I'm downsizing and have placed quite a few ads on Craigslist lately. With each ad I specify in bold letters, NO E-MAILS NO TEXTS PHONE CALLS ONLY and explain why. So, sometimes, within minutes of posting the ad what do I get? E-mails.

What's with that? Are people afraid to actually talk on a phone? E-mails and texts require the entry of more keystrokes than an 11-digit phone number.

Most are probably scams.

Are you biased against the hard of hearing or deaf?

I doubt that.

But for ANY item being bought or sold, having the messages in an email protect the buyer AND the seller.

For the same reason that the younger generation constantly text rather than talk on the phone....

Good luck using Craigslist. You might only get ripped off if you are lucky.

John, it doesn't matter what you put in the ad because people don't read, don't comprehend & don't care. Same goes for responding to an idiotic seller.

Here's a conversation I just had about a week ago.....

I’m trying to find a new aluminum gutter for the front of the house and having a tough time locating a supplier that isn’t too far away. There were few photos from the posted ad on Facebook marketplace. All it says is Beacon, NY which is close to me so I send a message asking about purchasing one gutter.

Me: “Hi there, I saw your ad & wondering if you sell seamless gutters in specific lengths? I am in need of a 6" K gutter in Musket Brown that's 20 feet long with one set of left & right end caps, one outlet, two "A" elbows, & one leader pipe. I am in Newburgh, NY & can pick this up. Thanks, Bob.”

The mentally challenged seller: “Yes, are you interested?”

(Wanted to reply with sarcasm but I didn’t)

Me: “Do you have a showroom? Saturday Hours?”

The mentally challenged seller: “Yes”

(Holding back now!!)

Me: “What do I need to do to purchase? Can I get your address? Hours? Cash? Credit?”

The mentally challenged seller: “What do you need to buy?”

Me: “A casket, a tarp, duct tape and a sledge hammer.”

The mentally challenged seller: “I don't understand what you are wanting to buy.”

Me: “ I described what I wanted in the very first message and listed everything that I needed. What I don’t understand is how you can advertise something allegedly for sale, “gutters” and not once did you give me any useful information. No address, no way to contact you except for this useless facebook marketplace. We’re done here.”

The mentally challenged seller: “New Castle building supply White Plains”

Me: “White Plains is not anywhere near Beacon, NY as stated in your ad. Good luck selling your stuff.”

THIS/\ I hate talking on the phone because I can't hear well, plus I don't have to write stuff down when it's in an e-mail or text.

Craigslist is garbage now, and unfourtunatly, FB is heading the same way......

Over the past four months, I've been purging off stuff, selling almost exclusively on FB Marketplace and thru various local FB groups.

My ad shows the town I'm in a MINIMUM of three times. ..........................."where are you?"

My ad always stated 'door pickup only'. ....................................................."can you ship?", "how much to ship?" (C'mon now, am I going to ship a commercial-grade METAL desk that I'm selling for $25? )

My ad has multiple CLEAR pictures showing the item ................................."what color is it"? "is it brand new?" (obviously used) "what does this look like?"




Sorry, got lost there for a moment.........

With Craigslist, I NEVER put my number in the ad. I use their hidden email system for them to contact me, so I can weed out the serious responders from the spammers. THEN, I'll share my number if the person is serious.

I get people trying to text me when the ad says no texts. Most try that first, then e-mail, and only a few actually call on the phone. The people who have called are usually older and they actually show up and buy the item. The texters and e-mailers tend to be the ones who go back and forth with silly questions and then disappear. I try to be polite so as not to chase away a sale, but some of them can really get irritating.

The best is when the ad states the price, and they e-mail asking what the price is. Dude, it's right there in the ad.

Had one guy with a local big lawfirm as his e-mail address trying to get a new BBC full roller timing chain acting like he was a poor person and needed a good deal. I had it priced less than new, but he wanted it for $20.

I prefer emails to phone calls. Nearly every time someone responds by email to an ad (I do not post my phone number in my ads) and asks me to call them, I end up being on the phone for extended periods of time, anywhere from half an hour to as long as an hour and a half. If they just asked the pertinent questions about the item and that was it it wouldn't be a big deal. But I've had people go on and on about why they need the item, the car they are working on or even there life story regarding all the cars they've owned. I get tired of wasting my time on the phone. Got better things to do.

I have a bunch of stuff that I've been thinking about selling, but from past experience dealing with idiots I may just haul it off for trash.

