I just had a strange Craigslist listing encounter!

[NewWorldMan]

With a wife, kid, a room full of expensive gear, and a cubic ton of scammers these days, I never allow a stranger to come over to my house to buy gear. I always meet in a public place.

While I understand you're not a scammer, it would also cross my mind that if someone would only agree to buy something from me if they could come to my house, that would raise huge red flags for me and I'd question your motives too. And while you may be legit, I'm sure he's had 10 other actual scammers inquiring on CL.

That said, I'd just not respond and move on, not yell at you.

 

[Rick Lee]

I've never had a problem and often have CL buyers over to try stuff out. I've done gun deals with strangers at my house and theirs. Never a problem. You can usually tell if someone is on the up and up with a simple phone call. I tend to sell specialized or customized stuff that you can't fake your way around. Call up about my 1979 Marshall JMP 2203 for sale and not sound like you have any clue as to what you're talking about, and we're not gonna meet.

 

[splatter]

he probably thinks you were gonna rob him.
I don't understand what the guitar not having a case had to do with it.
You would have opened the case and examined the guitar regardless of the temp right? I'm sure his vehicle has heat and if the temp is that low he probably would have warmed the car up before the trip.

 

[vmbarrera]

There's all kinds of people out there, man. Once I met this guy to buy a pedal, at his house, he had his baby strapped to his chest etc. and had an amp set up to test the pedal.

 

[CrazyNutz]

Haha. With that kind of response he deserves be given the run-around

You should have replied "You are totally right man, I'm being unfair to you. I need to make this right. Let's meet up, and I'll buy the guitar"
Then never show up.

 

[rottingcorpse]

I got a Herbert and a Powerball at the T/A truck stop in Denton TX. Found them on eBay and made A deal to meet there.

A Peters Hydra, Ultralead and a mark III (and a couple of others I can't remember)at the Texaco north of Austin.

Traded amps with gasxbusa's wife on the side of the interstate in San Antonio. Seriously.

Pretty sure I made some sort of deal with Mailman at the T/A close to his place. Can't remember much after he bought me a drink....everything kinda went fuzzy after that.

Truck stops are perfect for making a deal. Lots of cameras. Lots of traffic. Lots of people around. Condoms in the bathroom for protection.

 

[xzacx]

I'm willing to go to someone else's house, but I'm sure not letting them come to mine. That said, I don't think there was any scam involved on his end, just someone overreacting.

 

[RedB4Black]

I have people come to me at my house all the time. Never had an issue. That way when they flake, I'm not wasting my time going to meet up somewhere. I also go to other people's houses when buying stuff and never felt like it was unsafe. Of course I carry a 9mm. lol

 

[FourT6and2]

I bought my first LP Silverburst from some weirdo on Craigslist years and years ago. I insisted we meet somewhere public and agreed on the lobby of a Marriott or something. Met up, I bought the guitar. Turns out we could have been best friends if we lived closer to each other. We headed over to a nearby GC and we jammed for like two hours. Kept in touch, friends on FB and the like. Banged his mom. You know... friend stuff.

 

[Metlupass2]

I've never had a problem and often have CL buyers over to try stuff out. I've done gun deals with strangers at my house and theirs. Never a problem. You can usually tell if someone is on the up and up with a simple phone call. I tend to sell specialized or customized stuff that you can't fake your way around. Call up about my 1979 Marshall JMP 2203 for sale and not sound like you have any clue as to what you're talking about, and we're not gonna meet.

I have people come to me at my house all the time. Never had an issue. That way when they flake, I'm not wasting my time going to meet up somewhere. I also go to other people's houses when buying stuff and never felt like it was unsafe. Of course I carry a 9mm. lol

I have people come over all the time too for gear and pistols and never had an issue.

You can tell if some is an idiot based on their email responses usually.

 

[misterspockyall]

I bought my first LP Silverburst from some weirdo on Craigslist years and years ago. I insisted we meet somewhere public and agreed on the lobby of a Marriott or something. Met up, I bought the guitar. Turns out we could have been best friends if we lived closer to each other. We headed over to a nearby GC and we jammed for like two hours. Kept in touch, friends on FB and the like. Banged his mom. You know... friend stuff.

Haha

Most of my Craigslist sales have been rife with lowballing weird flakes. But my purchases have been from cool af people who have the stuff set up by their front door for me to try out. Trust is a commodity, and if I get a bad vibe I pass.

 

[rottingcorpse]

You can tell if some is an idiot based on their email responses usually.

Agreed...But I still hooked up with Mailman Dan. And he agreed to meet with me.
Birds of a feather,I guess.

 

[harddriver]

Meet them at guitar center... or really any place with electricity, it's not that hard.

Does guitar center allow you to bring in a privately owned amp to do a private sale in their store use their electricity and not buy any of their items? If I were a store manager I wouldn't allow that. From all my buying experiences over the years if you are interested in buying anything it's been your responsibility to go to where the item was for sale whether it was a car or music stuff. I've driven great distances sometimes for things sometimes sellers are very helpful for serious buyers.

