jerks who call on your cars you have for sale....

You were a blond half asian with a bad case of gas, I was wearing red spedo's and a hockey mask... one of my favorites, WA rocks!


As a wise deceased relative used to say when selling things: "If I was going to give the son of a bi(%H away i'd give to someone I liked!"

 

Back in the early 80's I had a factory racecar for sale in the local trader paper. It was only the body, no engine or trans but still worth quite a bit. I got plenty calls from the usual tire kickers and dreamers. Then one night well after midnight I got a call from a guy who wanted to come over right then to look at the car. I told him to call the next day and bring cash if he was interested. That's when he said he was not a buyer, he was just having trouble getting to sleep that night and since he had never seen one of those racecars in person, could he come over right then? I've always had high hopes that the slamming down of my phone receiver busted his eardrum.

 

selling is fun. I sold a motor today for $150.00 asking $200.00. guy was good. backed his truck right up to the roll up door where he saw the motor before he even got out. offered me $100.00 in Spanglish so we settled @ $150.00 in English...and away he went.

 

When you advertise, expect anything. The guy was obviously mentally unstable.

 

I just got done dealing with that. Had a '52 Chevy pickup that was rough but build able. All I wanted was $300 for it, nobody showed any interest at all...WTF right? So I put on the title of the ad: "buy it today or I'm scrapping it tomorrow" (never planned on it) people blew up my phone with calls and text messages for 2 days, like 196 calls or something. Most of them wanted to know if it had a title. I was like WTF? "its a 47-53 Chevy for $300 bucks, do you think it has a title?" they also kept trying to run me down on the price and asking what my bottom dollar was. I got so sick of saying $300. It finally left this morning.

 

An old bartender buddy of mine (RIP) used to go to the swaps with me, used to go buy Camaro RS steering wheels at Upullit, clean them up and resell for fun. So he would always set something right out front at our space with a FREE sign, worked pretty good for getting people to stop and look around at our junk. So one day he puts out this '80's GM plainjane AM radio that he had laying around. This klown comes up, picks up the radio, what's it fit? I dunno, take it, it's free. Does it work? I dunno, it's free, take it. Paws it all over, again, think it works? It's FREE, take it... This goes on for a solid 20 minutes, and then the guy sets it down and walks away without it, muttering to himself

I've got a new neighbor second house down, and thinks he's quite the wheeler-dealer- keeps coming over trying to lowball me on everything. He's trying to build a little Mustang spec roadracer, calls for a 5.0, stock parts etc., he sees my (still driveable and runs great) MKVII LSC that my ex-gf modified into a minivan, and hits me with the lowballs for the low-mile 5.0 HO engine and disc brake 3.27 posi rear end- I can get blah blah from upullit. OK, go there, you're not getting my good runner for core price- besides I've got several projects that could use the whole driveline. Comes back two days later, did you think it over, yep, same price, starts quoting jypo prices again, repeat, repeat, repeat. Latest one is he wants my '69 Fairlane Cobra roller, lowball again. And again. And again. Wants it for junkyard plain Fairlane price- but it's an R-code ram-air Cobra Jet 4-spd car. Nice enough guy, but kind of a rookie at this, ain't gonna get to me anytime soon, and ought to take a hint

 

You should. Then they could have a great "So I went to look at this car I saw on Craigslist" story to post on some internet forum.

 

Holey crap! I was gonna hold in my bitching but thanks for a place to vent. I too have an ot truck for sale. A guy came over last night and offered $400 less than asking price and when I told him it would take an extra hundred he said he would have to think about it. Not sure what he wants but you wont find a running, driving 67-72 Chevy truck for less than what Im asking.

 

This is why I never post my phone number in a listing. I'd rather base the person's insanity level through an email first.

 

Many years ago I had a 68 Bronco that was rough but very functional. It had 33" Mud tires, a 2" lift kit, rear fenders cut out and a decent running 4 barrel 302 w headers. I put it up for sale for $2000.

The first guy who came by and did the walk around with the usual running commentary about fixes and dollar amounts. At the end of which he offered me $500. I said no. He countered with $600. I said $1800 or please go away... he went away.

