No doubt there is a lot of scamming going on CL. But it’s pretty easy to spot that stuff. The dead giveaways are things like listings with no phone numbers, items that are priced waaaaaay below true market value. A car sold in say NYC, showing palm trees in the background of the pictures. You just have to learn to ignore the noise and after a while it’s just internalized to spot real vs fake.
If someone is naive enough to fill out a credit app or send money through paypal or whatever, based on an email alone without doing any due diligence…as the old saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted. The vast majority of online fraud is committed against people either being lazy or greedy. Too lazy to check out if a link to a credit app is legit for example. Or greedy in thinking they can get that 2011 BMW for $12K, which usually goes for $25K. Craigslist isn’t anything new, it’s just a new way of people getting conned, using modern technology.
I’ve been buying/selling big ticket items on CL for, I dunno, 10, 12 years and never had an issue. And it’s not doing transactions “on CL”. CL is just a portal where buyers and sellers are introduced to each other. Once that introduction is made, it’s up to each party to be smart. It’s a bit like meeting someone in a bar. The bar isn’t responsible for what happens when you leave, it’s just a place where people meet. Some people are cool, some are assholes. You need to be able to differentiate them.
I have sold a few cars (Ranging a few thousands to more than 30k) and other items on CL and had pleasant experience. You just have to be smart about it.
Cars with higher prices are more difficult to sell via online platform such as CL/ebay/cars.com since there are less demand. I normally will get a trade in quote from the dealer, then add couple grands and try to sell it myself for couple of weeks. If I still could not sell it myself, then I will trade it in to the dealer.
I’d argue that selling your car on the craigslist is actually more convenient than going to a dealer:
You don’t even have to drive to a {{dealer_name}}, people come to you instead.
You don’t get to experience hate for humanity after dealing with a professional buyer at {{dealer_name}} who’s gonna tell you how crappy your car is and how bad you’ve been maintaining it.
At least you’re dealing with a person who’s trying to “get a deal” rather than with a {{dealer_name}}, who’s daily job is to rip you off.
Same here: I’ve been downshifting this summer a bit, and sold 2 of my cars: a Miata and a Mazda 2, and it was a breeze. I’ve got to clean them up, take a lot of really nice pictures, and deal with people who were happy and thankful for selling my cars to them in a great condition and at a reasonable price.
Also, nice bonus, both cars were sold for ~$1,000 above “private sale” KBB price, and ~$1,000,000*** above what dealers have been offering me.
***dramatization. I didn’t actually go to dealers, why would I?
@kokajambo not sure if you’ve ever gone to CarMax to get a quote on your car but there’s no “professional buyer” telling you anything bad about your car. You hand any sales guy with a blue shirt the key, they drive it to the back to get inspected then about an hour later they ask you to come to their computer where they show you an inspection report with the offer. That sales guy has no idea about anything bad on your car other than what’s on the report, so he’s not going to S#it on your vehicle and CarMax doesn’t haggle price so it’s a “take it or leave it” situation with no back and forth of any kind.
It’s pretty straight forward and relatively painless (with the exception of the price the are likely offering you which is prob low).
Meeting shady people, haggling about price, dealing with the title, dealing with the payment, hoping they won’t come to your house at night with a machete after the cigarette lighter stops working on a used car you didn’t tell them upfront (since we’re doing some “dramatization” i thought i’d throw that in)…i mean to each their own…but i won’t do it for a few extra bucks.
And they also point out the 3/16" scratch that is invisible to the naked eye and can be buffed out in 2 minutes as evidence of why your car is in “fair” condition instead of “good” condition. What’s so bad about back and forth? That’s part of the fun isn’t it? Grinding deals on both the selling and buying side.
The one and only time I got a Carmax buy offer was an almost new Jeep. I decided I didn’t like it. But it was in pristine shape, flawless. They offered me $30K. I sold it a week later privately for $36K. Like I said, first and last time I ever bothered with Carmax.
Seriously? Dealing with the title takes about 30 seconds…fill out the seller’s info, sign it, date it. Done.
Haggling? Yeah it’s part of the sales process. I ask $10K you offer $9K we meet at $9500. Again, takes about 30 seconds.
Carmax is good for one thing though. They have a lot of selection, so if you want to test drive a bunch of different, fairly new cars, you can do it all in one place. Never buy from there, but you can spend an afternoon test driving all sorts of different options to get a feel for what you like/dislike. Then go somewhere else and buy for 20% less.
You’re right, I actually haven’t been to carmax, maybe I just wasn’t lucky with other dealers in the past and still experience a bit of a ptsd related to it.
After all, purchase/lease experience with different dealers in different areas also varies a lot.
I’d list it on the most popular auction site in the world, cars and autotrader dot com. CL is good for cheap cars, but it’s a bear unless you sell your Honda under market price.
I agree with most regarding “cheap cars” and their place on CL. In my case our second car is a complete beater, I use it for short hauls and nothing too taxing. My stand on that is my car is max worth $500-$750 to a private seller and the time spent on CL doesn’t justify the $200-$300 I’ll lose out by taking to the Carmax or trading it in… or donating it.
If I had a $20k car, it would be a different story. The money you’d save by going private on a car like that is 2-3x more than our second car is worth. lol
Yeah when you get down to the sub $1000 car it’s a diminishing return on the time invested. Donating it is the best way, you get the tax credit which is 30%ish plus you help out a cause.
What’s so bad about back and forth? That’s part of the fun isn’t it? Grinding deals on both the selling and buying side.