What's your most WTF Craigslist story?

Kinja'd!!! by "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
Published 04/29/2017 at 21:37

Tags: Craigslist
STARS: 3


Kinja'd!!!

Craigslist has been very good to me. I’ve bought and sold good tools and fun vehicles, paid some fair prices, sold for fair prices. I even met my wife through Craigslist (yes, seriously). Certainly I’ve also dealt with my fair share of low-ballers, no-shows, tire-kickers and scammers, but on the balance my experience has been pretty positive.

The most bizarre experience I’ve ever had, was actually quite pleasant. Sometimes I’ll toss things on Craigslist for a while that aren’t particularly valuable. If they haven’t sold after a couple weeks, I donate them. We replaced an ugly old white ceiling fan in my daughter’s bedroom, so I posted it for $20 to get it off my front porch. I was going to donate it to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore if it didn’t sell.

Well, it sold alright ... to a dude who made a three hour round trip to buy it ... down a toll road.

People are freakin’ weird.


Replies (54)

Kinja'd!!! "interstate366, now In The Industry" (interstate366)
04/29/2017 at 22:00, STARS: 0

It took me 3 months to sell a 1991 Prelude a few years ago. The car was stock and in good condition, albeit fairly high miles and an automatic. I think my initial asking price was $1200, and after all that time I sold it to a kid down the block for $800.

There was also one tonight where I emailed a seller about a car being sold for a very reasonable price, and he promptly replied that he was parting it out tomorrow morning. Disappointing.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 22:13, STARS: 0

That is unfortunate.

Kinja'd!!! "Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
04/29/2017 at 22:35, STARS: 4

I sold a mountain bike last fall. This guys girlfriend bought it for him, sight unseen. She said amazballs like every 5 words. It was a very expensive bike and I was amazed that he bought it without ever seeing it in person. Got $1,600 for that bike, and watched this 30-something woman say amazballs about 40 times.

Kinja'd!!! "unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins)" (unclevanos)
04/29/2017 at 22:39, STARS: 4

1. My dad posted a bobcat a while back to see if he can make a profit off it. Some body offered him a 2002 Ford Escape with 190,000 miles as trade. I never had so much joy seeing my dad tell that person to go fuck themselves.

2. Flipped a crusty Volvo 240 for profit, lady test driving it for her son said the clutch is too stiff and wasn’t like her sentra. I reminder her that this is a cable clutch and not a hydraulic clutch system like the sentra uses. It resulted in her mechanic father calling in and tell her that yes we were right and that the cable clutch can be stiff if not lubricated.

3. I posted a pallet of bricks on CL once, what a clusterfuck.

Kinja'd!!! "Funktheduck" (funktheduck)
04/29/2017 at 22:55, STARS: 2

i was gonna make a joke about meeting your wife on Craigslist but I was afraid it wouldn’t translate well through the comments section.

Kinja'd!!! "Logansteno: Bought a VW?" (logansteno)
04/29/2017 at 23:04, STARS: 6

The same guy who bought my old M3 wheels proceeded to buy my M3 6 months later. Not that wtf but kinda neat.

Kinja'd!!! "Eric @ opposite-lock.com" (theyrerolling)
04/29/2017 at 23:14, STARS: 1

It’s not as weird/odd as you might expect - it’s local, it’s real people (like anywhere else), etc. Personals do vary greatly by section and how well the local community in an area polices them, but it’s not that different from like a paper ad or even a dating site. They’re probably no less likely to be real than on any free/freemium dating site.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 23:15, STARS: 0

Eh, I don’t offend easily. It worked for me!

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 23:16, STARS: 0

Exactly.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 23:17, STARS: 0

Yeah, the trade offers can be amusing.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 23:17, STARS: 0

Hahaha! Nice sale!

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 23:18, STARS: 0

That’s pretty cool. I guess he liked dealing with you.

Kinja'd!!! "Eric @ opposite-lock.com" (theyrerolling)
04/29/2017 at 23:19, STARS: 1

Crazy sellers are my main weird experience.

Selling a ton of stuff from my condo when I was trying to reduce my possessions in preparation for a long move to a place half as big was my main experience as a seller.

Weird includes the guy that bought a mini-fridge from me for $40 that tossed it unprotected on the leathers seats in the back of his seemingly brand new Acura...

