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Buy/Sell stories

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by p00g0blin, Dec 15, 2010.

  1. p00g0blin

    p00g0blin
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    Let's hear some stories on buying & selling shit online or through craigslist.

    Here's an awesome one (taken from Reddit.com)
    First of all, I am not claiming to have invented this trick. I imagine others have used it with varying degrees of success. I also want to point out that nothing here is embellished or exaggerated.

    I had tickets to a sporting event and couldn't attend. I made a 1-day listing and clearly stated that the tickets must be picked up in person within 24 hours (the game was the evening after the auction ended, so there wasn't any time to ship the tickets). A woman won the auction for about $600. The auction had ended at 10:00am and by 5:00pm she still hadn't responded to my emails trying to organize the exchange. Finally, at 9:30pm, I got a one-liner email: "I overbid and my husband won't let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! :)"

    I first tried explaining that I wouldn't have the time to resell the tickets (I already got turned down by the losing bidders). She said, "... that's not my problem. It's eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want." I still don't understand the car dealership reference.

    I was pretty upset. I was basically going to be stuck with tickets to an event that I couldn't attend. That's when I got the idea to convince her to change her mind.

    I created a new eBay account, "Payback" we'll call it, and sent her a message: "Hi there, I noticed you won an auction for 4 [sporting event] tickets. I meant to bid on these but couldn't get to a computer. I wanted to take my son and dad and would be willing to give you $1,000 for the tickets. I imagine that you've already made plans to attend, but I figured it was worth a shot."

    At 11:30pm she responded to Payback: "I'll do it for $1,100, no less. I can meet you at the game if you agree. I need your phone number."

    At 11:35pm, Payback wrote: "Deal. Here is my number..." (Thanks Google Voice for the throwaway number). She called a few minutes later and made Payback "promise" to go through with the deal. She emphasized that she'd be out a lot of money if Payback backed out. Payback swore he would never do such a thing.

    At 11:45pm, the woman emailed me: "Fine. I'll buy them. But you have to drop them off at my house tonight. I'll have the cash ready." So at fucking midnight I drove to her house across town and met her on the road in front of her apartment building. She was a nasty and rude individual. Things didn't get any better when I told her I wanted an extra $20 for the trouble of driving there at midnight (yeah, pushing my luck, I know). It became very awkward and she literally threw 31 $20 bills at me. I counted them before handing over the tickets. I said, "thanks for the great transaction" as she flipped me off while walking away.

    At 10:00am she called Payback to make sure they were still on for the exchange. Payback said that he could no longer go to the game and wouldn't be able to do the exchange. She blew her fucking top and I swear to god started speaking in tongues. Payback said, "Ma'am, this is eBay, not a car dealership" and hung up.

    I got a rabid email 10 minutes later telling me that I was going to hell and that she's reported me to the local police, FBI, and... the fire department. WTF?

    I never heard another word from her. I have no idea if she went to the game or not.

    Was this wrong?

    EDIT: The Rabid Email

    "Fuxking funny fucker! You know you can go to JAIL for this. YOu theef!!!!! [City] cops FBI fire and government already no. Your done. I got your number and your name. This is thefting property FUCKER!!! Give my $620 back or everything bad wiil happen - FUCK!!!!! You cant steal and get away. Refund me now or else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You dpnt want a lawsuit. Trust me. u dont. You can have tickets jut give my my money and be done."

    That's the bulk of the email, word for word. There was more at the end too. She must have pressed 'enter' 30 times and wrote "FUCK" and the another 30 times and wrote "HELL". Then she wrote her name which was strange.

    I've never had any serious hiccups selling online, ie. eBay. Although the shipping aspect of it can be a fat bitch, if you don't know what you're doing. That's of course, the sellers fault... but i'm talking more about disputes. I've had my fair share of hate mails come my way about how much i'm asking for a certain item. For example earlier this year I decided to sell my Sony Vaio laptop on eBay and 4 days into the auction some fag emailed me and said I was asking WAY too much for the laptop, that I should be ashamed of myself, and that i'll never get what I'm asking for it - right after low balling me. This only continued after I responded, "You're an idiot. Thanks though."

    This dude was asking for me to pretty much give it to him +cash. I ended up selling it for $10 less than the "buy-it-now" price, and right after I proceeded to email the hater back saying how much I sold it for and how big of an incompetent dipfuck he/she was. Hopefully made them cry.

    Same goes for craigslist. Never any mishaps other than hate mail. Within a day or two I usually end up selling whatever for a decent asking price right after I get someone who thinks I'm the biggest scammer in the entire galaxy. One day I should agree to the lowballer/hater price, schedule a meet-up, arrive with the item in-hand, round-house kick them in the face, tell em how gay they are, and leave. They wouldn't expect that at all.

