Ghost Buyers in our classifieds

[Alexx1401]

Here?

Sadly I have had that here. After they passed the law saying all gun sales had to go through an FFL I did have people try to skirt the law. I suspect they were probably not some enforcement arm try to catch me. Most likely just someone who hoped if they asked I would agree to just do the sale wrong. Of course told them not going to happen.

 

[Alexx1401]

I suppose if you sell enough, eventually the flakes will come out of the woodwork. I have had nothing but positive experiences buying and selling here but I sell very little.
Years ago, I had an aluminum jet sled I was trying to sell on craigslist. My price was very reasonable as I was boat poor at the time. The first guy that looked at it tried to low ball me right out of the gate. I told him the price was fair and he was the first to look at it so I was firm on price. He hem hawed around looking at the boat some more and finally offered 1k less than my price. I told him no. He then offers another 500 and I said ok and shook his hand.
I had a few personal items in boat so I was busy clearing them out as he walked around pointing out flaws he said he was just noticing and thought I should lower price. I hopped out of the boat with my stuff and dropped it on the ground and stood up and looked him right in the eye. I said "the deal is fair and has been struck, if you don't agree get the f off my property. He sheepishly produced a pile of cash and bought the boat. A year later he called back with some motor issue he thought should be my problem somehow and wanted money from me. I of course told him to pound sand. I have come to the conclusion that some people are just miserable sob's.

Several years ago was selling a little 125 scooter of Wife's. Several calls, said they wanted it, no show no call. One guy did show, Price was $800, he said he only brought $400. I told him sorry and walked back in my house left him standing there looking shocked. Guy who came buy next day showed up with cash, having taken the damn Bus down here from up northern part of next county. Looks paid full and asked if I could toss in a helmet as he was going to ride it home. I told him this really is not something you want to be on the freeway on and he said he had the trip planed without freeway. I gave him one of our helmets and a pair of gloves. Off he went. It must have been about a 2 hour ride on that little bike. He was happy though.

 

[Alexx1401]

Several years ago, I found an ad for an ATV I was interested in. I made arrangements to meet the guy a couple of hours away, halfway between our cities and brought a trailer with me. Quick test ride and brief inspection, short negotiation and we shake hands. I reach in my pocket and instantly get a mental image of an envelope with several thousand dollars in it, sitting not in my pocket, but on my coffee table at home. I called my bank and they directed me to a "sister branch" where I could make a withdrawal. Except that I ran them out of cash. So I go hit an ATM, max that out and toss in the couple hundred bucks I had in my wallet to just hit the sale price. I think I had maybe $20 left over. Our quick transaction turned into a couple of hours and the seller never even looked upset. That poor guy had the patience of Job.

Looks like he could see you were trying and were not trying to scam him.

 

[Alexx1401]

Where I have a problem with that is... whenever you are wasting another man's time and potentially interferring with their ability to sell their item/s... just to fish and satisfy your own curiosity.... that's pretty much a jerk move.

Making an offer, you are implying that if the seller meets your terms of purchase, then the seller is obligated to sell to you. That means that if another potentail buyer comes along the seller is obligated to put any "late comer" on hold pending completion of the transaction with you. If you're just "fishing" then ghost the seller, you're... at least... delaying... and at worst... possibly blowing up a potential sale to a serious buyer.

Let's be real. If you were a serious buyer, a seller agrees to your offer, then sold it out from under you (as others have pointed out as being flaky for a seller to do)... you would be a litte miffed. It works both ways, but for the seller, he has property and money invested into any deal... you don't.

YEP! Long ago I was selling some tires I changed out on a old Jeep. In ad I gave general location. Guy calls, said he wants them. He was in next county over said he is on the way. Short time later get text from another. Told him someone was on the way, if he said no I would text him. He sent me multiple texts saying he was in the area, had cash, trying to get me to give him the address. I told him the first guy was coming from a hell of a long ways away and I was not going to sell these without giving him the chance after that long a drive. After the 3d or 4th text I had no intention of offering them to the jerk even if the first guy did not want them. WTF is the matter with some people.