Then there was the guy that bought a wireless router in the shadiest way I’ve ever seen; I felt like it was some kind of drug deal, not selling something legal to own. Giving him quick basic support setting it up afterward was a little weird, but he was buzzed that I was so nice about it.

Kinja'd!!! "pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
04/29/2017 at 23:22, STARS: 1

CL isn’t that popular here in oz

If it was I might’ve had a tale for you but I don’t

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/29/2017 at 23:32, STARS: 4

The mini-fridge reminded me of another story I forgot about. When we bought our house there was a giant plate plate mirror above the mantle, taking up the entire wall. It was about 5 feet wide and 3 feet tall. I put it on CL for free just to get it the hell out of my way. The dude who picked it up showed up in a mid-80's Civic. He shoved it as far into his trunk as he could. I don’t know if the seats folded down on that car or not, but if they did he didn’t bother. He hung the mirror out over the edge of the trunk and tied it in with twine. There was a good two feet of plate glass mirror hanging out the back. I have a hard time imagining it made it to his place in one piece.

Kinja'd!!! "beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard" (beardsbynelly-Rikerbeard)
04/29/2017 at 23:47, STARS: 0

Gumtree is just as bad. Selling stuff on Facebook buy/swap/sell pages is a nightmare

Kinja'd!!! "Kiltedpadre" (kiltedpadre)
04/29/2017 at 23:55, STARS: 7

I met my wife through Craigslist. We often joke that after she had been on paid dating sites for months she found me in the bargain bin. It’ll be 6 years in July.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/30/2017 at 00:01, STARS: 1

Hahaha! I never tried the paid sites. My wife and I have been together now for over 10 years, and married for 6-1/2 years.

Kinja'd!!! "fhrblig" (fhrblig)
04/30/2017 at 00:08, STARS: 1

I also met my partner on Craigslist. We’ve been together almost ten years now.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/30/2017 at 00:19, STARS: 0

That’s three Oppos now! Craigslist isn’t so bad :)

We’ve been together a bit more than 10 years.

Kinja'd!!! "Tristan" (casselts)
04/30/2017 at 01:11, STARS: 3

I sold a stainless gas range in slightly used condition for a steal at $100, and even delivered it for free 45 minutes away. I completely forgot the little caps that go over the burners and the dude texted me completely flipping out, cussing, and generally irate that I “ripped him off with a worthless stove”. Had he simply told me there were no burner caps, I would have said “Oops, my bad! I’ll drop them off!” But since he was a giant douche after I was extremely accommodating and gave him a great deal on a very nice appliance I chose to ignore him.

Kinja'd!!! "Kiltedpadre" (kiltedpadre)
04/30/2017 at 01:44, STARS: 1

We’ve been together 8 years. Our 6th anniversary is this summer.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/30/2017 at 08:47, STARS: 1

What a dick! I would’ve done the same.

Kinja'd!!! "jkm7680" (jkm7680)
04/30/2017 at 10:54, STARS: 0

Somebody offered me $2,000 for my A4 that I was asking (and eventually got) $4,000 for. I told him to fuck himself.

I’m guessing that fan was discontinued and that guy needed a replacement or something.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/30/2017 at 12:14, STARS: 1

I would’ve too.

Nope, he just wanted a cheap fan for his kitchen.

Kinja'd!!! "Rainbow" (rainbeaux)
04/30/2017 at 17:25, STARS: 4

I found a brand new fishing reel abandoned in a soaking wet box in the park. Looked it up, and it was $400 new. Listed it for $300, and ended up meeting a guy from nearly 1000 miles away who happened to be on a business trip in my town, collected fishing equipment, and was missing EXACTLY one reel from this manufacturer, which I just happened to find one day. Got $270 for it.

Kinja'd!!! "Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection" (itsalwayssteve)
04/30/2017 at 17:31, STARS: 0

There was the guy who took a swing at me when I wouldn’t take a $700 on a car with an ask of $2000. I’ve told that story before.

Ended up selling the car for $1400 to a friend of mine.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/30/2017 at 18:00, STARS: 1

NICE!!!

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/30/2017 at 18:01, STARS: 0

Gadamn! People really do suck sometimes.

Kinja'd!!! "Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
04/30/2017 at 19:36, STARS: 0

Happily, we assume...

