geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: alaricljs on Fri, 09 March 2012, 10:35:18
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Anyone have pointers on how best to list things in CraigsList without getting screwed, mobbed, offered illicit services or other stuff I just don't need to deal with? I have no experience with CL and have a heavy item I don't want to deal with shipping, figured CL would be a reasonable way to deal with it.
Thanks :)
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The only advice I can give you is to not put any contact info in your listing.
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I would definitely put contact info. Its much easier and faster to deal with people on CL who put that info up.
Also any one contacting you asking to you to ship it anywhere for whatever price is automatically looking to scam you. So only sell it locally and for cash only
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Yeah, I've always avoid putting a phone number, but I'm starting to think it might be better than an emailable address, because you automatically get scammed and asked to "due to this out of state project, provide your paypal or bank account info to transfer the funds, and an agent/mover/shipper/etc will come to pick up the tv/bike/car/whatever article". Disgusting.
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Do NOT put your phone number in the original posting. There are people/bots that save your number and send you text msg spam. If someone wants a quick transaction via phone communication, then put in the post to email you for a phone number. You do not need to put your email either, there is a craigslist-generated email that will forward to your real email. Someone emailing you will not know your real email or phone number until you respond with your email or decide to give them your number. Even then, there are still tons of low-life dirt bags that live on craigslist to scam. For any legit people wanting to actually buy the stuff, you can expect some heavy low balling. You'll ask for $100 for a keyboard, they'll offer $40. There's also tons of flakers. I've had instances where everything was agreed, I gave out my address to come pick up the stuff, waited for hours and no one showed up. I give them a call and the response was "oh sorry, I don't want it anymore" :mad:
Just a heads up.
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Mmm fun. The good news is I can make email addresses til the cows come home and none of my phone numbers have texting enabled. I even have an extra number that I can change whenever I feel like it. But thanks for the advice :)
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Well I never give any info out and I only use the anonymous email that way your info is never out there.
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Mmm fun. The good news is I can make email addresses til the cows come home and none of my phone numbers have texting enabled. I even have an extra number that I can change whenever I feel like it. But thanks for the advice :)
Do you know if cellphone companies can block texting from advertisers? I'm tired of getting spammed AND paying for the incoming text message.
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VZW has configurable blocking of some form that of course costs money. Shutting off texting entirely doesn't cost anything so that's what I choose to do.
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I give my old stuff to Goodwill. Helps the special people.
I don't know if Goodwill could figure out what to do with a 15TB RAID array.
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I would definitely put contact info. Its much easier and faster to deal with people on CL who put that info up.
Also any one contacting you asking to you to ship it anywhere for whatever price is automatically looking to scam you. So only sell it locally and for cash only
NOT always true. But still take cautious. A general tip with CL is that if you ever plan on shipping stuff and you two agree to use PayPal for payment, make sure the buyer never-ever knows your PayPal email.
Oh, and avoid 99.9999% of Nigerians. =]
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How are you supposed to get paid through Paypal without giving your Paypal-email out?
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If you give them your PayPal email first, assuming you're dealing with a scammer, then the scammer will send a fake invoice link to you. Instead what you do is you get their PayPal email and through PayPal, you send them an invoice.
Well, yeah, eventually they'll know your PayPal email but you're the one sending the invoice so you know it's legit and not them to you.
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Okay, i see what you mean.