    Focus: Let's hear seller/buyer mishaps that's happened to you or someone you know.

    Alt Focus: Your opinion on the Reddit eBay awesome scam story?
     
  2. DrFrylock

    DrFrylock
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    I've had pretty good experiences buying on eBay and craigslist (before craiglist went to utter shit and was overrun by spammer barbarian hordes a few years ago). Admittedly the craigslist transactions were the most...interesting. I have gone to some sketchy parts of town to pick stuff up, but most people are nice and friendly and everything goes fine. I once bought a guitar pedal from a musician. Since he was a musician, he was never home during regular hours. So he was like "come down to my house in (sketchy part of town) anytime after 10PM and you can pick it up." I went down, his girlfriend let me in, he showed up a little later, they let me test out the pedal, and everything went fine.

    Another time I was apartment hunting and looking for deals. In the place I was living, all the corporately-owned apartments were owned by a single company, who price-fixed rates throughout the area. There were deals to be had, but you had to keep an eye out and jump on them. I had my (now-ex) girlfriend and her friend over and we were going to look at a place in the evening when the owners backed out at the last minute and I was left with nothing to do.

    I do a quick scan on craigslist to see if anything new has been posted, and there's a huge place in the right area, privately owned, with washer/dryer in the unit and all the trimmings, going for a few hundred dollars under market rate. Motivated tenant - she was moving out to get a new job and had to get someone in fast. I was ready to move. I emailed and got a response quickly - despite sending my email less than 20 minutes after the ad was posted, I was the second inquiry already. I offered to come out on the spot and check the place out. By now it was getting late. We get out there and it's like 8:30 or 9:00 and pretty dark. The chick who is the current tenant is on the phone with her boyfriend until we show our faces. She blurts out: "it's OK honey, he brought girls!" I guess if it were just me and some guy friends, we were probably a roving rapist contingent that trolled craigslist looking for vulnerable women renting apartments. After some paperwork I ended up renting her place and stayed there happily for a few years.

    A roommate of mine had bought a very cheap bass and "new" (but way too cheap) bass amp on eBay. When he got the amp it was DOA. He was pretty bummed about this. We tried everything to fix it or see if we were doing something wrong, but it was messed up. We went to sleep and when I got up in the morning I heard "BRMMM BRRMMM BRMMM." I couldn't figure out where he had gotten an amp at 2AM or whatever. During the night, he had disassembled the amp, resoldered everything, and put it all back together. Turns out when you're an electrical engineer you pick up some useful skills in this area. The amp worked great, and apparently had some vintage op-amp chips in there that were fairly valuable.
     
  3. Kubla Kahn

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    I camped out for Reds opening day tickets a few years back. I sold three of them through ebay and since I had never used it before just requested in person pick up/delivery so I wouldnt fuck up something while using Fedex or UPS. The only scary one I delivered to a guy that had a mechanical tools workshop in Over the Rhine, the murderiest place south of Detroit. I stuffed the money in my sock before I left the building. Otherwise I made my money back and then some plus the game was fucking amazing.

    I sold a old school rear projection tv last year on Craigslist. Turns out you'll be bullshited until Super Bowl weekend and then get dozens of calls. Since I had relisted it for months until that point I just took the first offer to come in. Little did I know that if I had waited a day or two I could have had a semi bidding war and gotten an extra hundred bucks or so.

    Focus
    - My roommate that got hooked with the electric bill from the Domicile thread got scammed pretty bad off ebay. He came into about 20k after winning a settlement after an auto accident he was a passenger in. He got a new car, not related to the accident, and then went on a spending spree of clothes and bullshit for his girlfriend (stupidest thing the kid ever did with his money in my opinion).

    One day he shows me a ATV he bid on. It was a too good to be true deal. Nice ATV with thousands in mods, needs to go fast and cheap since the owner was moving to Europe. I told him it sounded too good to be true and to be careful. He brushed me off. Later he mentioned that he had in fact been duped for 2 or 3 thousand (down from what he had bid on) and that he was trying to contact the authorities. He only mentioned this once and never brought it up again. I asked him a couple of times be he'd just say it was dealt with and that his parents had taken what was left of his settlement money from him to pay for his schooling.

    My friends and I have a theory that his mom, who had worked for a real estate firm, had the electric bill quashed or reduced through legal avenues and that they bit the bullet on the ATV deal. The kid was just not ready to handle that type of money.
     
