Craigslist, FB Marketplace, OfferUp, horror/funny stories. - When second hand wheeling and dealing gets weird

[Troon_Patrol]

I used to do a lot of buying selling on CL years back when I was broke and worked as a property manager dealing with abandoned property, I made some good money. One man's trash being another's treasure of course but, the CL community always seemed like a collection of fuckups, retards, tweekers and etc and a few people just trying to live frugally. CL is the worst but, FB marketplace and offerup have their own stories I'm sure.

My favorite CL story of all time:

Man puts Jacuzzi under the "free shit" section of CL. Perspective buyers call make an appointment to see the Jacuzzi. They see it and say they'll take it. They start dismantling the Jacuzzi and the heating assembly and then start to attempt to remove the circuit breaker box attached to the home itself. The home owner trying to get rid of the Jacuzzi says "WTF you doing to my home's electrical panel? That's not part of the Jacuzzi heating system it just gets wired to the homes power grid there" An argument ensues over if that is part of the Jacuzzi. The home owner very clearly correctly re affirms that is part of the house and if they remove that they are destroying the electrical wiring in his home. The perspective new owners argue the electrical breaker box goes with them, with the Jacuzzi, the Jacuzzi they are receiving for free. The home owner finally tells them they are not damaging his home and if they don't want the Jacuzzi/Jacuzzi heating system without part of the home, to just leave. Their reply is they spent gasoline coming out there and the home owner now owes them gas money for wasting their time leaving without a Jacuzzi or some shit like this. IIRC the home owner tells them to get fucked.

 

[SNU]

The only time I ever bought anything from fb market place was because someone I hate was saying how they were going to buy it because it's a steal at that price. So I bought it first. Then when I saw them again I asked about how their new purchase was working out for them and they awkwardly lied and said it was great and such a bargain. But I could tell they were upset. Don't brag about shit you havent done yet then retard.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I once pissed a scalper off at a used bookstore because I saw them googling shit over and over and repeatedly putting things back, only to buy a massive stack of harry potter/star wars books.

I walked out with a 25 book stack of old SF/F books including James Blish's Cites in Flight collection, Pohl's Gateway, etc. I made some smalltalk in front of the owner about how these books were always ridiculously marked up on ebay for like 20-40 bucks.

the retard was visibly seething.

fuck him, I got my stuff but I kinda wish I'd heard of Jack Williamson/Spider Robinson at the time because there were a few books by them. I read a lot as a hobby, but I also love being able to collect old hardcovers with dust jackets of books I read, if it's within budget.

I've been to quite a few of these thrifts on used books and it's so funny seeing someone try to slowly scan shit via phone to see if there's a hit. Like nigga, at least learn the ins and outs of the genre you want to sell if you're scalping old books.

Observations on following the used vintage sf/f/pulp books market

• There's a lot of older SF/F authors that the scalpers don't know about which have some kind of a market. Henry Kuttner books seem to be fucking absurdly cheap whenever I find them. L. Sprague de Camp, Damon Knight, Lester del rey, Harry Harrison. I feel like I keep seeing people overprice their works on the second hand market because they think SFWA/Hugo/Nebula nominee/winner in a hardcover DJ means shekels. But at the same time, I also see people just slapping used SF/F book lots together for good prices, so it's probably YMMV on this.
• Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Dick, Le Guin, Card, and Bradbury books keep popping up for wayy too much on the second hand market. It's funny when I see a not-so-popular work of theirs get listed for 30 bucks when thriftbooks has it for 7-10. Dick is the only one that seems to usually avoid this, but I suspect it's because he hits the right balance of popular and respected, but just scarce enough.
• I walked out of a library bookstore with a beautiful batch of old '70s science fiction book club hardcovers that I was enthusiastic about reading. Some weird fat guy followed me afterwards claiming I "stole" them out from under his nose. They weren't anything super scarce, I just liked getting a few of these without having to pay 8 bucks a piece. Might sell the ones I didn't enjoy in a big secondhand lot someday. (Robert Aspirin's Myth series collections and Edding's Belgariad. Both came in nice hardcover duo sets. Not my explicit cuppa tea but I didn't want to pass them up for a coupla bucks.)