 

[CLT65]

Who's to say someone didn't send them a PM BEFORE you said "I'll take it." Not everyone posts in the ad itself.

True. A couple years ago I saw an ad for some reloading stuff at a great price, not too far from me. I messaged the guy right away and made a deal to pick it up.

He was fuming when I got there, not at me but at another member here who wanted it.

It seems that this other guy posted "I'll take it" after the deal was done, but before the seller had a chance to update the thread. He thought his "I'll take it" trumped everything, and was furious that it was "sold out from under him".

He got extremely nasty with the seller, multiple profanity-laced PMs before being blocked, then a bunch of angry posts on the thread. I posted on the thread that there is no "I'll take it" rule on this forum, and then he started sending me angry PMs, before I put him on ignore as well. Wow. And as I recall, from his posts I think he was law enforcement by profession.

 

[DLS]

Who's to say someone didn't send them a PM BEFORE you said "I'll take it." Not everyone posts in the ad itself.

The scenarios I'm speaking of are situations where I know, by the seller's own comments, that I was the first to say, "I'll take it". They stated I was first; we arranged a price and meeting time later that day or the next, and then the seller went ahead and sold it to someone else.

 

[Member 53328]

True. A couple years ago I saw an ad for some reloading stuff at a great price, not too far from me. I messaged the guy right away and made a deal to pick it up.

He was fuming when I got there, not at me but at another member here who wanted it.

It seems that this other guy posted "I'll take it" after the deal was done, but before the seller had a chance to update the thread. He thought his "I'll take it" trumped everything, and was furious that it was "sold out from under him".

He got extremely nasty with the seller, multiple profanity-laced PMs before being blocked, then a bunch of angry posts on the thread. I posted on the thread that there is no "I'll take it" rule on this forum, and then he started sending me angry PMs, before I put him on ignore as well. Wow. And as I recall, from his posts I think he was law enforcement by profession.

Some people have the emotional control of a toddler. Scary that they carry a gun.

 

[Hueco]

This drives me nutz too! Only about one-third of my transactions (both buying and selling) have had feedback left, while I ALWAYS show the curtesy of leaving feedback. It's a benefit to the site to have a vibrant feedback system and, in my opinion, shows respect to the other person.

There are a number of folks here with very high feedback numbers on themselves who never (or exceedingly rarely) return the favor. I say, "shame on you"!

One fellow in particular, a long-time member (with very high feedback benefiting him) with whom I've done a number of transactions could not be bothered. He ignores any communication other than what deals with getting what he wants. So now I show him the same level of respect, in that I don't bother with him. He has reached out several times trying to purchase from me and I just ignore the communication. I'd rather sell to someone else, even at a lower price, than to honor this type of behavior.

I mean, if we're going to open up comms on feedback..it'd be cool if more people would use the not so hidden feature:
(Go look at reviews you've left, if they don't say "Visit deal thread" you have been ignoring this awesome feature)

 

[Spitpatch]

Too many people don't even know what the hell they are selling.

For me at least...that's usually (as my Dad would've said), "DISNEYLAND!"

 

[Olderguy]

I think it was on here. A couple years ago , I saw an ad for a rifle and contacted the seller. I wanted to view it at and possibly purchase it at Extreme Products in Clackamas, OR, as the owner is former LEO, so I trust him. I advised the seller, as to the reason for wanting this FFL.The seller wanted to use his own FFL, so nothing came of it. A year or so later the same (I think seller) posted the same (I think ) rifle, as the room it was photographed in was the same, but the seller would never respond to my emails. Could be that it was sold or something else, although the ad was up for awhile.

 

[Flopsweat]

This drives me nutz too! Only about one-third of my transactions (both buying and selling) have had feedback left, while I ALWAYS show the curtesy of leaving feedback. It's a benefit to the site to have a vibrant feedback system and, in my opinion, shows respect to the other person.

There are a number of folks here with very high feedback numbers on themselves who never (or exceedingly rarely) return the favor. I say, "shame on you"!