Kinja'd!!! "Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
04/30/2017 at 19:39, STARS: 0

Tell us more about the bricks.

Kinja'd!!! "Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
04/30/2017 at 19:39, STARS: 0

Free Stuff

Kinja'd!!! "fhrblig" (fhrblig)
04/30/2017 at 20:32, STARS: 1

Oh, yes. We will definitely be that old couple bickering in the supermarket.

By ‘will be’ I mean ‘already are’.

Kinja'd!!! "Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
04/30/2017 at 21:58, STARS: 1

Looked into CrossFit yet? Didn’t you and I talk about that a while back?

Kinja'd!!! "unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins)" (unclevanos)
04/30/2017 at 23:16, STARS: 0

I posted a pallet of bricks on CL, that my dad’s friend left behind after a failed landscaping business. We had to deal with hagglers and people showing up on site nagging that bricks were exposed. They were cheap enough and we got tired of people showing up and asking to use our pickup to deliver them as well. Finally a reasonable old man bought them at our asking price and showed up with an old ferd pickup.

Kinja'd!!! "fhrblig" (fhrblig)
05/01/2017 at 22:12, STARS: 0

I still haven’t, but at least I’m walking now. It’s helped me drop a few pounds.

Kinja'd!!! "CyborgAdaLovelace" (cyborgadalovelace)
05/02/2017 at 11:06, STARS: 2

I feel like I have a good sketchy detector so I stay away from anything that feels off, but I’ve not had any particularly weird Craigslist encounters and I use it quite regularly. Got a 150-gallon pond liner in the back of my van right now that I bought yesterday.

Hmmmm, if I’m not meeting sketchy people, then maybe that means I’m the sketchy person?

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/02/2017 at 12:04, STARS: 1

You might be! I mean, you do drive a Roadmaster wagon and an old minivan ... sooooo .....

Kinja'd!!! "CyborgAdaLovelace" (cyborgadalovelace)
05/02/2017 at 12:14, STARS: 0

Oh geez...yep, I’m the weirdo. Tooling around in my rusting Caravan with a leaky exhaust (and now leaking power steering fluid), buying stuff off Craigslist. At least my personal hygiene is still good. That counts for something, right?

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/02/2017 at 12:27, STARS: 0

Personal hygiene definitely helps!

Kinja'd!!! "Chairman Kaga" (mike-mckinnon)
05/05/2017 at 11:24, STARS: 7

I was selling my 2007 base Fit. This girl emailed and was VERY interested in meeting for a test drive. Bear in mind I described the car accurately with at least a dozen photos, inside and out.

After detailing the car (she was the first interested party) she arrives in the agreed meeting place with her boyfriend. Immediately it gets weird.

Here’s a synopsized list of her issues:

It’s so small

It sure has a lot of miles for a 2007 (this was 2013 and it had 80k)

It’s a manual

It’s black

The stereo isn’t very good (valid)

No rimz

Why does it smell like that

My boyfriend would look like a dick riding bitch

I thought it would be cooler

She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Thanks so much for wasting my fucking morning with this piece of shit.” Then her boyfriend bowed up at me and literally said, “Made you flinch, fuckface.” Then he kicked the wheel and they left.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/05/2017 at 12:44, STARS: 2

WOW! You officially win the most WTF experience of any of the ones in this tread!

Kinja'd!!! "whoarder is tellurium" (whoarder)
05/05/2017 at 12:50, STARS: 0

You should’ve replied with:

“Well, I’d offer to get it repainted to a color of your choice and give it limo stretch too... but I’m not changing the radio.”

Kinja'd!!! "Arrivederci" (arrividerci)
05/05/2017 at 12:53, STARS: 5

Oh my. Would’ve been hard not responding to her comment “My boyfriend would look like a dick riding bitch” with “He’ll look like that in any car you buy, sweetie.”

Kinja'd!!! "RPM esq." (rpm3)
05/05/2017 at 12:54, STARS: 0

Surreal.

Kinja'd!!! "RPM esq." (rpm3)
05/05/2017 at 12:56, STARS: 1

I hope his joke was going to be “I met your wife on Craigslist too.”

Kinja'd!!! "McMike" (mcmike)
05/05/2017 at 12:57, STARS: 3

“Sorry to waste your time with a black, stickshift car without any rims.....

