I had a collectible Batman cookie jar. I felt it was just taking up room in my apartment so decided to sell it. I put a Craigslist ad up in the “collectibles” section.

The going rate was $65 on ebay. I was asking $18. Yes, I’m a generous one. Really. (Although, I have smartened up in the sense that now people need to actually pay me for my ideas and such.) Not only was there an established going rate for this item, its value would likely increase over time, so the $18 price tag was quite the steal.

A man in his 40s comes over in the middle of the afternoon. He walks in, inspects the item and offers $15. (In my mind: Fifteen bucks? F^&# Y*#!)

I refuse and he agrees to pay $18. “It can’t hurt to try to get a better deal” he proclaims.

“I think $18 is an extremely fair price. Who is it for?”

“It’s a gift for my little son. He’s going to love it!”

“How old is he?”

“23.”

He then proceeded to walk around my apartment, looking for things to buy. Who said I was selling my other belongings?!??

He leaves in disappointment, hoping to have purchased other items.

I was trying to sell a floor lamp. A simple Craigslist ad was placed under “furniture,” offering a $20 lamp.

Buyer: A woman with a strong foreign accent and broken English calls and leaves a message. We end up playing phone tag for 2 days. She then enthusiastically reaches me and agrees to come over and pay $20.

The Purchase: She calls me from her cell when she gets downstairs and asks me to bring it out. (A mistake on her part, in my view, since that didn’t give her a chance to test it). Anyways, I bring it down. Her daughter gets out of the driver’s seat of the car and speaks perfect English. We try to fit it into her car and have some difficulty.

She pauses and says “don’t worry, I’ll get it in, how much is it?”

“$20.” (I was very annoyed by the mere question. For more, see Craigslist and profitable frustration).

“Oh. Um. Really? Well, there are lots of ads on Craigslist for $5 lamps.”

“Maybe so, but this one is $20.”

“Oh. Would you take $10?”

“No.”

“Well, I have $15 on me so if that’s not enough, I’ll understand if you want to sell it to someone else.”

“Fine. Give me $15.”

Normally I wouldn’t give in to this academy award winning bullshiting performance but I was moving and couldn’t be bothered to place another ad.

If you are about to sell your products on Craigslist, expect people to be cheap as hell. Don’t get me wrong - CL rocks but the cheapness is almost unbearable.

Here’s what you can expect:

In many cases, people will contact you, ask a million questions about the product and then delay the purchase for days while they negotaiate with other people. Believe it. There are a LOT of people out there with nothing better to do.

Next, expect people to make plans to come over and never show up without letting you know. That’s part of the double edge sword of Craigslist being so anonymous.

Moving on now… Expect people to come over and act dumb (at least dumber than they probably are). One very common scenario: ”Duuuuh, i thought it was only half this price. Isn’t it like $4 not $8?”

The Illiteracy Factor: Even if you had details in your ad, many people won’t read the ad and instead ask you questions about your items (via email, phone, or in person) when all the info is listed in the ad to avoid wasting time.

Additionally, many people will write to you asking if “they” are still available… what is “they”???

This one is almost a sure case: The person buying the item will have no respect for you whatsoever.

Regardless of the item, if you have the cheapest price in town, Craigslist people will still make a big deal about the cost and insist there are a few scratches. Expect them to use this as an excuse to get you to lower the price.

All in all, I still love Craigslist, although it can be a pain dealing with idiots. Still, profitable frustration is worth something.