  4. Binary

    Binary
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    I sold my car on Craigslist and was more than a little blown away at the sheer number of people who will throw out stupid offers. The car was in great shape, was priced for a quick and hassle-free sale (way under KBB), and I was very thorough with pictures and descriptions.

    The single most common offer was half what I was asking. Really? HALF? I was pretty bi-polar in responding to those offers. A few people got, "go fuck yourself," a few got, "no thanks," but none of them got a counter offer.

    I also had some guy ask me to speak with his mechanic, whereupon he handed me the phone and the mechanic proceeded to tell me a series of lies with random car part names inserted in randomly (yeah, sir, I think your, ahem, intake manifold is cracked and is allowing, err, oil to drip on your fuel injectors which is causing the pistons to misfire), and attempted to browbeat me into selling it for even less than half of what I was asking.

    Such a hassle. The funny part was the end result was a very nice guy and his wife, calling, saying they had cash in hand and wanted to look, taking a test drive and checking it out, and buying it on the spot. If only that had been the first person to look.
     
  5. Juice

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    When I was in high school, in the wee years of eBay, my friends and I used to go to the local landfill and find small motors that had been recently junked. We would fix them up to a decent working condition and sell them on eBay and made a pretty good amount of money. There is such an insane amount of stuff lying around in dumps that people are willing to pay money for.

    One of my other friends who was really into Everquest used to sell his account on eBay (back when you could still do that I guess) and change the password after the payment went through and claimed he had no idea why the person couldnt log in. Im pretty sure you cant do that kind of stuff anymore, but I always thought that stuff was pretty shitty to do, especially when someone is spending hundreds of dollars and not being a pain in the ass.

    However the lady in the story from Reddit is fair game though.
     
  6. Dread

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    2 or 3 years ago, I bought a DVD for my brother via eBay for Christmas. The DVD was hard to find at the time and he made it clear that he'd settle for a used copy. I found one, told the seller that it was supposed to be a gift, confirmed that it was in great condition and bought it. All was well.

    When it arrived 2 weeks or so later, it was immediately clear that the seller had... Let's say... Misrepresented the item's condition. The case's spine was damaged and being held together with tape. The first of the 2 discs was scratched badly. The booklet or insert or whatever was bent and covered in fingerprints. I wasn't about to give this as a gift. Hell... I wouldn't OWN something that looked like that. I e-mailed the seller and politely requested that she let me return the DVD. She immediately shot back with a rude response and refused. She was adamant that the DVD was in excellent condition. I replied, explained exactly WHY the DVD was in horrible condition and demanded that she let me return it. I was still being polite, though. She said yes this time. I packaged it, mailed it and she issued a refund. While this was going on, I left her negative feedback. As far as I was concerned, it was perfectly justified.

    The woman absolutely lost her goddamn mind. This was apparently the first piece of negative feedback that she'd ever received. She e-mailed me through eBay and let the insults fly. I was hostile and heartless. I'd voted for Bush. I had no soul and I was going to go to Hell. It was ridiculous. I replied, politely told her that these insults were not going to solve anything and asked that she not contact me again because the transaction was completed. But she did contact me again. Daily. Just to point out how horrible I was and throw a few more religious insults my way. I ignored her.

    After about a week of that, she stopped. After a few days of silence, I received a request to edit the negative feedback that I'd given her. I chuckled and ignored it. She e-mailed me the next day. She apologized for overreacting and asked if I'd received the feedback revision request. I told her that I did and I explained exactly why the feedback would not be revised. She, of course, lost it again and went right back to the profane insults. It was just funny at this point. I wish that I'd saved her messages.

    She kept at me for another week or so and I just ignored her until she eventually stopped. Guess she got tired of me.
     
  7. p00g0blin

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    It's the barn burner. Throwing that bullshit right back in her face. I would have done the same thing.

    Redemption > Possible future headaches. And any further phone call/voicemail/email would just add points to the grand scam.

    I'd probably let her know what I bought with the money too.
     
  8. jrussellmikkelsen

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    Soooooooooooo, I know this is a total plug but if you had a blog called "Snow Plows and Hilarity: Chronicles of My Snow Plow Joy Rides" and someone created a TiB thread with a focus of "Share your hilarious snow plow joy ride stories," wouldn't you feel obligated to plug your blog?

    In my free time I find over-priced, bizarre, or ridiculous ads on craigslist and either give them a reasonable offer or mess with them or both. Then I post the results on my website. My brand of comedy is a bit more innocent than TiB's but here's my only crazy ranter email exchange:

    I used the pseudonym Joanna Taus.

    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Sherry


    You'd be a real life-saver if you still have those crutches. I could really use a pair. I'm going to needing them any day now, so the sooner you can get them to me, the better. Please say you haven't sold them already!

