It’s more the people on kijiji/FB Marketplace are the scummiest most entitled people you’ve ever met. You’d find a more wholesome group at the cantina on tatooine.
They don’t show up when agreed, they want free delivery, you get to the meet spot or they show up and they only have half the money you agreed upon as a shitty form of haggling.
I had one lady tried to get us to take a chair we drove to her house back because she changed her mind (she said she was disabled so we delivered it to her, I don’t think she was because she was just a piece of shit all around when we got there).
The only people who I’ve ever been happy to give stuff to are the ones who seem to be looking for free stuff, so now we just give stuff away. People show up, they’re excited, there’s no haggling, it’s great.
Interesting, cause I stopped giving things away for free or at least I don’t write it into the offer, cause in Germany it happend quite a lot that people didn’t show up, when I wanted to just give it away. I don’t know why, maybe if it’s free it’s not that important I guess? So I started to offer things for a few bucks but still I want some money (at least I write that I want money). When someone arrives and wants to pick something up I just tell them to just take it.
That way I get rid of so much more stuff and the people collecting stuff are always so happy as well.
I’m in the US, and this has been my technique too. I’ve found that listing things for free gets me people with a million questions and complications, but if I list something at a cheap price, the whole process is usually much smoother.
The only people who I’ve ever been happy to give stuff to are the ones who seem to be looking for free stuff, so now we just give stuff away.
I’ve had similar experiences. You ask for a price and then you get hagglers and lowballers tickling you with messages all day, asking a million questions, and then they vanish or ask for some totally unreasonable price when you were just hoping to offload something quickly for a lot less than what it would be worth brand new.
I once bought a bike from Target for about $100. It was a piece of shit, but at least it functioned. I rode it basically into the ground (broke the pedal right off off it) and I doubt I was going to be able to sell it for much considering the thing was $100 new, so I just offered it for free on Craigslist, mentioned it was not in good condition, and that I would hold it for whoever wanted it as long as they were on their way to get it. A lady responded within about 2 minutes, said she was one town over and driving to my place, and when she got there she offered to trade me a bottle of wine for it since she felt bad for just taking it for free (I didn’t ask for anything, but I accepted the trade). Genuinely the least stressful and most rewarding thing I’ve ever given away.
The best one I’ve ever given away was a couch listed as free to anyone who could get it out of the building. It was a third floor walkup, and the couch had like 3/4" clearance down the hallway.
This couple showed up ready to help and very excited about the couch. It was like 30C that day, we took the legs and removable parts off, and got to work the four of us, but it still took us an hour to get the thing down the stairs because it had to be lifted above the railing and carefully rotated each flight.
We were all sweaty so we shared some beer with them after they got it on their truck, and they were just super excited to be getting this good condition and very nice couch. They were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
I had a similar experience. I was giving away a wooden table top organizer free on CL. Some guy said he wanted it, so I put it outside by our front door and said he could just grab it once he got here. When he arrived, he took it, then hung a bag of goodies on our front door knob, shouted “thank you!” and left. When we checked it out, it was full of hand-made organic soaps, bracelets, and other random trinkets. He even wrote us a note and said thanks, he makes these things and sells them at farmers markets, and to have a good day. It was such an unexpected and cool thing to do, and so much more pleasant than trying to go through the gauntlet of selling that organizer for $20.
they show up and they only have half the money you agreed upon as a shitty form of haggling.
Someone did that to me and I was so mad I was going to just leave. Surprise, they had the extra money the whole time! Actual garbage people who do that. I’d rather throw the thing away than get hustled like that.
It’s not just the buyers. I’ve pretty well given up on buying tools on marketplace or Craigslist and am now just sticking to auctions and estate sales.
I recently tried to buy a joiner, asked the guy if it was still available and what a good time it was to swing by. I didn’t haggle, just told him I’d head over and pick it up. When I got there he told me someone had already purchased it and then he tried to sell me a sander.
