Art & Inspiration You think buying stuff is hard

But you want to see a few more pics, right?

 

My last line, after a good description with sizes, voltages, etc is " If you have read down this far, you can have it for $100 (instead of the advertised $130). I have only had one lady who read this part , and asked about it, and she got the item cheap.

 

Well, my experiences are kinda different! I have been selling, and buying on the net for over twenty years. Mostly big ticket items early on, less now. There are things to learn and thinks to watch out for, but it has made me a lot of money over the years. So, I guess I will continue to sale on the net!




Bones

 

Sniveling about "buyers" at swap meets, Craigslist, Facebook, ad nauseum...a perpetual HAMB amusement.

 

You can be the official Rant Moderator, all potential rant should be sent to you for approval or denial of posting.
Thanks for your efforts.

 

A little while ago [more or less] I sold a Ford Shop Manual for shipping cost. Ya know where this is going, right?

 

@guthriesmith I think I resemble that remark.

 

I recently sold an OT motorcycle shop manual for a little over a dollar. Cost me $7 or so to ship. Stupid, but I didn’t want to throw it away.

 

Post Of The Week Right There!
My Dad was a Salesman, but I couldn't Sell You-Know-What on a Troop Train...

 

Amazing how i keep gravitating to parts sales for employment... I despise people in general, don't have as much specific knowledge as I need, everything I AM familiar wirh is considered "obsolete" now.... WTF is wrong with me.
I should have taken my chances at teaching. or firefighting. same difference.

 

Early this summer, after realizing I was never going repair our '54 Chris Craft (we'd had it for 30 years, used it, HARD, 26 of those) and put an ad up on FB Marketplace and in the Antique Boat Clubs forum. CLEARLY stated it still had the original bottom, leaked badly enough now that the bilge pump wouldn't keep up, needed some woodwork topsides as well, the varnish and interior were 15 years old, needs a total restoration, and hadn't been started in 4 years. Some guy contacted me, seemed super excited, he wanted a "father son project" for he and his boy, he's in northern Michigan, had the right questions and seemed (there's the key word) like a genuine guy.

I told him it had a '63 CC 283, that I'd swapped it in place of the original inline 6, the engine had maybe 200 hours on it since rebuild, trans rebuilt, the (custom built) trailer had the tires replace 7 years ago, and that I'd like to get it out, and fire up the engine just because I'd feel better about it. We agreed on my asking price of $3,500, and set up a time the next day that he'd be down here.

Next morning he calls, says, "Something came up with work, I can't leave here until 2 pm (he's 200 miles away), would it possible for you to meet me in Grand Rapids?" (45 minutes from me) I tell him yes, I can do that, that I've got the boat out, uncovered, replaced the battery, and was getting ready to fire it up.

"Great", he says, "I'll be there at 4:00 with $3,000"

"You can save yourself the trip, we agreed on $3,500 last night, the time for negotiation is past", I told him, kinda irritated.

He agreed, and said he'd be there.

3 hours later, I still hadn't been able to get the 283 to start, it'd fire, but wouldn't run. I'd cleaned and gapped the points, cleaned all the plugs, just would not run. I felt bad, as it was getting close to the time he was going to be heading out, so I called him and told him. I told him I was surprised that it wouldn't start, was disappointed, sorry that I'd assured him it would fire right up and that if he wanted to back out because of that, no problem, but if he were still interested, I'd knock $200 bucks off that'd pay for plugs, points, condenser, coil and wires.

"No, I want it, we're just getting ready to leave, thanks for telling me, see you in 3 hours"

We met at the designates spot, he and his 17 year old kid, they loved it, money exchanged and off we both went, me feeling sort of bad having relinquished part of my life, and having my cherished possession drive off hooked so someone else's truck.

Two days later, a buddy contacted me and said, "Hey, your boat is MarketPlace for $8,500, with YOUR photos of it, and a description that sounds like it's ready to go!"

I looked, sure enough there it is, glowing description, interior great, varnish great, engine fresh, ready for the water, $8,500. All completely not true.

Irked, I messaged the guy with these words, "The very least you could do is use your own photos, please take mine down."

I got this message back, "I took a photo, and the boat didn't start like you said it would. Thanks a LOT, buddy!"

Sorry for the long story, but it's the same whether your selling your hot-rod, your boat, a piece of equipment, or old baby toys at a yard sale. Buyers are liars.

 

I use FB market place to sell various tools and parts. I find you have to be patient. It might take a couple of months for the right person to find it and buy it. Also you have to do some research on the value and price accordingly. If you have gotten no "real" interest in it after a week or two, you need to drop the price and see if that helps. I just sold a 3 phase wood lathe the other day. 95% of the people interested in it had no clue what 3 phase power was. I had one guy show up cash in hand and ready to load it when I realized he didnt understand. He said he was going to ask me about what 3 phase meant. Another guy wanted it so bad but couldnt commit. Within the next week I had a solid buyer that drove about 100 miles to buy it. Had a nice clean T-5 bellhousing listed for at least 2 months or more. Plenty of lowballers. Finally someone that needed it came and bought it without trying to negotiate on the price.

I"m in North Florida and just searched on FB marketplace for a bead roller and didnt come across it.

 

Yeah, but they're only Chevrolets.

 

Hahaha

 

I had one of my cars for sale and had a guy come by to see it.
He said how much?
I said 25 grand, like the ad said.
He said what would you take?
I said 32.

 

Tried sell a 40 CHEVROLET frame of and on for 2 years. Perfect from AZ no rust. They are 1 year only. Asked $800. Caught the right guy at the right time on CL. Bought it for $700 and he was ecstatic only 25 minutes from me. 2 guys were happy.

 

One year at Hershey, I had a guy come up to me and made a big deal about making a cash offer.