    From: Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    hello
    i had a couple inquiries but 1st come, i still have them call me if u would like them, (***)***-**** Sherry thnx

    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Anti-Disability Sherry


    First come? Does that mean, whoever gets to your house first gets them? Because that'll be a little difficult for me when my legs are broken. It doesn't seem fair to make a race for crutches when the whole reason anyone needs crutches is because they can't walk in the first place! Take your business elsewhere, I don't need your anti-disability attitude or your complete mockery of our conditions!


    From: Hurt Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    i said first come, didnt mean to have u run a marathon, i said call me, no one else has called on them just emails, and i didnt even know yer legs are broken, cant see you...sorry, i have a disability too so u have no right to come down on me like you did...that was uncalled for and rude...have a good day

    From: Crazy Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    hope u got my email, least yer legs will heal, my disability will never heal! yer an ignorant idiot!! get yer facts straight before u bitch at someone u dont know!!

    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Crazy Sherry


    I'm not the one forcing injured patients to race for the right to a lousy pair of crutches.

    From: Cruel and Unusual Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    yer insane and need some help, i didnt say fuckin run to my house, i said who ever calls me ...guess yer fingers are broken too!

    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Rubs It In Sherry


    Most of my fingers ARE broken, thank you very much. The only way I can write is by gluing and taping a pointing stick to my arm. So, it takes me about 45 minutes to write one email. So, thank you for wasting my time all day, every day. And I'm not the one screaming and cursing at super nice strangers I've never even met before. Maybe you should taste some of your own medicine before you try to sell some over-priced crutches and then take it back because you enjoy mocking innocent crippled people like me!

    From: Cripple-Mocker Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    excuse me, yer not super nice, u came off as a bitch right off...and ya u r the one who came off screamin and bitchin at a stranger...and im not mockin, yer just a bitch, what u do get in an accident cause u were drunk?? i dont doubt it...enjoy yer miserable pathetic life and dont email me again or ill turn u in for stalking , good bye and gooodluck!!


    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Alcoholic's Daughter, Sherry


    excuse ME but me and my drinking is nobodies business but my own, and my drinking buddy's, and my sponsor's, and my boyfriend's (because it was his car), and my neighbor's (because it was their tree), but not yours. You don't even know me. I am super duper nice. I was gonna offer you $60 for the crutches because they looked like such great quality in the picture, but now you won't get ANYthing!

    You reep what you sow. And you just sowed bitterness and depression.

    From: Bitter and Depressed Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    umm there was NO picture for the crutches,,,and i wouldnt take yer money anyways! go to AA meetings, u need IT! figures..and if u have a sponsor ,. let them know what a rude bitch u are to some stranger ...seek yer higher authority! GOD!!! ........and ya the crutches are brand NEW never used ...and u started this so, u reep what u sow!! no wonder yer all fucked up! LOL

    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Good Christian Girl Sherry


    I meant the picture in my head! I knew there was no picture in your ad. And I bet you'd take my money if I offered you $100 in cash, huh? What d'you got to say for yourself now?

    I'll have you know that I just so happened to meet with my sponsor this morning and let him know everything you told me to and he said that as long as I wasn't drinking, I'm on the right direction. And I've barely had a drink all day, so in your face!

    And then I talked to god about it and he said to tell you to stop stalking me and to give me the crutches for free to earn forgiveness, which I already earned for myself by offering you over double what you asked.

    Here's my address, you can send it any time:
    *** NW Florida Ave
    Bend 977**

    Also, he said you should stop stalking me.

    -Jo

    From: Stalker Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    Dear jO

    excuse me but i told YOU to stop emailin me!! You are the one stalkin me and i wouldnt take yer money anyways, And get yer story straight if yer gonna tell someone else...you came off on me! i have the emails to prove it!! U take these emails and SHOW yer SPONSOR! they will see how u over reacted!!

    and barely had a drink? does that mean u had a little? lol and i dont owe u No forgiveness u are the rude one who got on my azz for nothin!! im waitin for you to apologize!! AND 1st one 1st come, everyone puts that on their ad, didnt mean nothin had NO idea u had broken legs hun, but u return my email and flew off the handle, oh well, pray to god if that helps you, good luck in yer recovery!! maybe ill even pray for YOU!

    goodbye

    From: Joanna Taus
    To: Repentant Sherry


    THANK YOU, HONEY.

    So sweet of you to wish me a speedy recovery. I'm really glad that you're going to pray for me to be healed and walk again. And I knew my money would be no good to you. I knew you'd come around. That was really big of you. So, just go ahead and send the crutches to the address I gave. Or just drop them off yourself. I'll be waiting.