Sometimes I do go thru my stuff and toss it out. Not worth the trouble some times. I prefer emails for the best contact method.

I once listed 3 tires for sale on Marketplace. I was very specific in the add that I had 3 tires for sale not 4. The Fourth was damaged and I replaced them all. I got lots of messages and %95 of them were asking if I had the fourth tire. Even the guy who bought them asked about the fourth tire when he handed me the money!

Dealing with the general public has become more and more challenging these last few years.

Is it because of the pandemic? Maybe but, at the end of the day, I honestly find people's "me" attitude is the problem.

Good luck,

Mike.

I feel your pain John. And as mentioned some are probably scams, but I don't think people bother to read ads closely. ADD or something. The whole process sucks now and some stuff I choose to give away instead of sell so that I don't have to deal with this kind of nonsense.

I messaged a guy on Facebook about some LS heads I wanted to buy to port and sell over the winter. He lived in pittsburgh and Johnny doesn’t go to pittsburgh. I asked him if he would meet me at pittsburgh mills mall and he said for 25.00 more he would gladly drive there. Transaction took 2 hours start to finish as I just picked them up. I always carry a pistol but I would still rather meet somewhere like this.

reminds me of a few response to want ads forr employees posted 5 or so years back.
I saw your ad. I might be interested but before going any further
What's the rate of pay ( clearly stated DOE)
Do you provide full health and dental insurance.
I prefer 5 day weeks with little to no overtime.
Are your lunch and break times paid?
What retirement plan do you offer?
if the answers are suitable I'll send you my resume 😳🙄💩💨

Myself, I don't have a cell phone OMG, Email and landline. Maybe soon I'll have the time to catch up but then i ask myself why? I'm not that important. Cell phones do have their place just not as a 1st means of communication IMO.
I have sold several things on both C/L and FBM with out any problems. Might have something to do with location There's always Swap meets as well. I hope to be unloading more excess tools, equipment some memorabilia before the weather changes if not, it'll have to wait until spring

Myself I believe it a generational thing brought on by parents that were to busy and provided everything wanted out of guilt. So they now feel ENTITLED

Whether it's CL or FB, it's crapshoot for sure. I think for the most part it's still supply/demand. I don't do FB. So I've had some woodworking tools and mopar parts on/off CL for over a year. Barely any interest. I just put a dump trailer on CL. Sold and money in my bank in less than 24 hrs.....

On FBMP I use the option of blocking people. Ill get a stupid ridiculous offer- so Ill block them. In the case of flippers bugging me when I had my A body Demon for sale this option was nice to have.

It's a crap shoot for sure. I had a 72 Cutlass Convert that I tried to sell at shows etc for a couple years. Plenty of talk and tire kicking but no serious interest. Finally decided to make it go away. Put it on FB(same price I was asking in person) and within hours I had multiple people that wanted the car. It left the next day for my price (in cash)!

TJP hits the nail on the head with the societal issue.
There have always been idiots, but it has spread like a virus.
CL & FBM seem to be the worst, but I've also had similar experiences on Racing Junk.
At this point, with plans to move, I'm leaning toward just taking stuff to the dump rather than post ads for it.

Been using it since it was created, not one negative experience. My most recent sale was a car that only lasted for 8 hours before being sold to a buyer that called as instructed, all others were ignored.

I’ve done well with Craigslist. Both buying and selling. On this board I’ve had some weird interactions. Most recently a guy selling a car where the numbers checking out are crucial to value, of course he was cutting no deal so it had to be verified. Twice was given bs about why he wouldn’t give me pics necessary to see if it was even worth pursuing. I’ve come to the conclusion that most people are perfectly content wandering aimlessly through life and are totally aloof when a serious person is right in front of them.

Must be different depending what area you're in?

As previously mentioned, I've been purging stuff for the last 4 months. I run my ads on both FB and CL trying to get a little more coverage and for those (like here) who despise FB. None of the items I sold were thru CL, NONE. The CL ads only brought scams and bogus replies. Sure, I had a few issues on FB, but nothing like CL. That being said though, I will continue posting on CL on the off chance it does generate a sale.


One thing I'm curious about with those here that sell on FB, do you sell just on the actual Marketplace? Or do you use specific groups depending on what you're selling? I have the best of luck using Market place in addition to specific groups.

Until someone steps up and creats a better free platform for selling stuff (car related or not) I'll just keep plugging away with FB and CL.