Also

• There are times when I just see shit get marked way up but noone buys. It's usually like the Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Brokaw, Cussler, Ludlum, etc. books that get pumped out every year. Most of them seem to be "one and done" reads for people. I''m aware that King/Clancy have a larger list of well-recieved collectable works but it's not my cuppa tea.

Most of what I particularly enjoy is the early-late 20th century offerings in sci fi/fantasy/weird fiction/detective/adventure/pulps spectrum. I have a big backlog tbr now, but I'll often wind up at thrift stores in between errands and take a look. On a rare occasion I'll find something nice that got overlooked, like random Richard Matheson or Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald books. More often than not, I see giant stacks of Stephen King books.

 

[seri0us]

We agreed on a price and were working out time and place, only for him to stop responding as soon as I suggest meeting up at the nearby police station. Weird.

 

[mister fireworks]

i was selling a space heater that for $40. Some pajeet faggot asked if i would drop it off to him. He lived 45 minutes away from me. I just responded "lol" and he asked if I could meet him halfway. Part of me wanted to agree to this and then show up and just shoot him in the head. Anyone who is psychotic enough to ask someone to drive 45 minutes hoping to get 40 bucks deserves to die.

I've also had people whine about the price of something using the reasoning that THEY were located far away from me and would have to drive. The average person really doesn't understand how to negotiate without looking like a retard. I'm much more keen on giving someone a deal if they show up, say they really like whatever it is, and just ask if i can do any better on the price. Bitching about how they already spent the time and money driving to me does the opposite and makes me even more firm on the price.

 

[Flaming_Barghast]

I've gotten really good at haggling without being too obnoxious thanks to several visits to Hawaii in the past (they have a barter culture. Some ABC's will even barter despite being a corpo thing) I've seen some shitty ass deals but lmao my god.

So this is related to buying a house. The market went up a couple years ago because of an influx of another certain god forsaken state starting with a C. This dumbfuck was trying to sell a house for like.... 450k, when it was probably at most worth 330.
Most houses in my area are pretty low on average, a 2 to 3 bedroom home is usually 150 to 230k, older houses with more rooms usually only reach a peak of 320k because of all the work they need, since the wood is old and needs to be maintained, but a lot of them have had at least one family that didn't take care of it.
This place was trashed, it looked like a frat house ran through the basement, broken glass, broken childrens toys, holes in the fucking walls... but the worst part was the wiring. Turned on the basement room light and it fucking exploded. Total bachelor pad.
upstairs was painted these dark, ugly colors with grandma nickknacks everywhere, didn't bother cleaning despite not living there for a year, holes all over, walls half painted, toilet was fucking broken in half. Carpet was dirty as fuck on the main floor with magazines strewn all over the floor, as well as random cups and garbage littering the sofa and kitchen counter.

BUT, it had like.... 4 fireplaces, 5 rooms, and the largest basement with a built in projector I have ever seen. The layout of the place was extremely nice, with a half wall from the kitchen to look into the livingroom/front door and had an overhead light under the cupboard that made up the lil window, had like 5 gorgeous skylights and a tall ceiling. All the fireplaces were fucking gorgeous, the house itself had a lot of personality that was being choked by this retard, and the bones of it were an old wood you can't get anymore, the beams were like over a foot thick. There was fire damage in the garage but it was still fairly solid.
The electrical was a nightmare. We were probably the only people willing to entertain buying it, a couple looked, got spooked by how it looked and ran. I offered to buy it at a higher rate of 330 IF he replaced ALL the electrical and plumbing, we were actually planning on going to 345 but wanted to start a little lower, as well as the work it would take to clean the basement. The reason we were willing to go over what it was worth by 20k was because electric, at  best, was going to cost 50k. Plumbing would be another 20k, I can say this confidently after comparing with the house we currently have and bought back then. The work that needed to be done was rediculous so it was our way of helping recoop a giant net loss. That was going to absolutely be the best offer he could get, because just a glance at it scared everyone off.
He fucking tries intimidating me, a woman, by standing tall with his chest puffed out, like 3 inches from me, going "I know what I got."
I told him he wouldn't sell this to anyone with how horrific it was, so he said "fine, I'll be a nice guy, 435k."
Husband and I glanced at each other, went "315 and the house gets rewired and fixed up or we walk."
Lmao no, he bitches at us that we were being unreasonable, since that's quite a price drop. Goes "I'll sell it in a week."
Stayed up for 3 years, got taken down but no buyers. He had the balls to try reaching out to us a year and a half later for the 330.
We laughed.