He goes, "I want your best cash deal. I can pay you in cash."

I said, "Thank goodness. My credit card machine just broke, so I can only do deals in cash."

That went right over the guy's head.

He looked at the part some more and then said, "What's the best you'll do for cash."

I said, "Gosh. I don't know. What do I have it marked at?"

He said, "$125 bucks."

I replied, "For cash? I'd have to get $150."

By this point, my buddy at the spot is laughing his ass off. The guy still didn't get it that I was busting his balls.

We still laugh about it.

 

My standard answer for an often-used question - "What's your best price?".
"MY best price is around $5000, but you can have it for the advertised $100."

 

At swap meets… went they lower… I raise..
Response is “you can’t do that”. My response is “it’s mine I can do anything I want” you missed the best price now it’s gone up in value if you wanted it you should have bought it.
ps: my prices are always low. I don’t want to take anything home.. if I did I wouldn’t bring it.

 

Selling and buying is the easy fun part. The shipping is the hard part. It can be a nightmare lately..

Drives me nuts that people buy things cross country and then try to get it cross country for nothing or think a beer will cover it. I know when I buy out of my area, I have shipping figured in and how it will be done before buying the item/car but apparently I am doing it wrong according to what I see on the 'net. .

 

I find selling things online a real crapshoot, mostly as I have little to no tolerance for people who cannot read or comprehend the English language, must not be teaching it anymore, last 30-35 years. I posted an ad for a trike , probably 90 % of respondents never even read the ad, most of the anticipated questions all covered in blurb , so the one respondent that actually showed up bitched me out for telling his 13 year old son to read the fn ad, well how am I to know? : ). They still bought it for the price asked, which was fair. The bike I posted for sale about 4 years back really bit my ass, lots of response, 1 respondent kept asking for more information and pictures, then asked for video of it running, then did a disappearing act, well not long after I’m banned and labeled a scammer. After a look online I find my bike for sale on a website in the USA. Some people are total dirtbags. Took 3 years to get selling privilege back on that site.

 

I once gave some parts to a guy in Canada. He paid for shipping. After the fees my bank had processing the check, I think it ended up costing me $25.

 

Last car I tried to sell I let stay up two months, dropped the price three or four times, had several hits but only one guy actually came and looked at it. Bunch of folks wanted to trade me their junk that I didn’t want or need, would have traded for something we liked. And this was during tax time, when everybody was getting their refunds and had the money to spend. I said screw it, it’s not costing me anything but collector car insurance, so I’ll just keep it until somebody comes along and wants it. People want stuff for nothing anymore, and I’m not losing money on it. Might not make much or break even, but I’m not giving it away.

 

Then there's the 308 people who will text or message you asking "Is this still for sale?" but when you reply it is you never hear anything else from them. I hate selling anything online. I'd rather get less at a swap meet face to face.

 

I don’t buy and hang on to 1000$ parts, etc. I use those things when I have them, but I still have stashes of things I paid 25-200$ for. When I have to move them around a few times and realize I’m never going to use it, I’ll post it for sale. Start off what I think it may be worth now, but in many cases I sell it for less than I paid for it just to see it gone.
My only gripe is like many have stated, if I say “no shipping, pick up only” like for a fender, etc. and get asked to look into shipping cost.

 

What's are we talking about. People offering 1984 prices? that's what I buy my junk for. Sob stories to get the part dad needs only to find it the next day on facebook, yup. People wanting to drive a car that's been sitting for 30 years from Sacramento to Chicago after only a carb rebuild(OT Mopar, actually made it 0 issues) or buy my f250 that has barely moved for 30 years and put it to work tomorrow. Yup, it happens. It's about as bad as all the old guys walking past me because it's too cheap, must be something wrong with it, or It's too high,, I won't even talk too you. I went to a swap meet and a guy told me later in the day when I was shopping how he was going to come back later and talk to me about some items he wanted I had at that point sold everything I brought for whatever I was offered to get rid of it. The look in his eyes was priceless, as I had sold my Pete Jackson gear drive for 10 bucks, which was market value at that time . I made 10 dollars profit btw

 

Tools and parts are easier than a complete car. Like the old saying goes "you make your money on the buy not the sell". So if you overpaid to begin with, your less likely to find someone to do the same. If you buy something brand new expect at least 50% loss when you sell it. I find there are people wanting to sell stuff and people that are thinking about selling stuff and the same goes for buyers. Only until the first two meet does anything happen.

 

"Sniveling?" Well, I never.
Okay... maybe a little.
Truth is though, some of the new guys might learn a thing or two from our sniveling... about what they might come up against.

Rickybop is easy to get along with, right? Right. But some of these people even pissed me off. Sandy said to me...
"You're becoming an old curmudgeon."
LOL

Well, there are some real winners out there. On either end. And they definitely will waste your time and energy and try your patience. Just watch for the red flags. And try to laugh at the IODOTS.

I've found that you often have to deal with a dozen dinky doos before Mr. Right comes along. Then it goes like butter.

 

I sell only new bike stuff.. I hear it all the time. People want to negotiate labor ( Hell no), or beat us down
to nothing..
That's when I look 'em in the eye and tell them " This ain't Pawn Stars or American Pickers....................so no."
I do not negotiate anything at my shop.
Not the same as at a swap meet, but the same mentality.

 

another thing I hear sellers complain about is wasting time meeting someone and they don't show or want to haggle you down even if you have firm listed after you get there..

Me I make them come to me so I can keep doing whatever and they don't waste my time when they are a no show. today my buyer was actually half hour early which is rare but that was fine. Also when they come to you they tend to not even argue and just pay the full price otherwise they are the ones that wasted their time.

so make those cl or marketplace buyers come to you so you can still get something done and they have less leverage power to haggle you down.