How do you deal with Craigslist/Kijiji people?

[moustacheverte]

It's a nightmare. We agree on a time, they'll never be there, usually 30-60 min late, sometimes not coming at all but didn't bother telling you... It's too bad because it's such a great source of used items and to get rid of your stuff!

How do you deal with people from there? Any particular strategy I'm not aware of to make sure you're not wasting your time?

[J Boogie]

I always have them come to my house and greet them on the porch, let them in if they're comfortable. ( I don't meet in public unless they request it - I am a man and have a good awareness of danger, I also typically carry a knife)

That way I don't waste my time going somewhere.  If they don't show up I didn't miss out.  If they're late and I wanted to do something I just go do it and if they miss out their bad.

I just simply don't care if someone no shows.  I expect 1 out of 3 to no show or to lose interest.  It's natural.  I think of how many times I've left a few items in a shopping cart and closed the window and never bought.  Sometimes you're just teasing the idea of a purchase.  I personally don't do this as I find it inconsiderate but your life will be easier if you anticipate this behavior and not let it interrupt your day.

[FrugalFan]

I've been slowly selling off all our baby stuff and I agree with the above (well, not the part about being a man and carrying a knife). They come to my house so it's no big loss if they don't show. It's mildly annoying and it can take several days or week to sell something, but the actual time invested is very low. I post the adds once and copy the text into Word so that I can just paste the wording next time. I try to post all the details in the add so that I don't have questions about dimensions or condition or if the item is still available ("If this add is still posted the item is still available"). And I finish every email with "Are you interested?". That way they are more compelled to answer. 

[Cromacster]

Start with the screening of the responses you receive.

If the message isn't written in an organized manner with bad spelling etc just ignore it.  If they don't respond promptly I usually ignore them.  If then I'm feeling good with the transaction, I will arrange a 15 minute window for when we will meet.  If they are not there in that window I will usually call off the deal.

It also depends on the item.  If it's a $20 knick knack, I'm pretty particular and don't mess around much.  If it's something I'm trying to sell for $400, I'm a little more flexible.

[WranglerBowman]

It's brutal!  I have them text/call me when they're X mins away.  X = the amount of time it takes me to get to the agreed meeting spot.  I just don't understand how people can also waste they're own time setting up meeting locations, negotiating a price, and then not show up.  For a free service though it's still worth it.

[Goldielocks]

Agreed. Pick up at my home. I usually have someone else home, but you don't need to invite people inside.

When I buy, I give my text number a and send a series of 'on my way' texts so that we meet up without waiting. I wouldn't go out of my way otherwise. If it is something I need to try on, like boots, it needs to be a low price, meeting a woman, etc.

[moustacheverte]

Great answers! I usually avoid having people over at my place because I don't like them knowing where I live or seeing what else I have inside that might attract thieves later on. My apt is super small, it's a 1 BR so when you enter from the street, you're right in my living space. If I open the door too wide, you can pretty much see all of the inside from the street.

For bulky items I don't have a choice, but for anything else I prefer to meet at a public place next to mine. I'll use the "text me when you're there" so they'll wait 5 min for me to show up.

But when they come to my place, I make sure I'm not starting anything (eating, cooking, cleaning...), and then they arrive an hour late, delaying all my plans. So I wait around like an idiot :(

[Guses]

For small inexpensive items, I put the item on the porch and I tell them to pick it up and leave the money in an envelope in my mailbox. So far, I've never had a bad experience.

If people really want to steal my junk, they can go right ahead. I mainly put a price on stuff so that people think it's valuable.

[moustacheverte]

For small inexpensive items, I put the item on the porch and I tell them to pick it up and leave the money in an envelope in my mailbox. So far, I've never had a bad experience.

If people really want to steal my junk, they can go right ahead. I mainly put a price on stuff so that people think it's valuable.

Ha, I'd get ripped off haha!

[MilesTeg]

I've had nightmares trying to GIVE away decent stuff.

Craig's list = flakes list

And there's the ever present low baller wankers who make ridiculously low offers (e.g. a guy that repeatedly offered me $30 for a 5 year old washer/dryer combo I was already fire selling for $300, hah).

Hilariously, the only non annoying transaction I had on Craig's list was giving away left over dirt from landscaping work.