I belong to many facebook Mopar groups so when I write up an add I can pick around 20 groups that I want my ad and pictures on. Tap tap tap done. I’ve sold race cars, engines, heads, balanced assemblies you name it. Price it right and under 48 hours it’s gone.

I do the same

I remember when cell phones first came out and this was the case. To this day it's easier to tap the screen and talk rather than type on a miniature keyboard. But text's/email's do have some advantages, If the person is busy and cant answer the phone or it's late they can respond at their leisure.


I'm still waiting for this! I liked Offer up until i couldn't contact anybody. They implemented "tru you" where you need to give them your drivers license # and post the pic from it on their site. I told them FU and closed my account. I see them advising on TV but don't tell you about the license thing.

Personally I prefer email. I can read them at MY convenience as opposed to having the phone ring at inconvenient times. And if I miss the call and it goes to voicemail then I have to deal with someone mumbling incoherently or not speaking loud enough or into the mouthpiece. NOPE. I'll take emails thank you very much !

I ran a business for 30 years. Most of the time, when the phone rang, it was an interruption. To this day, every time I need to make a phone call, I think I'm going to interrupt someone. I hate making phone calls.

might have been interesting to put TWO polls on this,
1. Your communication preference
2. Your age group

Email for me.

1) there's a record of the conversation
2) people have to think a little bit before pressing "send".

I don't know. I can't tell you how many times I've hit "send" and a moment later thought "Oh crap, I probably shouldn't have done that."

Even when that someone solicits the phone call?

When I’m doing porting work for a customer texting if fine but I like to talk to the customer on the phone too. I tell them I’m available 9am to 9pm and if I miss you call you don’t have to leave a voicemail. Your number will be entered into my phone and I will call you but usually in under 30 minutes.

This is good advice.

I AGREE! I'm not anti social but I dread phone calls, such time wasters. An email or text is a hard copy I can refer to or reply to when it's convenient. Now a days it's hard to find the exact MOMENT when 2 people are doing NOTHING and can communicate on a phone like its 1950. Personally, I'm SUPER BUSY every single second. Plus a text or email you can share a contact or picture. You wouldnt believe how many call I get with long winded descriptions and I have to interrupt the caller and tell them to text me a picture.

These last few months, I've been averaging 8-10 spam calls every day. When there is no phone number for people to call for something I might list for sale, I can simply ignore any numbers I don't know. When I have something for sale with only a phone number as a contact point, I have to answer every call, and then the number of spam calls increase.

With the new phones, its pretty hard for this old man to set up a message to leave a message covering what they want to talk about, if they want to talk to me. Then, like the ads, no one seems to pay attention to the instructions.

Phone life was easier when all the phones were attached to a phone line. My phone would still be connected to a land line if the fools wouldn't have raised the minimum monthly phone bill to over $100 a month.

I HATE calling on ads if I don't have to because if it's with someone who's retired they want to give you their life story and talk at you for wayyyy longer than it takes to make a transaction. Texts are clear and to the point.

I have battled similar issues with a plethora of CL ads in the past few years.
I have a different view however.
I refuse to email, all I want is initially a text, and if that text asks me if item is still available, after clearly stating in the ad, "if it's listed its available", and stating "if you ask, I will ignore you" outright, and I still get dozens of asking if its available. All ignored of course.
If I am feeling snarky I might reply, "why, are you interested?"

Meaning if you contact me and ask, "can I come by and see it", or "how old is it", "does it fit,,,,,,?", my very first reply might be, "sorry I just sold it 3 minutes ago" or the answer to your question.

It's pretty obvious quickly if a buyer is sincerely interested by the quality of their questions.
I also only accept offers in person, and so far, anyone who has made the effort to visit and see an item, has left with it and often more, except one.
I don't like wasting my time or the buyers.
CL is the wild wild west.
Ebay is highway robbery.
Not sure about Moparts yet.

You know how many people complain about others talking on the cell phone while driving?

So when was the last time someone called you on your cell phone and then asked if you are driving?

You didn't give that guy my number by any chance, did you?

Why? You need gutters, too?

Their company has just the right insurance for your business.

They have a $250,000 grant for your business.

Your business is eligible for a cash refund from the government for staying open through Covid.

They have people with cash that want to buy your business from you.

Is this jcc? Can you hear me? Are you having a nice day? I'm sorry, we can only respond to a yes or no answer.

This is Visa, there may be a problem with your credit card, press 9 to talk to our service associate about your account.

Want me to hook you up?