One fellow in particular, a long-time member (with very high feedback benefiting him) with whom I've done a number of transactions could not be bothered. He ignores any communication other than what deals with getting what he wants. So now I show him the same level of respect, in that I don't bother with him. He has reached out several times trying to purchase from me and I just ignore the communication. I'd rather sell to someone else, even at a lower price, than to honor this type of behavior.

As someone with a lot of posts on this forum, I think of feedback like reactions to posts (like, haha, love, etc). If I don't get a reaction, no big deal. Keep doing good and the upvotes will come. I submit my posts/feedback ratio as evidence.

What?!? An up standing, contributing member like you hasn't done hardly any deals in all these years? Say it ain't so!

I don't sell a lot of guns and when I do, I usually find a buyer pretty quickly. I know a lot of gun people.

Several years ago was selling a little 125 scooter of Wife's. Several calls, said they wanted it, no show no call. One guy did show, Price was $800, he said he only brought $400. I told him sorry and walked back in my house left him standing there looking shocked. Guy who came buy next day showed up with cash, having taken the damn Bus down here from up northern part of next county. Looks paid full and asked if I could toss in a helmet as he was going to ride it home. I told him this really is not something you want to be on the freeway on and he said he had the trip planed without freeway. I gave him one of our helmets and a pair of gloves. Off he went. It must have been about a 2 hour ride on that little bike. He was happy though.

Years ago, a coworker, after a pretty horrible experience, lamented about how there were so many bad people in the world and how could God permit them to be. What purpose could they possibly serve? I suggested that they were there so we would know when we met a good person. I think you just illustrated that.

A few years before that, when I was not exactly well off, I was riding my motorcycle home. A few miles before my offramp, the bike began to stutter. I switched to the reserve and knew the bike well enough to know I would not make it home. I pulled into the only gas station I knew of between me and home. Reaching in my pocket, I confirmed what I already knew: I had less than a dollar in cash. The gas pumps started at $1 cash for pre-pay. I had no credit card with me. I'm not sure debit cards even existed then. The cashier didn't care to hear my situation. When I offered my helmet as collateral while I pumped my pathetic 45 cents worth of gas to get me home, he said he had no use for a helmet. Fortunately for me, another patron, after hearing us go around a few times, handed me a dollar bill. The cashier seemed somehow reluctant to accept it.

You seem to me like a person who would relate to the guy who gave me the dollar. I can't tell you how many times I've just automatically responded in a similar way since. That whole pay it forward thing seems to have something going for it.

 

[Knobgoblin]

I put forth the notion that " I'll take it" does not carry the weight of law . The only acceptable resolution to a challenge of " dibs" , or " firsties" should be the time honored tradition of RoShamBo.

 

[Knobgoblin]

 

[Alexx1401]

As someone with a lot of posts on this forum, I think of feedback like reactions to posts (like, haha, love, etc). If I don't get a reaction, no big deal. Keep doing good and the upvotes will come. I submit my posts/feedback ration as evidence.



I don't sell a lot of guns and when I do, I usually find a buyer pretty quickly. I know a lot of gun people.




Years ago, a coworker, after a pretty horrible experience, lamented about how there were so many bad people in the world and how could God permit them to be. What purpose could they possibly serve? I suggested that they were there so we would know when we met a good person. I think you just illustrated that.

A few years before that, when I was not exactly well off, I was riding my motorcycle home. A few miles before my offramp, the bike began to stutter. I switched to the reserve and knew the bike well enough to know I would not make it home. I pulled into the only gas station I knew of between me and home. Reaching in my pocket, I confirmed what I already knew: I had less than a dollar in cash. The gas pumps started at $1 cash for pre-pay. I had no credit card with me. I'm not sure debit cards even existed then. The cashier didn't care to hear my situation. When I offered my helmet as collateral while I pumped my pathetic 45 cents worth of gas to get me home, he said he had no use for a helmet. Fortunately for me, another patron, after hearing us go around a few times, handed me a dollar bill. The cashier seemed somehow reluctant to accept it.

You seem to me like a person who would relate to the guy who gave me the dollar. I can't tell you how many times I've just automatically responded in a similar way since. That whole pay it forward thing seems to have something going for it.