[boarder42]

i have them come to my house or somewhere within a few minutes of my house and they must call me when they get there.

i also feel this is very region specific. i have some flakes but never enough to get mad.

[LiveLean]

Use this to your advantage as a buyer. Three years ago we had to furnish a beach rental cottage in three weeks. We'd see something promising -- kitchen table, bar stools, outdoor patio furniture -- and offer to come get it immediately. (It helped that we were full-time on this). Of course, you have to sift through a lot of crap on CL, but all three of these things in particular were great deals. I didn't talk them down a dollar.

I also bought a BlendTec used for $50. Some recently-married millennial girl barely used it; the counter read 33.  I met her at Starbucks with a bottle of water and fired it up right there to make sure it worked. The Starbucks people were kind of annoyed, thinking we were filming some sort of video. (The BlendTec was locked up for when we use the beach house. The tenants get the $12 Oster.)

Selling, of course, is tough. I won't even bother unless it's something that will go for $75 or more. I sold a baseball card collection for $1,600 and a piece of exercise equipment for $900. The exercise equipment was tough because it was heavy and specialized. Took many months and I lowered from $1500. The ultimate buyer understood the bargain and actually was suspicious that I was selling it so low. Too bad they didn't see it when it was $1,500.

My pet peeve is people who want to have a long text conversation with 20 questions when a 2-minute phone chat will do. (This is a pet peeve for life in general, not just CL). If I get a third question from someone, I just call them.

[gliderpilot567]

I think it depends a lot on your location as well as the nature of the items you're buying/selling.

When buying: I gravitate toward the highly detailed ads with lots of pictures, since these people put in time and effort they are more likely to be legit (or more likely to be scammers, ha). I don't bother with the one-line ads with one blurry picture. Next, I always call the person for my first contact, and ask a lot of detailed questions. You can usually tell a lot by a person's tone of voice and how knowledgeable they are about the item they're selling. Once I decide to come look at an item, I'll work out the rest of the logistics by text message and maybe a call as I get close.

When selling: I make an ad that I would myself pay attention to (see above). I'll publish my location as the nearest major intersection, so they know what neighborhood to come to. I'll screen responses, and answer phone calls before texts, again judging by tone of voice how reliable/flaky they are. If they want to come take a look, I'll tell them to call me when they arrive at the cross street in the ad and I'll give final directions over the phone from there. This weeds out a LOT of flakes.

A few times I've met at some arranged public place instead of one of our residences, but the majority of my CL transactions have been at my house or the other party's.

Payment: Cash or paypal, never checks. I used PayPal for a large CL transaction recently and we both loved it. Allowed me to make a low risk deposit so the seller would hold the item until I was ready to come back and pick it up (and time for him to write up a bill of sale); afforded all the standard PayPal security and protections; allowed me to use my CC for a ton of airmiles; avoided the hassle and risk of large quantities of cash. I know PayPal takes a cut, but I feel it was well worth it and I'll use it as a seller next time I sell something big.

Haggling: When selling - It depends. If it is something that I would otherwise be donating at the next opportunity, I'll accept the first offer I get. I have unloaded several kids bikes over the years for $20 or $40 each, and donated the ones that didn't sell. Most things I put on CL fall in this category, so I don't set a really firm price. When buying: I consider the ask price before I even bother calling. If I think something is priced too high, I'll make them consider a reduced offer over the phone before I even come over to take a look. If it's appropriately priced for CL (i.e. 25-50% of what I think it would cost new) then I usually pay asking price. It depends, a lot, upon the circumstances. I've sold much more than I've bought on CL, and most of my sales were to de-clutter, so I don't drive a hard bargain.

As a seller I will not deliver something to a buyer, nor would I expect the reverse. Unless a cash/paypal deposit has already been made.

[Rotax]

I have started moving away from craigslist a little bit and using offerup.com more. The sellers usually have a profile picture so you can see who you're dealing with along with a list of the other items they are selling. The biggest thing is that they have a seller review or rating so you can see what other people's experience was with them. It just adds a level of accountability that helps make it a better transaction. Just my 2 cents.

