changed their mind. It is so easy to respond to a listing but never follow through, that is why these are so common.
3. Time Waster / Joker / Troll- More information in their email than Spam Aggregator. They take happiness in leading you on and wasting your time. Actions include several email conversations, phone calls stating they are on their way, and then never showing up. These burn me up the most because it is malicious. The emails are verbose and seem honest, so they are tricky.
To deal with these, I follow 2 simple rules.
1. Every listing I post has the phrase “I only respond to phone calls, no emails.”
2. I will give a street and tell buyers to call when they are on the street for house number.
This has dramatically reduced my CL flakes, spam aggregators especially.
Any emails that come in, no matter how official they look, get deleted.
If you have ever wanted to waste an entire day, gut hurting from laughing so much, you should definitely check out http://dontevenreply.com. This guy has way too much fun on craigslist.