CraigsList bandit...?

[Hokie]

Rumor has it that someone is marking for deletion some CraigsList ads for sales of DeLoreans by owners. CL is the Wild Wild West of online ad space so any person can mark an ad for deletion for any reason, legitimate or not, and CL will just take it down. It happened to me a few days back - my ad lasted about 3 hours. Then I heard I wasn't the first to experience this. Soo... Just curious, does anyone know who is doing this and why?

[DMCMW Dave]

Rumor has it that someone is marking for deletion some CraigsList ads for sales of DeLoreans by owners. CL is the Wild Wild West of online ad space so any person can mark an ad for deletion for any reason, legitimate or not, and CL will just take it down. It happened to me a few days back - my ad lasted about 3 hours. Then I heard I wasn't the first to experience this. Soo... Just curious, does anyone know who is doing this and why?

I have not, but -

Someone trying to corner the market/hide it from competitive buyers? Did you get a reply to your ad?

[Hokie]

I received one reply before the ad was taken down. Only the typical "cool car man, I'd buy it if I had the money" response that we get so many of when trying to sell a D. But remember, my ad was deleted within 3 hours...

[DavidProehl]

I sold my Honda Accord on Craigslist 5 months ago. I had a lot of problems trying to keep my ad from being deleted. Ultimately what I found was that my ad was too long. After my brief description I included a nearly full service history. Apparently people didn't like that (perhaps because all those words made my car show up in unrelated results?) and deleted my ad.

I cut the ad length back to only the brief description and then it stayed out there.

Craigslist has a help section in their forum where you can get feedback from people on why your ad is getting deleted. Be warned, they aren't friendly. They will tell you that you are overcharging, that your car looks horrible, it hasn't been maintained, and that you are stupid. Just take everything they say with a heaping spoon full of salt and don't get caught up in a flame war. If your lucky amidst all those insults is one nugget of advice that is correct. That was the case with me.

[DMCVegas]

I positively hate Craigslist. I've sold cars through Autotrader, and dealt with the normal tire kickers, hagglers, etc. But Craigslist did nothing but net me a bunch of jackasses that only wanted to lowball me, and would just call me repeatedly to see if I changed my mind after I firmly declined their offer.

I sold a Jag off CL, and it was nothing but calls from the same dudes that went: "My friend! Your prrrrrice ees too high! I am telling you deees." Then when I did sell the car, and they found out they lost the opportunity, they'd get pissed when they called back. Even AFTER I took the ad down. "My freeeind, why you not call me to telll me dat you selling de carrrrr?" or my favorite of calling me a liar: "NO! You deed not sellll de carrrr for dat prrriceeee! Dis is not tru! You are not telling de truth! No one would buy de carrr at dat price, I'm telling you! You just deed not want to selllll to meee!"

It wouldn't surprise me if your ad is getting flagged in order to stop people from seeing it, so that someone could stop counter-offers from coming through.

[DavidProehl]

I sold a Jag off CL, and it was nothing but calls from the same dudes that went: "My friend! Your prrrrrice ees too high! I am telling you deees."

You have to be kidding me. I swear that same guy called me. He said he could buy the same car for 1/2 the price I was asking. I told him then that I wasn't sure why he'd waste his time talking to me if he can source a same or better car for half the price. He didn't have an answer to that.

[Michael]

I positively hate Craigslist. I've sold cars through Autotrader, and dealt with the normal tire kickers, hagglers, etc. But Craigslist did nothing but net me a bunch of jackasses that only wanted to lowball me, and would just call me repeatedly to see if I changed my mind after I firmly declined their offer.

I sold a Jag off CL, and it was nothing but calls from the same dudes that went: "My friend! Your prrrrrice ees too high! I am telling you deees." Then when I did sell the car, and they found out they lost the opportunity, they'd get pissed when they called back. Even AFTER I took the ad down. "My freeeind, why you not call me to telll me dat you selling de carrrrr?" or my favorite of calling me a liar: "NO! You deed not sellll de carrrr for dat prrriceeee! Dis is not tru! You are not telling de truth! No one would buy de carrr at dat price, I'm telling you! You just deed not want to selllll to meee!"

It wouldn't surprise me if your ad is getting flagged in order to stop people from seeing it, so that someone could stop counter-offers from coming through.

Well the very first thing that I would have done was agree with him
"You are right. I can tell by your voice that you are black and I just don't like black people, they smell funny and never have any money." spice it up a bit...the point is that all he was doing was trying to get a rise out of you. The moment I catch someone trying to do that to me I immediately beat them to the punch and turn the tables.

As far as CL, I have sold and bought a lot from CL but then again I am in "good ol boy" country here. Most all of us are un the up and up (and armed) so we all get along pretty well round these parts. It does take more than one IP location to flag an ad so unless this guy has access to several hot spots or has a lot of friends doing his biding it takes more than one.

Interesting idea, create a CL flagging forum. A community of people that work together to flag ads based on one sole request.

[DMCVegas]

You have to be kidding me. I swear that same guy called me. He said he could buy the same car for 1/2 the price I was asking. I told him then that I wasn't sure why he'd waste his time talking to me if he can source a same or better car for half the price. He didn't have an answer to that.

Nope, that's just Craigslist for you. Sold a truck on Autotrader, and the only repeat caller I got was the same kid who eventually bought my truck (I guess his family saved up enough to afford it). Otherwise it was just normal people. 1 no-show, a couple of people who declined over the phone when we couldn't reach a mutual price, and one guy who I definitely pissed off when he came to look because I kept correcting his inaccuracies about the truck. But no problems at all.

Well the very first thing that I would have done was agree with him
"You are right. I can tell by your voice that you are black and I just don't like black people, they smell funny and never have any money." spice it up a bit...the point is that all he was doing was trying to get a rise out of you. The moment I catch someone trying to do that to me I immediately beat them to the punch and turn the tables.

As far as CL, I have sold and bought a lot from CL but then again I am in "good ol boy" country here. Most all of us are un the up and up (and armed) so we all get along pretty well round these parts.

I couldn't do that, because it's just not me. Also at the time being so damn recognizable in Vegas didn't help either, but it's just not something I would do. If someone tries to play a certain negative angle, be it race, or trying to erode or build my confidence, I just stop the deal at that point. If they want to continue, they'll knock it off. If not, then I walk away. Like with my old truck when the guy was trying to tell me of the "problems" I had, which were not even applicable to that truck.

But there definitely is a clash at times when you start dealing with people of other cultures. Especially when it comes to commerce. And we're not just talking about non-white people. There are so many various subcultures of white folks, and you have to deal with them all separately. Hell, do you know how many eBay auctions I've won because DeLorean owners are so superstitious when it comes to bidding? They use the same numbers ALL of the time: 12, 24, 44, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89. And thanks to tetraphobia, I also like to dump as many 4's as possible in my bids to scare off some eastern competitors.

[valdez]

Some other seller asking too high a price taking down the other more reasonable ads?

There seems to be a lot of $40 - 50,000 cars that will never sell at those prices.

[Dangermouse]

I never saw the CL add the OP ran, nor how much he was asking for it, but this just popped up at top dollar

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DeLorean-DMC...ht_15613wt_986