[urover]

Boy, classifieds attract people of all kind, and sometimes the lowest common denominator of humanity. I moved to Canada this year and I had to sell tons of stuff last year on classifieds. Some items are in a huge demand and attract 100s of calls, often calls arrive as you are speaking to another buyer. Most of them are lowballers,very many are passing away time, and few ever make it to your house.

Long ago, I blogged about how easy it is to buy stuff and how hard it is to get rid of it: https://2frugal.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/buying-is-easy-try-selling-it/

[postvmvs]

I have sold many things on Craigslist. I always have them come to my house and I have the item that is for sale in the garage, so that they don't have to come into the house. There have been many flakes, so I would never bother going somewhere to meet someone. I have just come to accept that about half (give or take) of the people won't show, and don't bother worrying about it and otherwise go about my day. In general if an item is small enough to be easily shipped, I can get more for it on eBay. If it is big and bulky, Craigslist is the only way to go. I usually price things so they end with a 5. I am actually surprised how few people haggle with me. I am always willing to drop the 5 in the haggling process, as I have already priced the item 5$ more than I want, but won't go any lower (these are sub-100$ items). If they are interested enough to show up, they usually buy the item 9 times out of 10. If I don't think I can get at least 20$ for an item on Craigslist, it is not worth my time.

There is a blog about someone that makes their living buying and selling used appliances on Craigslist that MMM people might be interested in:
http://recraigslist.com/2012/08/how-i-earn-my-living-buying-and-selling-appliances-on-craigslist/

[accolay]

I agree with all of these post.

When I sell stuff, I don't include my phone number. I figure if someone really wants something it's harder to write an email then shooting off a random text. I'm diligent about policing my ad, something I wish other C-listers would work on.

After first contact, I just feel it out. Depends on the value of the item and basically how bad I want it gone.

[shelivesthedream]

One rule I have is that anyone who reschedules a pickup 24 hours in advance gets to reschedule. Between 24 hours and 1 hour in advance, depends how they do it and how I feel. If they call after the fact to apologise for not showing up and asking for another chance - tough, you flaked.

I give low-value items away on Freegle and have a "flake list". One woman keeps trying to request stuff I give away but her "friend" who was collecting on her behalf failed to show up to collect the first item, so NO.

Pet peeve when browsing ads is people giving a ridiculously large geographical area. I don't have a car so I need to know if I can walk or cycle there and it's a PITA to constantly message people and then find out it's an hour's drive away. There's a big community building five minutes from where I live, so I always say I live near there. I wish others would do the same.

[Erma]

I put small items in the parcel box part of our letter box. I usually give this stuff away for free so the people can pick it up when it's best for them. For bigger items people have to come by when I'm at home.

[misshathaway]

I do all the sales in my garage during the day before 6pm when there are still plenty of people around. I keep the door to the house from the garage locked and make sure I have every reasonable configuration of change on my person. Bathroom request? I give them directions to Starbucks, only a mile away. Cold, but safe.

This makes Craigslist transactions pretty easy, but I realize that most people don't have the luxury of a garage or being able to schedule during the day. Like other posters I get plenty of no-shows but since I'm home anyway it doesn't matter.

[ooeei]

Usually have them come to my place, or somewhere really close by.  Tell them to let me know when they leave their house/work so I know whether or not they're coming.  If it's a small item, they don't know which apartment I'm in because I meet them at the front office parking lot.  If it's a big item, maybe the parking lot near my apartment.  Something they want to test, it's only happened once but I brought him inside to look at it.  No big deal.

For free stuff, just put it in a location and post in the free section as "first come first serve", it'll likely be gone in less than an hour if it's worth anything, and you don't have to monitor the progress of it.  I posted an old shitty couch in the free section a few years ago and almost couldn't delete the ad because my phone was overloaded with texts/emails.  Someone was at my apartment 5 minutes after I posted it, he paid me $10 to help him carry it down to his truck.

[AM43]

Craigslist is great!!!! I've sold and purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff.
We have 2 vacation rental properties that are completely furnished from Craigslist with nice modern furniture.
We also list our properties there and get plenty of rental income.
I've sold everything from $20 item to $1000 item on there and mostly have positive experience.
Yes, there are some no shows and flakes, but majority of folks are decent.
When I set the date to meet, I always ask them to txt or email me couple hours ahead of time to confirm that they are still interested.
If I don't hear from them, I go about my business.
Works for me 100%. No time wasted.