I always get the most strange contacts over vehicles I have sold but you can usually tell they are scams like buyers demanding that you go to a website I have never heard of (Not CarFax) and have you pay for a vehicle title search before they would come buy it saying it was my responsibility to do so and he needed a car quickly. I told the guy I have a current CarFax that I paid for when I bought the car to do my due diligence on the vehicle and he was welcome to have it or pay for his own just like I did. He kept pushing saying I needed to do this and then upon research it was a scam trying to get sellers use this title search site pay the fee then the buyers would flake. I reported that one to the CL scam line and told the guy if he continued to contact me his number would be reported to the police.

I think society is just becoming less socialized and regressive in many ways. He may have had alot of scammers contacting him but that's the arena you enter into with CL and everyone understands this. I totally get the guy's viewpoint and that's perfectly fine and quite legitimate in many respects.

 

[harddriver]

I think the seller is saying the same thing. Some people don't want to inconvenience a wife/family by having over strangers. Maybe his house is a mess. Who knows.

Who's to say you wouldn't come over and waste HIS time? It's not all about YOU, bro. He may think you're just as big a douche, (and it sounds like he may have a valid assumption, to a small degree), but no need for him to have a meltdown. But, I see nothing strange about it, whatsoever, and feel his request to meet was more than adequate.

Look at all the gear you have returned in recent months because it didn't meet your expectations, I'm sure those sellers felt you wasted their time and I'm sure you felt validated for your actions. That was because their evaluation of the items were different than yours, you felt they were deceptive or you just didn't care for the gear once it got to your house,( I sure they may have valid assumptions about you, to a small degree).

The fact is I didn't think the guy was douche for his views or strange to meet in a public place. Sometimes I have requested to meet at a police station parking lot for a high dollar item if I felt something was possibly off with the buyer it's a free market. His retort was douchey and childish. In the end he's the one trying to sell something not me.

 

[Rick Lee]

I really don't get the police station parking lot as a meeting place. I don't even know where one is. And it's not like cops hang around in the parking lot to make sure nothing happens between private parties conducting sales there. I had a knife pulled on me in NJ, about a mile from a police station. I had to bang on their door for five minutes before I finally just looked up the number and called the place to tell them to let me in. They said I had crossed a township line and needed to back to the next town's police station to file a report. I had the exact same experience trying to get them to answer their door and they even had a doorbell! So I don't think you're any safer in a cop shop parking lot than at the local grocery store, which probably better lighting too.

 

[harddriver]

I really don't get the police station parking lot as a meeting place. I don't even know where one is. And it's not like cops hang around in the parking lot to make sure nothing happens between private parties conducting sales there. I had a knife pulled on me in NJ, about a mile from a police station. I had to bang on their door for five minutes before I finally just looked up the number and called the place to tell them to let me in. They said I had crossed a township line and needed to back to the next town's police station to file a report. I had the exact same experience trying to get them to answer their door and they even had a doorbell! So I don't think you're any safer in a cop shop parking lot than at the local grocery store, which probably better lighting too.

It was more of a psychological effect with this one potential buyer I figured if he didn't want to meet there something was off and he quit texting. Yeah, New Jersey can be rough in certain places, I worked in Jersey City for about a month, that is a rough town and that was in the 90's, I'm sure it's worse now. When I worked in New Orleans the crack and crank dealers would be out in traffic like a traffic cop selling to people.

Unfortunately bad things can happen anywhere.

 

[Exo-metal]

Banged his mom...haha

 

[CrazyNutz]

Meet them at guitar center... or really any place with electricity, it's not that hard.

Does guitar center allow you to bring in a privately owned amp to do a private sale in their store use their electricity and not buy any of their items? If I were a store manager I wouldn't allow that.

In reality it's probably a benefit to GC. Business's spend big money to get you through the doors. Many companies use the loss leader strategy (where they sell some items below cost) just to get you in. This also helps to keep the company relevant/popular/household name. Chances are, a party to said private sale will need something while they are there, or see something that they will GAS about, and later come back for it.

Now that being said a company should probably not announce that they welcome this type of activity, it could get out of control in a hurry. But rather not be super strict about it going on in moderation, unless it really becomes a problem and the store is losing sales.

 

[Metlupass2]

You can tell if some is an idiot based on their email responses usually.

Agreed...But I still hooked up with Mailman Dan. And he agreed to meet with me.
Birds of a feather,I guess.

You're lucky he didn't snatch you up, drill a hole in your head and make you his sex zombie.

 

[Mikeyboyeee]

I have people come to me at my house all the time. Never had an issue. That way when they flake, I'm not wasting my time going to meet up somewhere. I also go to other people's houses when buying stuff and never felt like it was unsafe. Of course I carry a 9mm. lol

Pretty much same here. At my house, you’re lucky if its only the dogs that get you. When i go to someone elses, theres enough firepower between me and who comes with to handle most problems.

But i live in Florida thank god, if i lived back in NJ, no way.