In the past 6 months I have tried to sell two cars on Craigslist. It has been an interesting experience. I think part of the issue was the type of cars that I was selling. Both cars were well past their prime and were listed for reasonable, cheap prices. My dad warned me by saying:
"You'll meet all the whackos selling a car yourself, especially in that price range. Wait till you get the guy with 2 screaming kids and a pregnant wife and all he has to his name is $2,351.49 and he wants the car."
My dad was more right than I could have ever imagined.
The first car I tried to sell was a 1998 Chevy Blazer listed at $4,990. Here are some of the emails I got from people 'interested' in the car and the responses I should have given back:
"please call nate for the s10" -- I was tempted to reply back, "Hey asshead, I have never owned an S10 in my life."
"I called and left you a page number what time can we see the car?" -- This guy should have gotten an email back from me that said, "A page number? A pager? I might as well be selling a Delorean from 1986 if we are using pagers in this transaction."
"I do not have the money for the car, but I am willing to trade a lawn mower and an older car for this Blazer." -- This guy doesn't even deserve the bandwith required to reply back to him.
In the end, I ended up selling the car on the military base to a soldier that just moved to the area.
This week I turned to Craigslist again in order to sell my 1994 Honda Accord, clearly priced at $2,990. This listing attracted the majority of the dregs of society found throughout the Puget Sound region. Here is a spattering of the emails I got back:
"hi im len n i wood love to buy your car call" -- I was wanting to reply back, "I will not sell my car to anyone using the phrase 'n i wood.'
"I wonder if you taking offers. if you do my brother have 2000 cash today let me know" -- My response to him could have been, "Yes, I will take $2000 cash along with another $990 cash."
I also ended up fielding an interesting phone call at 10pm the first night I had the car posted. A man from Portland called telling me how badly he wanted my car for his wife. He said he loved Hondas and wanted to drive to Seattle right away to buy it. I did the quick math and estimated he could be in Seattle by 12:30 AM, so I told him I would wait up for him. He thanked me and said he would be in Seattle no later than 1AM. My wife and I ended up sitting on the couch, drifting in and out of consciousness, until 4:30AM. We politely called him the next morning and left him a message saying that we hope the reason he didn't make it was because he contracted Herpes.
I ended up selling the Honda a day later to a guy who had never heard of Craigslist. He just happened to see the 'FOR SALE' sign posted on my car on the side of the road.
I will finish by saying that Craigslist is a great tool in selling any used product because of the fact that it is completely free and is checked by thousands of people each hour. Don't let my experiences ruin your impression of the site. Although I have never personally had success selling anything on Craigslist, I can say that I bought a nice set of golf clubs for dirt cheap on there (Unfortunately I couldn't buy the guy's golf handicap to go along with the clubs).
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