[Debts_of_Despair]

No one comes to my house.  I also use a texting app and anonymous email. I never sell things that have a problem I don't disclose but I don't want some buyer seeking retribution for an item that didn't meet their expectations.  Once the deal is made they have no way of contacting me.

[aprilchem]

I think we must be lucky because we've sold at least 10 items on Craiglist this year and have never had a no-show.  We mostly list higher-price items (more than $100) for a fair price, and I never respond to anybody whose spelling and grammar aren't reasonable and who doesn't ask detailed questions.  Anyone who e-mails "Still available?" just gets deleted. 

Everything we've sold has been big (a kayak, a tandem bike, pedestals for a washer/dryer, a bike trailer, jogging stroller, etc.) so I have people come to our house only when my husband is home and I have the item in the garage, which is detached from our house and outside our fence.  Sometimes I'll put our two menacing-sounding dogs outside in the fence to bark their heads off, so that people know we have them (our dogs have already stopped one break-in attempt, so I think they're an effective deterrent).  And we accept cash only - no checks, money orders, or anything else.  So far it's worked well for us.

[BAMxi]

I have also never been stood up, but luckily we don't have a ton of extra stuff around, so i'm usually only selling things that are in my way and i just want gone. I also look at other postings for similar items to what I'm selling, and almost always am the lowest priced seller of the item. That usually results in several contacts and people wanting to meet up right away to get it before anyone else does. I'd say if you're getting stood up a lot, some people might have just found a better deal or decided it wasn't really worth the price you're asking. CL is tough to get a "good" price for things on, but relatively easy to get money for things that you'd otherwise just be throwing out/donating. I once sold an old beat up metal trash can on CL for $10 because I didn't have a way to haul it off to a dumpster in my car.

[kite]

We sell firewood on CL. 
Scammers and flakes are easy to spot.  Locally, we'll deliver for an additional fee.  But it doesn't lend itself to meeting at, say, the local police department's safe exchange point.  People answer the ad as requested and we arrange a time for them to come.  We won't wait just for them, it's at a time when we'd be home anyway.  It's firewood, so it's not a specific item for a person with their heart set on a 1974 vintage whatchamacallit who is getting paid next week to pay for it or needs it shipped to X location while he finishes his tour in Iraq, so would we please take this much  larger than asking price check to cover the inconvenience and wire the extra funds via gift card to so-and-so. 
Our deliveries tend to be repeat customers who either don't have a truck or are elderly/limited mobility and tend to be home when they say they will, or pay cash in advance. 

[xyzzy]

I try to price things to sell (so under priced), which doesn't maximize my value, but moves it quicker (hey, my time is money).

When I call them to setup the appt, I ask them to let me know if they change their mind and ask them to commit to showing up at the agreed upon time - since doing that, haven't had people flake out without notice (I think explicitly setting the expectation leads to better behavior).

[Debts_of_Despair]

We sell firewood on CL. 
But it doesn't lend itself to meeting at, say, the local police department's safe exchange point. 

Wow, is that actually a thing?

[MrsTuxedocat]

I have them pick-up at my home. I only give them address when I have their cell phone number. I try my best to ensure that someone else is home, if not I text my bestie and let her know that I have craiglist person picking up stuff and if you don't here from me in 15 minutes to call the police. I only send the message when someone is actually at my house. I also don't let them in we do the transaction on the steps.

[kite]

We sell firewood on CL. 
But it doesn't lend itself to meeting at, say, the local police department's safe exchange point. 

Wow, is that actually a thing?

http://www.npr.org/2015/03/27/395586863/police-departments-open-up-safe-lots-for-craigslist-transactions

Yes.  I learned of it when my town formally added one.  It was being used on an ad hoc basis, but they put up a sign and started advertising it.  Apparently they weren't the first. 

[Hotstreak]

I don't like people coming in my house.  So I put my items in the back of my car, and meet them there.  Has the added benefit of keeping the item with me at all times, so I can easily meet someone on my lunch or the way home from work.  If it sits in the car too long without a buyer I drop it off at the Goodwill.  Very easy!