 

[foam rolla]

Went to buy something off FB marketplace. Guy gave me the address and said to go to the garage and go to the second shutter door. Seemed weird and worried I might get abducted.

Got to the place and went to the garage. Roller door went up and it turned out to be a very stoned dude to lives in his families garage. It reeked of weed but he had a big tv and a couch and had a pretty comfy set up.

Really nice guy too and he didn't rape me.

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

I am selling some of my stuff on Marketplace and have been getting offers from really bad cheapskates. For example, I'm selling a special edition PS3 for $100, and they ask if I can lower it to $60. A 17" Sony CRT TV I listed for $25, they ask if I can set it at $10, and so on. Of course I decline the offers but they keep insist that my prices are bad.

The funny thing is that some of them are the same people who have similar items listed at higher prices. If I ask them with a sock account if they can lower their prices, they tell me that if I'm not interested or can't afford it, I shouldn't waste their time.

Such is the life of selling stuff. I should reply with the same lines they give me.

 

[foam rolla]

I am selling some of my stuff on Marketplace and have been getting offers from really bad cheapskates. For example, I'm selling a special edition PS3 for $100, and they ask if I can lower it to $60. A 17" Sony CRT TV I listed for $25, they ask if I can set it at $10, and so on. Of course I decline the offers but they keep insist that my prices are bad.

The funny thing is that some of them are the same people who have similar items listed at higher prices. If I ask them with a sock account if they can lower their prices, they tell me that if I'm not interested or can't afford it, I shouldn't waste their time.

Such is the life of selling stuff. I should reply with the same lines they give me.

A friend was getting rid of a working microwave and put it on marketplace for free. People would call up and ask endless questions and he tell them "just come and take it, it's free" and they wouldn't reply and ghost him. Then people would come around and want to inspect it, test it and ask a million questions. He'd tell them "please, just take it, it's free and if you don't like it, then you can throw it away and it won't cost anything" People were so retarded and timewasting with it, he just deleted the listing and threw it in the bin.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

I used to sell old vidya and nerd shit online for a while. The most annoying thing is writting in very big bold letters "NO TRADES. ONLY CASH" but still get a new retard every day asking me if i am interested in trading for something completely random as if their offer was so good its going to change my mind.

Not even collectors looking to trade a game for other game mind you. I mean assholes who looked around their shithole and thought "well, i got an old calculator i don't use, a desk lamp that, needs repairing a pencil sharpener and Domino's cupon. Seem about right. Yeah"

 

[Cherry Eyed Hamster]

I can’t give away much information since it would be too much of a PL but one of my relatives got scammed by an online marketplace seller and took it to Judge Judy to be resolved lol.

Another time that involved me, personally was when I decided to buy a rabbit hutch on Facebook marketplace. Seller and I agreed to a time the following day for me to pick it up at his place. Well I get there the next day, the seller comes out of the house and says I won’t be getting a rabbit hutch. Apparently the previous night, he had gotten into a huge fight with his girlfriend and the gf in a fit of rage poured gasoline over the hitch and set it ablaze in his backyard. The guy kept trying to invite me into his house so that he could bitch about his shitty relationship to me but I said “gotta go” and hightailed out of there.

 

[3D2A]

Not nearly as entertaining as most of these. But had a eBay situation recently when trying to sell a Ryzen 3700x CPU. I ran that CPU in my main computer for like 3 years and upgraded so I know it ran perfect. Posted it on eBay for about $10 less than the going price with free shipping. Shipped it out and heard nothing. A few days before the dispute deadline I get a notification the buyer wants to return it. In their return request message he says the CPU is hitting 95c which I know is impossible. I messaged him asking what cooler he’s using and he replies with extremely broken English about how the cooler doesn’t matter and he wants to return it. I googled his name and address and behold, it’s a 16 year old nigger kid living in a run down house in Virginia with cars on bricks in the driveway. Well the nigger kid never did send back the CPU and eBay closed the case.

