What's with Craigslist?

Offhand · Sep 8, 2010

I've been hunting around the Craigslist for some new gear and noticed a bunch of strange sellers. There are the obvious rip off artists that want you to send money to a po box in Africa. And there's the resellers who just buy and sell all day. And then there's a seemingly shady group that posts really cheap prices on gear, puts their telephone number but never calls back. Some will say email with phone number and then never call back. And they'll repost the same ad several days later, so I know the stuff is still available. Are they mining telephone numbers for telemarketers or something?

I finally did get ahold of one guy in the Valley and he had one name on his email, another respond to name in the ad and a completely different name when I called. He was a bit dodgy about meeting so I aborted. What gives?

crimbfighter · Sep 8, 2010

Can't speak to any specific scam you mention, but Craigslist is fraught with scam artists. Which is too bad, because there are a lot of honest people on there, too. And I do give Craigslist credit, they really do try to jump on those scams when they are brought to their attention. I take cases at work all the time where someone has found the laptop for sale that was stolen from them two days earlier. Or someone who sent someone money after they were promised a huge return on there investment, never heard from them again... Though, with those fishing scams, folks often only have their own naivety to blame for getting hooked.

My rule of thumb, is if the person is not willing to give you concrete, reliable, verifiable, contact info, and the deal sounds too good to be true, leave it alone because it's too risky and potentially a scam. After all, it's your hard earned money, I don't risk throwing it away. If it's an honest sale, the person will get back to you in a reasonable manor. I've read articles which estimate anywhere from 10-25% of the sale posts on Craigslist are scams. Don't know how reliable the research is, but given my experience with Craigslist, it's probably close to accurate, maybe a little over stated, though.

PerfectlyFlawed · Sep 8, 2010

Yeah craigslist seems a little shady lately...i bought a truck and ipod off there this week and seems like every other person wanted dna and my firsy born child, some locals were scammin on ebay using that as a payment method ..... Idiots .

Taylor510ce · Sep 8, 2010

Welcome to craigslist. The most aggrivating, is the morons that post a lens for the same, or slightly more than you can get it new on BHphoto. I want to punch them.

dak1b · Sep 8, 2010

craigslist is full of scammers!!!!!!!!!!!! you've been warned.

Offhand · Sep 8, 2010

Over the years, I've actually had great success with Craigslist in other areas. I recently got some DeWalt cordless drill batteries for an amazing price and office supplies. My home office Aeron chair I got off Craigslist. It just seems like there's more suspect ads in the photo section. Maybe because it's high dollar stuff in a small package. The people who post items for more than you can buy them for new online are just clueless. Actually, I'd like to punch them, too. It's all kind of irritating.

JClishe · Sep 9, 2010

I recently sold a bunch of stuff on CL, and I was amazed at how many responses I got that said "I want to buy this for my son who's deployed in the Middle East. Please give me your PayPal address and I'll pay you $200 over your asking price to cover shipping."

Uhh, no.

ghache · Sep 9, 2010

i used kijiji alot, similar to craiglist,

i always buy localy, go check the item, try it then i buy it, i never get the stuff delivered to my house. i always pickup at the person house, just to make sure i know where they live in case i get screwed but i always got great deals of these site. You have to be carefull.

i bought my camera with 1400 clicks on kijiji for dirt cheap
1 barely used sb-600 for 160 $
my opus strobe kit for 1/10 of the price
used/new car tires
computer parts.
a custom poke table
and some other ****,

misstwinklytoes · Sep 9, 2010

I've always thought craigslist was shady.

Mustlovedragons · Sep 9, 2010

Craigslist is a nightmare...entertaining, at times, but a nightmare. Trust 1 in 100, lol (and that's on a good day).

tirediron · Sep 9, 2010

Craig's List (and all the other similar services) are great resources - yes, you have to be careful, but there are some amazing deals to be had. I've bought most of my lenses, a huge collection of filters, a nice Minolta flash meter and a lot of other gear.

I have simple rules that have worked well: If the seller won't respond with a legitimate address and tel#, walk away.

If the seller is over-anxious, walk away.

If anything seems 'wrong' in any way, walk away.

If the seller can't answer questions about the history of the item, doesn't seem knowledgable, etc (I'm selling this lens for my brother, I know nothing about photography), walk away.

If it's a big-ticket item (such as the 70-200 2.8 I bought a couple of years ago) ask in advance for the serial number and call the local police, give them the # and ask them if it shows up on any lists.

Like anything, it's safe enough if you're careful.

Derrel · Sep 9, 2010

tirediron said:
Craig's List (and all the other similar services) are great resources - yes, you have to be careful, but there are some amazing deals to be had. I've bought most of my lenses, a huge collection of filters, a nice Minolta flash meter and a lot of other gear.

I have simple rules that have worked well: If the seller won't respond with a legitimate address and tel#, walk away.

If the seller is over-anxious, walk away.

If anything seems 'wrong' in any way, walk away.

If the seller can't answer questions about the history of the item, doesn't seem knowledgable, etc (I'm selling this lens for my brother, I know nothing about photography), walk away.

If it's a big-ticket item (such as the 70-200 2.8 I bought a couple of years ago) ask in advance for the serial number and call the local police, give them the # and ask them if it shows up on any lists.

Like anything, it's safe enough if you're careful.