Adventures in Craigslisting

Wow.  We have not posted anything in a looooong time.  Whoops!  Chalk it up to a lot of crazy life stuff going on, but we will try to be better.

We bought a new house.  It is fabulous and we are loving living here - some days it feels like I'm living in a fancy hotel and I should be going home soon.  Pictures and details to come on all of that.  But in the meantime, we are trying to sell some stuff that we realized we don't need in the move.  Matt posted a bunch of stuff onto Craigslist, and we have also had a lot of luck getting rid of things via his company's for-sale section on their intranet.  But his co-workers we sell to are not nearly as interesting as the folks on Craigslist that we get to deal with.  A couple of samplings:

Selling an iPod Touch (a conversation on the phone) (which hold their value amazingly well, turns out!)

CL Guy: So, what do you want for the iPod?
Matt: Uh, I think I listed it for $170.
CL Guy: ...
Matt: Soooo... I guess $170 is what I want for it.
CL Guy: I have $15 and an iPod nano
Matt: Um, no thanks
CL Guy: Well my birthday is coming up soon so we'll see if I get some more money
Matt: Ok...let me know I guess?

Haha - poor kid.  Matt said he only sounded like he was maybe 15 or 16 years old.



Selling an old Area Rug (a conversation via text message)

CL Guy: What is the lowest ull take for the rug?
Matt (to me): I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.  That's not how this works.
CL Guy (a few hours later): Still have the rug?
Matt: Someone has offered $40 to get it Friday.  If you want it for $50, you can have it before then
CL Guy: I'll give you 40 tomorrow
Matt: If you can do $45 I'll tell the other person no and you can have it tomorrow
CL Guy: Really... I'm offering asking price a day beforehand and your gunna price gouge me?
Matt: Asking price is 50 and I agreed with the other party
CL Guy: Where r u located
Matt: Chandler - Ray & Rural
CL Guy: Ok well I'm at 40 bucks and I'll come get it tomorrow lmk
CL Guy (a few hours later): Are u gunna sell it to me?
Matt: I'm going to sell it to the other person I promised it to for 40 tomorrow, sorry
CL Guy: Fine I'll do 45...
Matt: Ok, do you want to pick it up tonight?
CL Guy: Ummm yeah but it won't be till late like 10 11 ish or I can get it tomorrow

... I'm speechless on this one. My guess is that his tactics have worked on other people before, which is why he was such a jerk to us.  When he sent the first message asking how low we would be willing to go on the price, I told Matt he should be a smart ass and say $120.  Then when the guy said "That's ridiculous!  You have it listed for $50!" we could shoot back and say "Oh, so you saw the listing and decided to ask stupid questions anyways?"  Hehe.  I love that his idea of "price gouging" is $5. And who on earth would let a rude stranger come to their house at 11:00pm to pick something up?!!  People who want to be murdered, that's who.  We went with the $40 offer :)


One funny misunderstanding to round it out - this one with a woman from Matt's work.  He listed the iPod Touch on his work network for $160, ten dollars lower than he had it listed on Craigslist since it's really convenient to meet up to exchange money/goods with people in his building.


Work Lady: Hi!  Would you take $150 for the iPod?
Matt (forgetting he posted for $160 and thinking he's meeting her halfway): How about $160
Work Lady: Ok...that's fine.

Since this is all over email, the lady couldn't read Matt's tone and probably thought he was the biggest jerk.  Saying "How about you pay me what I asked for it?!" (insert rude tone here).

Once he realized his mistake, he felt TERRIBLE!  He wrote the lady back and explained his confusion, and then offered to meet her halfway between her $150 offer and his $160 asking price.  $5, no big deal, but the lady wrote back saying she was SO thankful and so glad he wrote her back saying that.  She had been having an awful day and the $5 give was all she needed to make her smile.  Ha!


So in summary:  selling your stuff online is a pain in the neck, but at least we have gotten some good laughs out of the matter.