Is this still available?

Over the years, I have bought and sold quite a bit of stuff on Face Book Marketplace and Craigs List. Overall, I think FBM is the best forum for such sales, for one thing you can check the profile of the seller, that pretty much rules out scammers and gives you an idea of who your dealing with. And you can block anyone you suspect is trying to pull-off some shenanigans. Also, I like the search, interface and that you can also easily see what other stuff the seller has to offer. I hardly even check CL anymore.
 
VicHobbyGuy said:
?? Why would I update an ad listing unless there were errors in the description? The item can 'just sit there' until somebody happens to search for something similar and find it.
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Often times people have “asking prices” that are ridiculously high for the immediate area. They look an item up on eBay and think that’s what it sells for. Case and point was the surface plate I bought several years ago

The seller had an asking price of $800.00 similar to the asking prices of comparable plates on eBay. When I did an advanced search on eBay I found almost every one sold for around $100.00. I printed the original listings and the prices they actually sold for and took them to the seller. I was able to make the purchase for $100.00
 
kcoffield said:
I think FBMP (well, the whole site for that matter) is a total joke, and although I browse I very rarely buy or sell there.
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what (if anything) do you use instead?
kcoffield said:
On the selling side I see why it happens. How many times have you had a response that says I'll take it and after you send address and phone number they say OK coming now, and they don't? So what do people do? Sell to first that shows with cash. -Total joke. No ethics. No integrity. Who needs it? Guess I'm just old fashioned......not the way I roll.
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YES! This too! I rarely try to sell on facebook because of all this nonsense. If I have something in my way that I need gone and it isn't worth the hassle to sell it I just give it away. Even when you're giving it away people do this. I put the address in the listing and say "first come first serve, it's out by the curb and I will update the listing when it's gone." I get messages like "I'm on the way, please hold it for me, I really need that so bad, I will be there in 10 minutes" and they never show up! Once I had 6 people simultaneously "on their way" to pick up a tiller. I thought, this is not a water stained ikea night stand, surely more than one person will actually show up and I hope there's no drama. Nope. Not a single one of them came. I thought I would have to pull it back from the road lest the trash men take it, but someone took it in the night, and probably only because they thought they were stealing it.
projectnut said:
I would agree with others that in many cases it’s a necessary question for any serious buyer. I used to look at Facebook and Craigslist regularly when searching for a machine. At one time it was so bad that 80% or more of the ads were left standing when the machine had been sold weeks or months before.
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Yes I understand that completely and I have seen the same thing, people just walk away and leave the ad up. I would expect the first question of any serious buyer to be "is this still available?" What I don't understand is all these other people who are not serious buyers, who seem to have no interest in the item apart from knowing whether or not it's still available. I picture these people walking down the rows of chairs in the airport terminal asking each person "is the seat beside you taken?" and continuing on to the next empty seat and asking the same of someone else there, regardless of the answer and without even waiting for the answer.
 
strantor said:
what (if anything) do you use instead?
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Equipment dealers when I'm serious. Auction houses. Metal suppliers. eBay surplus dealers. Forum classifieds.

I won't set foot in a pawnbroker's. I'll do craigslist if it falls in my lap or if there is an amicable telephone talk, but I turn cold quick if it's not obviously genuine. That's for buying, anyway... I'd rather pull something like a pair of Dana 60s from a salvage yard than from Cletus McShadetree, because yards have policies and I'd rather not darken the hillbilly's door with shotgun in hand after finding the cases full of gear chunks, if'n you follow my mean.
 
strantor said:
Even when you're giving it away people do this. I put the address in the listing and say "first come first serve, it's out by the curb and I will update the listing when it's gone."
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It looks entirely different from the point of view of the person trying to pick up the item. Those 'first person gets it' ads ... I think the 'donor' must find it amusing to see a half-dozen people pull up to the curb, each having driven for 15-30 minutes to get the item, only to be disappointed.
 
mmcmdl said:
Happens all the time . I don't respond as I state in the ad ............." If you see it , it is still available , so don't ask " . :grin:
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That’s what I do also, plus include “Public Meeting Pickup Only,” even though FB includes that also (I still get requests to ship, and they get upset when I tell them yes, but they pay all costs).
 
ChazzC said:
(I still get requests to ship, and they get upset when I tell them yes, but they pay all costs).
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I've had people ask me to deliver free items, to a location 45 minutes away. :)
Selling online has one characteristic in common with my experience canvassing door-to-door for the national cancer charity here : I learned a lot of things about my fellow humans that I would rather not have.
 
We used to have something here called the Southern Illinois Trader Paper. I really miss that. I bought some junk off there too, but people seemed nicer back then. Lol
 
Not on facebook, but a local radio trader show, I tried to give away a washing machine. It was old, a color other than white, but worked fine. People called wanting to know what model, what year, what color. Several wanted me to deliver, and I would have if I had known I would not have to take it up 3 flights of stairs myself. One lady said her daughter was "desparate" for a washing machine. I said it worked fine. What color? Her daughter HAD to have a white washer. I took it to scrap for 9 cents a pound.
 
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