It’s always people trying to screw people over, or people thinking they’re going to get 90% of the retail value for used equipment.
I’d say out of the 30 things I’ve sold, I’ve only ever had problems 3 times. 1 was a car, 1 was a specific and expensive vehicle part, and another was a phone.
They were an absolute nightmare to sell. So many people agree on price/time/location and just never show up. I refuse to deal with any account that is newer than 3 years and doesn’t have at least some content on it.
I had that issue with Craigslist, people would say they are coming to meet at a certain time then when I message them to confirm. They don’t want to anymore, I’ve had some good sales but all the low ballers and flakes is just annoying so I switched to ebay. It has the problem of having to ship things but getting those free flat rate boxes from usps made it much easier
I’ve heard all of the horror stories from these marketplaces. When I went to buy a mini fridge I had the cash literally in hand when I knocked on the door so they could see I wasn’t trying to mess around with that, took a quick glance to make sure the fridge was on and working and just handed the person the cash, picked ul the fridge and left with a thank you. Easy peasy for us both.
FB has been terrible in my experience. Craigslist is still ok if you can filter through the spam. I once contacted a seller on FB for an item that was 300 cash. We had set a time for pickup later that day and I went to the bank to get the cash. I messaged them when I was 10 minutes out and they told me not to come because they had already sold it. I totally understand selling it if I had not been communicating or had been ignoring their messages, but the last thing we had messaged each other was just a few hours prior while agreeing on a time. They didn’t even bother letting me know they had sold it. I would have just arrived at the place and they never would have shown. That, among a lot of other issues, and I won’t buy or sell on FB anymore.
It’s more the people on kijiji/FB Marketplace are the scummiest most entitled people you’ve ever met. You’d find a more wholesome group at the cantina on tatooine.
They don’t show up when agreed, they want free delivery, you get to the meet spot or they show up and they only have half the money you agreed upon as a shitty form of haggling.
I had one lady tried to get us to take a chair we drove to her house back because she changed her mind (she said she was disabled so we delivered it to her, I don’t think she was because she was just a piece of shit all around when we got there).
The only people who I’ve ever been happy to give stuff to are the ones who seem to be looking for free stuff, so now we just give stuff away. People show up, they’re excited, there’s no haggling, it’s great.
Interesting, cause I stopped giving things away for free or at least I don’t write it into the offer, cause in Germany it happend quite a lot that people didn’t show up, when I wanted to just give it away. I don’t know why, maybe if it’s free it’s not that important I guess? So I started to offer things for a few bucks but still I want some money (at least I write that I want money). When someone arrives and wants to pick something up I just tell them to just take it. That way I get rid of so much more stuff and the people collecting stuff are always so happy as well.
I’m in the US, and this has been my technique too. I’ve found that listing things for free gets me people with a million questions and complications, but if I list something at a cheap price, the whole process is usually much smoother.
Could be our local community on FB is the same as kijiji (canadian craigslist, which has always been quite popular).
I’ve had similar experiences. You ask for a price and then you get hagglers and lowballers tickling you with messages all day, asking a million questions, and then they vanish or ask for some totally unreasonable price when you were just hoping to offload something quickly for a lot less than what it would be worth brand new.
I once bought a bike from Target for about $100. It was a piece of shit, but at least it functioned. I rode it basically into the ground (broke the pedal right off off it) and I doubt I was going to be able to sell it for much considering the thing was $100 new, so I just offered it for free on Craigslist, mentioned it was not in good condition, and that I would hold it for whoever wanted it as long as they were on their way to get it. A lady responded within about 2 minutes, said she was one town over and driving to my place, and when she got there she offered to trade me a bottle of wine for it since she felt bad for just taking it for free (I didn’t ask for anything, but I accepted the trade). Genuinely the least stressful and most rewarding thing I’ve ever given away.
The best one I’ve ever given away was a couch listed as free to anyone who could get it out of the building. It was a third floor walkup, and the couch had like 3/4" clearance down the hallway.