Had I been standing there and heard that I would have had no problem buying you enough gas to get you home. Decades back doing a job for an "old guy", he was probably my age now then. He told me of one day had a flat, gets out, spare is flat. As he is looking at how far a walk it would be to the nearest pay phone car pulls up. See's what is wrong. Tells him load the tires in here. Drives guy to town, waits while they are fixed, drives him back. Guy tries to pay him and he refuses and then said "you don't remember me do you?". Guy said no have we met? He said "I remember you". YEARS before he had picked up the same guy while he was in a bad spot and helped him out. Old guy said back then it was common for him and Wife to do that so he had no memory of this particular one but boy did that guy remember him. Different days back then. Damn shame they are so different now.

 

[CLT65]

I know it's getting a little off topic, but I have a story I remember reading about some years ago:

As I recall, it was written by a woman who had been driving through South Dakota on a lonely stretch of road when she had a flat. This was way back in the 1950's, so no cell phones. Apparently she didn't know how to change a flat, so she just waited (a long time) until someone finally came along.

A well dressed man came by and stopped, offered to lend a hand. She asked if he could stop at the nearest phone booth down the road and call her husband to come help her. He said he'd be glad to just change the tire so she could be on her way. He rolled up his sleeves and had it changed quickly.

She tried to pay him for his time, which he politely refused. "This one is compliments of the State of South Dakota, ma'am. I'm Joe Foss, the governor."

I think I read that story in the Rifleman about twenty years ago when he passed away. He was governor of S.D. back in the '50s, and much later president of the NRA. Too bad we couldn't have more like him in NRA leadership nowadays...

Another story is rather the opposite, one I heard a few years back. The story goes that this guy got a ride home from work with a buddy. His friend was telling him that his future in-laws were in town, and later that evening he would be meeting them for the first time.

About that time an older gent accidentally cut him off. His buddy had a temper, so out came the finger and the profanity, yelling out the window something to the effect of "Bubblegum stupid old man!" as the poor guy sheepishly drove away.

The next day he asks his buddy how it went with the future in-laws. His buddy dejectedly replied "The wedding's off".
"What happened?" he asked, "Didn't they like you?"
"Well... Remember that old guy who cut me off on the way home?"

 

[bivy53]

Many times.

 

[Krinkov]

Cost of doin biz

 

[arakboss]

 

[rdb241]

Cost of doin biz

Yep with your rating here you seem to be quite the salesperson yourself.

 

[Spitpatch]

I know it's getting a little off topic, but I have a story I remember reading about some years ago:

As I recall, it was written by a woman who had been driving through South Dakota on a lonely stretch of road when she had a flat. This was way back in the 1950's, so no cell phones. Apparently she didn't know how to change a flat, so she just waited (a long time) until someone finally came along.

A well dressed man came by and stopped, offered to lend a hand. She asked if he could stop at the nearest phone booth down the road and call her husband to come help her. He said he'd be glad to just change the tire so she could be on her way. He rolled up his sleeves and had it changed quickly.

She tried to pay him for his time, which he politely refused. "This one is compliments of the State of South Dakota, ma'am. I'm Joe Foss, the governor."

I think I read that story in the Rifleman about twenty years ago when he passed away. He was governor of S.D. back in the '50s, and much later president of the NRA. Too bad we couldn't have more like him in NRA leadership nowadays...

Another story is rather the opposite, one I heard a few years back. The story goes that this guy got a ride home from work with a buddy. His friend was telling him that his future in-laws were in town, and later that evening he would be meeting them for the first time.

About that time an older gent accidentally cut him off. His buddy had a temper, so out came the finger and the profanity, yelling out the window something to the effect of "Bubblegum stupid old man!" as the poor guy sheepishly drove away.

The next day he asks his buddy how it went with the future in-laws. His buddy dejectedly replied "The wedding's off".
"What happened?" he asked, "Didn't they like you?"
"Well... Remember that old guy who cut me off on the way home?"

Joe Foss also was a decorated Ace. Medal of Honor for shooting down a confirmed 23 Japanese planes in ten days. As I recall, he also had a "to-do" with Airport regulations back in the '90's: Something about a piece of metal he wanted to board with.