Let this be a reminder that this is why you don’t sell shit to blacks and for heads

 

[Troon_Patrol]

I can’t give away much information since it would be too much of a PL but one of my relatives got scammed by an online marketplace seller and took it to Judge Judy to be resolved lol.

Another time that involved me, personally was when I decided to buy a rabbit hutch on Facebook marketplace. Seller and I agreed to a time the following day for me to pick it up at his place. Well I get there the next day, the seller comes out of the house and says I won’t be getting a rabbit hutch. Apparently the previous night, he had gotten into a huge fight with his girlfriend and the gf in a fit of rage poured gasoline over the hitch and set it ablaze in his backyard. The guy kept trying to invite me into his house so that he could bitch about his shitty relationship to me but I said “gotta go” and hightailed out of there.

There was a scam years ago on Ebay someone would post a picture of a high end electronic device, playstation , cell phone etc. In the listing it said "Picture of samsung galaxy 3 for sale" and under the description at the very end it said you are bidding on a picture of this item not the item itself in very unclear language. People would bid on a picture not realizing it was just a picture of the item they wanted. Lo and behold Ebay would actually side with the seller sometimes. There was a judge judy case about this over a decade ago. The woman being sued for misrepresenting the item played dumb and acted like she made it extremely clear the item was a picture and not the item pictured; pretended to be confused the buyer was so disappointed spending $400 on a JPEG file. Judy ruled how you'd expect her to rule.


Decades ago I was in the mid-range shoe business. Lot of Nikes "fell off trucks". Never had a problem selling them until one buyer purchased some Kobe's and complained they were "used" stupid asshole sent them back with one of his used sox in the box. I looked up his feedback and it was a history of a collection of pissing matches over petty $10 items. "belt was scratched when it arrived" etc etc.

 

[TETRABAX]

So I used to buy a lot of guns off ArmsList (Craigslist for guns) and usually you would get boomers, country boys, or weird libertarians. That was until I found a cheap Glock clone I wanted to buy. CZ Glock clone with 4 mags and a holster for $300? Sign me up.

I show up at the house, it's deep in section 8 housing and this particular address has the windows boarded up and tags all over the house. It's obvious nobody lived there. Then the blackest gorilla nigger you have ever seen walks out from behind the bushes, tear drop tattoos and everything, hands me a handgun while a cop drives by and then proceeds to give me a fake name and address for record keeping. I give him the cash and got the fuck out.

Now it's my daily carry

 

[Grayson Death Carlyle]

I posted an ad looking for bandmates on Craigslist. I got a response from this guy (pooner? I am extremely autistic and cannot tell) who sent me his YouTube channel.
This is a good example of one of his songs/videos.

I can excuse the poor production, guitar playing, mixing, and everything else, because I or my other bandmates can cover all of those well enough. The singing, however, was not up to snuff with what I wanted for this band.

This video also made me decide I should not let this guy into the practice space. I believe he is legitimately schizophrenic and it would be a very bad idea to get involved at all.

I have more stories from Craigslist musicians, but I am unsure if they would be funny. They are also not related to buying and selling stuff, but rather music related, so I am unsure if they are relevant. Sorry if this is the wrong thread.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

I posted an ad looking for bandmates on Craigslist. I got a response from this guy (pooner? I am extremely autistic and cannot tell) who sent me his YouTube channel.
This is a good example of one of his songs/videos.

I can excuse the poor production, guitar playing, mixing, and everything else, because I or my other bandmates can cover all of those well enough. The singing, however, was not up to snuff with what I wanted for this band.

This video also made me decide I should not let this guy into the practice space. I believe he is legitimately schizophrenic and it would be a very bad idea to get involved at all.

I have more stories from Craigslist musicians, but I am unsure if they would be funny. They are also not related to buying and selling stuff, but rather music related, so I am unsure if they are relevant. Sorry if this is the wrong thread.

his voice on the second video sounds normal but he totally sings like a pooner lol

 

[Grayson Death Carlyle]

his voice on the second video sounds normal but he totally sings like a pooner lol

Now that you say that I agree. The ear gauges and the facial features kind of threw that idea to me more than the singing though.