I thought for sure you would have seen the photos I posted in the ad of a black, stickshift car without any rims.... I was under the assumption that you would have looked at them before coming out here.

I’m also sorry you were surprised by the mileage. I thought you would have read that part as well. Please accept my apology.

One more thing......

Your boyfriend doesn’t need to worry about riding bitch to look like a dick”

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/05/2017 at 12:58, STARS: 0

Ha!

Kinja'd!!! "Arrivederci" (arrividerci)
05/05/2017 at 13:05, STARS: 0

Only have a couple that are even slightly weird.

First was when I was selling my house, my ex-wife left behind her piano that she didn’t want (thanks, bitch!). Anyway, I posted it on CL for free to whomever could remove it and with anything posted for free, I received a million responses. In my description, I included multiple pictures and said that it would require at least four sturdy guys to lift as it was heavy as shit.

So, the people I chose to pick it up showed up in a Honda Ridgeline, which has a pretty damn high bed. Their party consists of a man, a woman and one teenage boy. My only concern was they didn’t damage my house getting the thing out, which I helped with. Once it was out of the house, they were on their own - I watched them try and lift that damn thing into the truck, not being able to get it even close to the height of the bed. They left it in my yard and came back a couple hours later with four big guys (like I recommended). Lifted in, tied down, and off they went.

Second story was selling a F-Sport gear knob off my old Lexus IS250. Bought it for better feel than the stock shift knob, which wasn’t very nice. Think new price was $80ish bucks. I list it on CL for $60, would’ve probably been willing to take $50, description, link to where it was new, multiple pictures.

Kid emails me from a town maybe 40 miles away, asking if he could buy it. Says he can find it new for $60 and offers like $40 and I deliver it to him. I tell him no thanks on the offer and he comes back and says he can buy it for $60 new, so why won’t I take his offer? I should’ve ignored him, but respond back and recommend that he buy the new one for $60.

Well - that unleashed the holiest hell of a tirade from someone who had issues stringing together a coherent sentence. Insults, language, you name it, it was in there. All over a gear knob. Geez.

Kinja'd!!! "Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
05/05/2017 at 13:11, STARS: 0

This is the worst (and therefore best?) shitty CL story I’ve heard.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/05/2017 at 13:12, STARS: 0

Yeah, I’ve learned to just ignore the unreasonable offers. I’ll still give them a “no thanks,” but if they come back at me with questions I ghost them.

Kinja'd!!! "Nothing" (nothingatalluseful)
05/05/2017 at 13:53, STARS: 0

I met my wife on CL, too!

Anyway, I sold my ‘90 Saab 900T on CL. It had a seized transmission and needed to be towed. I was very clear about that in my ad. It as a $500 Saab that was in mint condition otherwise. The first person that looked at it complained that the orange pliers included in the original tool kit were chipped and looked like they had been used. Um. Ok. Someone else just wanted the Thule ski racks on it, so I sold those for $100. Bonus!

The person that finally bought it had an 8 hour round trip. He had a trailer, had a ratchet straps, but had no way to load it on the trailer. He knew the front wheels were locked. So that did he bring? Two cans of Meguiars tire shine and some 2x8s. He thought spraying the wood with the tire spray would make it easy to slide the car onto the trailer.

I made him pay, no refunds before he attempted to load the car. He broke three straps, and eventually used 2 scissor jacks with sawed up pieces of Meguiars Hot shine soaked 2x8s stacked high enough underneath those jacks to back the trailer under the front tires. He then realized he sawed his loading ramps that he would use for the rear tires and went to Home Depot to buy more. He was eventually able to get it on the trailer after 5 hours of struggling. I was initially willing to help, but he and his wife were adamant they could get it loaded. At least they had a sweet FJ60 to tow it with. I bet that was a fun tow rig back west to Grand Junction from Denver.

Kinja'd!!! "shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/05/2017 at 14:43, STARS: 0

Wow! That makes four of us Oppos who met our spouses on CL!

I would’ve enjoyed watching the show of loading that car.

Kinja'd!!! "haveacarortwoorthree2" (haveacarortwoorthree2)
05/05/2017 at 17:36, STARS: 0

Ghosting reminded me of this:

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