    THanks so much! And again thanks for all the kind thoughts.

    See you soon,
    Jo

    From: My Friend, Sherry
    To: Joanna Taus


    yer a fool....welll.. u just keepin prayin and waitin LOL maybe God mail them to You!




    She wore me out. This was as far as I could take it. I had nothing left in me. I guess she got the better of me after all.
     
  9. jrussellmikkelsen

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    HAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

    Or you could've finished with: "PS. I'm better than you."
     
  10. Samr

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    Not to derail the thread, but, uh, you haven't "become so quiet around here lately."

    You've just told people you have been.
     
  11. Dread

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    Via rep regarding my post from yesterday:

    She purposely lied to me about the condition of the item and was then rude and belligerent when I politely brought it to her attention.

    But I fully understand your point. I didn't realize that I left out a key piece of the story. She only issued a refund after I opened a PayPal dispute. She had every intention of screwing me and leaving it at that.
     
  12. Sherwood

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    You know... fuck that stupid etiquette that says you shouldn't give someone bad reviews unless they screw you completely. This woman misrepresented the condition of the item, that makes her a BAD seller. Neutral should only be used if the person was a little nasty but the transaction went fine, or if they shipped it later than they claimed.
     
  13. Degenerate

    Degenerate
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    I can see a high school kid doing this for shits and giggles, but judging by your Johnny Depp shots I'd say you're in your mid twenties?

    Grow the fuck up.
     
  14. Bjornturoc

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    Everyone still thinks you're a brush-fucking faggot. Even Toytoy88 is better than you, and the guy eats pieces of Possum he picks out of the grill of his hick-up truck.

    FOCUS: I know people that have been ripped off by Nigerian Royalty. I know those kinds of people. The educational system has failed America.
     
  15. JWags

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    I knew kids in HS who would buy and sell shit on Ebay like nobody's business and make a killing. And one of my roommates in college used to hustle all sorts of electronics on craigslist. He would have a different cellphone or laptop every semester it seemed like.

    I only have two notable experiences. One on Ebay, one on craigslist.

    Summer of 2007, I was in NYC for an internship and MTV was filming Paramore for one of their MTV Live segments at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. I got a presale code from a concert messageboard I used to read, so I was able to easily get tickets beforehand. I was going to the show solo, but on a hunch, bought 5 tickets cause I figured it would sell out quick and it was a smaller venue. I sold the other 4 in sets of 2 on Ebay. I set up the auction and literally, within 24 hours of starting it, I was getting insane "Buy It Now" offers. I paid $15 each, so about $100 total with charges and everything for 5. Well I sold 2 for $100 each and even more insane, 2 days later, sold the other 2 for $110 each. It made me want to start my own little cottage business of buying a bunch of tickets for events I knew would sell out, but after barely making my money back on a concert or two later that summer, I chalked it up to a fortunate first experience and let it be.

    The other time was this past spring. There was an all day bar drinking special the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day that you needed to buy tickets in advance for. Well, needless to say it sold out and a week prior, something came up and I was going to be out of town. So I put my ticket up on Craigslist. I think the ticket was originally $40, but most people were selling for anywhere from $75-100. So I just put up that it was negotiable, but only serious inquiries. The responses I got were either ridiculously bad (I'll can only pay $30, but I really wanna go!) or straight up aggressive (I had multiple telling me I should just give away the ticket or to, as my favorite read, "Get fucked buddy"). I didn't buy the ticket to profit but if you either were too lazy or slow to buy a ticket ahead of time, dont expect me to just give it to you for cheaper than everyone else paid. People amaze me with their sense of entitlement sometimes.
     
  16. JohnQ

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    A while back I made a deal with someone advertising some rocker arms for a hemi. This was before paypal and you generally sent someone a check. I spoke with them on the phone, and promptly sent a check/money order/cashiers check or something along the lines of $600.

    Of course they never arrived, my emails were never returned, and my phone calls weren't answered. I got lucky though. After speaking with the police, I was referred to the local FBI offices who then referred me to an agent in a different state. He informed me that they were already investigating the case and that the people sold everything from premium car parts to boat and airplane parts. The checks all went to some little old woman that had no idea what was going on and had just been hired by them. The FBI had my check and was going to use it as evidence I believe.

    The pain in the ass part of it though was that it was printed on the check that it was no longer valid if not cashed within something like a month or two. After this time period I got in a fun pissing match with my bank about releasing the funds. They acknowledged that it stated that but was still a guarantee of funds, so they couldn't do it. I eventually got the Special Agent handling the case to contact them and release my cash. So, I at least didn't lose any money and just wasted a lot of time to learn a good lesson.