Later a guy came by and took it for a ride with his buddy. He was gone waayy too long so I parked myself on his car and waited. 30 minutes later the guys show up on foot and said the truck stopped running down by the river, he didn't want it, thanks for the time, get off my car... and he left. (Stopped running ?? Down by the river ??). Sure enough I found it in the soft bank of the river, buried up to it's floorboards. Took 2 friends, 2 winches and 2 hours to get it out only to find the front driveshaft and exhaust was trashed. I pulled the ad until fixed.

$500 fix later I repost the ad. After a few tire kickers came through I sold it to a Bronco fan who knew what he was looking at, cash in hand, for $1850. Thought that was the last of it... Noooo... almost a YEAR later, this guy phones and starts demanding his money back for the piece of %$#@ that I had sold him. The clutch had failed and he was holding me responsible for it. I simply told him it was unreasonable to expect me to offer any sort of warrenty and if he would refer to his bill of sale it stated "as-is" and "No warrenty offered or implied". The guy threatened legal action and hung up. Sure enough, a few months later I get a summons to appear in small claims court. This took all of 5 minutes as I produced the bill of sale (Which he claimed was doctored). Judgement for me with all courst costs going against him. Sometimes the system works.

Here's the fun part. A few years later the Bronco was up for sale for $1000 still not running. I bought it through a friend for $500, Fixed the clutch, cleaned it up and resold it $2000.

 

When I was in High school I sold a car to a seller whose main questions were regarding how fast it was, few weeks later I get an emergency call from home and walk into the office to call home , notice two guys (obviously cops) sitting there I call Mom and she asks what kind of trouble I was in, hang up and get escorted away by said gentlemen, wouldn't say what happened but car was involved in "major criminal offense" later get summons as car is impounded, and I still show as owner. I'm pumped, Resale! Dad shuts that down, see car on street later with about 5 large caliber bullet holes in drivers side door, quarter and B pillar. I guess it was just fast enough to outrun the cops but not a bullet. Changed the way I sell stuff.



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You got that right. I'd rather filter out the Aholes first. Then work toward a real buyer.

I sell on Clist alot. I got a K5 on there right now I'm trying to get rid of. It has a NEW built 350 motor maybe 3k miles, Built low mileage 700r4, good transfer case, and rebuilt rear end. New lift kit with excellant 35" tires. This Fk'r emails me and asked is it reliable and how good does it run? WTF?? Seriously? Another jackass asks me to send some video's of it running. So I do. Then he wants videos of me gauging the gas pedal. I resist for several weeks thinking what an idiot request. And then he comes back wanting those videos. I thought...well maybe he is truly interested. I sent the video. NOTHING. I knew he was jerking me around.

I've bought a go cart for $125, cleaned the carb, and resold it for $450.

I've got $450 in a low mile LQ4 6.0 complete from wheeling and dealing on Clist.

If you don't mind dealing with the crap, you can get some good deals on there.

And I bought my 53 on there too.

 

Good advice

 

I always post my number on c-list. It weeds out the bored e-mailers and picture collectors and 5 million question people.

 

I sold a non-HAMB car on clist last week in 2 days for $100.00 under the asking price. It was priced competitively, described accurately, 8 clear pictures, and included my phone number. The buyer was the only fellow who phoned. I responded to three emailers multiple times to no avail.

 

Holy shit this is a funny run of stories. I believe I've met most of these characters.
Could be a whole website on it's own if we all pitch in!

I had a guy come to look at an old ford pickup i'd listed. $700 is the price. Runs perfect, rusty beyond repair, 80,000 miles. Told the guy I'm leaving for work in 10 minutes- if you want it, give the money to my wife and she has the title. After walking in circles for his 10 minutes I said OK, I'm outta here. He says- well, we haven't started negotiating yet. This truck has rust that will be expensive to repair! I said- if you think your gonna fix the rust your an idiot, it ain't worth fixing. Drive it for a couple years and be done with it. Wife said he was still there an hour later- I called a friend to "encourage" him to leave cause it was bugging my wife.

My dad was one of those "I'll scrap it first" guys. Had a coil box for a model T at a swap meet. asking $10. Guy hounds him for half the day about taking $2 for it. He took the $2 from the guys hand, threw the coil box on the ground and stomped it to hell. Then said "That's a $2 coil box". Guy picked it up and walked off, head drooping.