This couple showed up ready to help and very excited about the couch. It was like 30C that day, we took the legs and removable parts off, and got to work the four of us, but it still took us an hour to get the thing down the stairs because it had to be lifted above the railing and carefully rotated each flight.
We were all sweaty so we shared some beer with them after they got it on their truck, and they were just super excited to be getting this good condition and very nice couch. They were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
Pivot! PIVOT!
Sorry, I had to.
We started with that joke, but it got too real.
Yep. Turned down one rental many years ago due to too many flights of stairs and no lift - and being too poor to hire movers.
I got a good, thankful laugh when I watched the episode a couple of years back.
I had a similar experience. I was giving away a wooden table top organizer free on CL. Some guy said he wanted it, so I put it outside by our front door and said he could just grab it once he got here. When he arrived, he took it, then hung a bag of goodies on our front door knob, shouted “thank you!” and left. When we checked it out, it was full of hand-made organic soaps, bracelets, and other random trinkets. He even wrote us a note and said thanks, he makes these things and sells them at farmers markets, and to have a good day. It was such an unexpected and cool thing to do, and so much more pleasant than trying to go through the gauntlet of selling that organizer for $20.
Someone did that to me and I was so mad I was going to just leave. Surprise, they had the extra money the whole time! Actual garbage people who do that. I’d rather throw the thing away than get hustled like that.
I would still leave, fuck that.
If it was a 9$ blender I’d smash it to pieces in front of them before leaving.
It’s not just the buyers. I’ve pretty well given up on buying tools on marketplace or Craigslist and am now just sticking to auctions and estate sales.
I recently tried to buy a joiner, asked the guy if it was still available and what a good time it was to swing by. I didn’t haggle, just told him I’d head over and pick it up. When I got there he told me someone had already purchased it and then he tried to sell me a sander.
It’s always people trying to screw people over, or people thinking they’re going to get 90% of the retail value for used equipment.
Sounds like someone I would not want to buy a jointer from.
Huh, I’ve had nothing but good experiences buying from Facebook Marketplace
I’d say out of the 30 things I’ve sold, I’ve only ever had problems 3 times. 1 was a car, 1 was a specific and expensive vehicle part, and another was a phone.
They were an absolute nightmare to sell. So many people agree on price/time/location and just never show up. I refuse to deal with any account that is newer than 3 years and doesn’t have at least some content on it.
It’s just not worth the hassle.
I had that issue with Craigslist, people would say they are coming to meet at a certain time then when I message them to confirm. They don’t want to anymore, I’ve had some good sales but all the low ballers and flakes is just annoying so I switched to ebay. It has the problem of having to ship things but getting those free flat rate boxes from usps made it much easier
I’ve heard all of the horror stories from these marketplaces. When I went to buy a mini fridge I had the cash literally in hand when I knocked on the door so they could see I wasn’t trying to mess around with that, took a quick glance to make sure the fridge was on and working and just handed the person the cash, picked ul the fridge and left with a thank you. Easy peasy for us both.
FB has been terrible in my experience. Craigslist is still ok if you can filter through the spam. I once contacted a seller on FB for an item that was 300 cash. We had set a time for pickup later that day and I went to the bank to get the cash. I messaged them when I was 10 minutes out and they told me not to come because they had already sold it. I totally understand selling it if I had not been communicating or had been ignoring their messages, but the last thing we had messaged each other was just a few hours prior while agreeing on a time. They didn’t even bother letting me know they had sold it. I would have just arrived at the place and they never would have shown. That, among a lot of other issues, and I won’t buy or sell on FB anymore.
That’s only fair when you say it’s first come first serve, or give warning before the buyer leaves that someone else might be coming.
Yea, understandable in both of those scenarios, but neither was the case at the time.
I just put stuff by the street with a $20 sign on it. Someone will come and “steal” it in a few hours.