 

I really do not understand the concept of "I'll scrap it before I sell it for that price". had a friend of mine say that about a pile of drag bike parts. Ultimately he sold it for a lot less than his original ask but it ended up in good hands and rebuilt. Which is the way it should be.

Why would you wreck something because you can't get the price you want ?? Just does not make sense to me... Not only do you destroy the part, but you still don't get the price you are asking... in fact you don't even get the insultingly low price either. Everyone loses... open to anyone who wants to explain

 

I'll be honest... I'll scrap things out of principal before selling it to some arrogant know it all that thinks I am hurting that bad that I'll take 80% less than what I am asking. This only applies to arrogant buyers. If I have something on Craigslist and a bunch of arrogant assholes call me on it beating me up. I'll part it out or scrap it.

 

I sold a car for about what i would have gotten at the scrap yard just so it wouldnt get scrapped! Ive also purposely sold a car for more than scrap prices so that no one could buy it just to scrap it. I guess it just depends on the situation at the time. Some people are just hatefull and would rather crush something on principal.

 

I'm not rich enough to be the "scrap it first" guy but I've gotten my $8 worth of laughs from my dads crazy attitude over the years. Grouchy ol bastard

 

What really pisses me off is when I offer someone a smokin' deal on something and they still want to talk me down. It also pisses me off when certain people go around all the time with the idea that they should get a really good deal because they don't have a lot of money...as if I should take it in the shorts because they spent all their dough on beer and cigarettes.

 

Few years back I went to buy an O/T Lincoln that had hit a deer. The entire front clip was destroyed and it would have cost more to fix than the car was worth. The seller and I had settled on a price. Then he asked me my plan for the car. I told him that I was buying it for the low mileage 302, AOD and disc brake 5 lug rear that I needed for a project. Immediately he was furious. He thought the car should be repaired and refused to sell me the car. From that day on I tell all sellers that I'm going to restore their precious car, regardless of my real intentions. Lesson learned. CTJ

 

My son is 13 and has been with me for hundreds of swap meets, parts purchases, etc. I have always taught him, never pay the asking price. HOWEVER, there is an,exception to that rule, if it's a great deal pay the price, thank them and be happy about the purchase. He has recognized great deals in his purchases and used this advice several times in his life. He's quite the little wheeler dealer. CTJ

 

I'm interested in the truck and I am willing to pay your asking price, but I need to make payments...

 

I have one on C/L and I say in the ad I will reply by email. I've had one guy email and say to call him about 20 times now. I've replied to him every time asking when he wants to come see the truck. No answer. Emails asking to call get ruder and ruder. Needless to say, I'm not going to call. I don't need to sell it that bad to deal with the hassle.

 

Yep, the I'll scrap it first guys really show em. Now they have no money and no part to sell - yeah, that really shows them.

And the title of this was "Jerks who call on cars ...." yet it seems from many of these stories we need to start one called "Jerks who are selling shit"

 

Well...let's look at it this way. If you have a car that is easily worth $1000 and all you get is losers who offer you $120 worth food stamps and promises, scrapping the car has a lot of appeal. First, you'll get more for it in scrap than $120. Second, even if the scrap value is nothing, you at least get to give the finger to the losers in way that really hurts. There's not much worse than an 'enthusiast' who wants to pay 10% of what his beloved item is generally worth.

 

You obviously aren't serious about selling if you only want to play e-mail tag. The phone gets it done 100 times faster. Not everyone has time to get on the computer and play tag with you. Go back to the playground if you wanna do that.

 

very strange way to sell something.

 

I had an O/T car for sale that a guy was trying to low ball me on the price (asking $800). I had done some work on the car but it needed an exhaust (had open headers)
He said he would give me $500 and I could remove the parts I installed!!! Gave me his number and left.
About a week later I called him and told him I removed my parts if he wanted the car. He showed up with his trailer and threw a fit because I removed the 50,000 mile Cleveland I had just installed. Needless to say, he did not take the car, but that was okay, I had someone that wanted it without the engine. I was just being as big of an ass to him as he was to me.