Volpone
Zombie Hunter
"...and if a man's gonna make it he's got to be tough..."
-or-
Dealing with goofballs on CraigsList and other random musings.
So if you're selling a car on CraigsList, you've got to understand that about 80% of the people you deal with are flakes that will waste your time. They'll want the car--need it--have to have it--TODAY. Then when you set up a time and place for them to see it, they won't show. But I've never come to someone's house and had them not show.
I'm moving and won't be bringing my car with me. Tomorrow night I get on a plane so lets just say I'm a motivated seller. Initially I priced the car at $1,200--fair market value for it, according to Blue Book. That got no traction, so I went down to $999.
This at least generated interest. One guy absolutely wanted to see it and wanted to know when he could see it. He never replied when I gave him some times. One kid actually looked at it. And I mean "kid". I offered to let him test drive it and he drove it around the mall parking lot(!). He never got back to me.
So last night, I got a call while I was at a going away party from someone who wanted to see the car--that night if possible. I arranged to call him a couple hours later when I could talk. I called him and he said he wanted to see it this morning BUT could I come to his house? Sure, I said. AND would I take $700 for the car? :garamet: Sure, I said. (Heck, I'll either get fucked by a used car dealer who'll give me maybe $500 or just donate the car to charity, so $700 wasn't terrible.)
So he e-mails me his address and the time to show up: 11:30 barely still morning. But if the car gets out of my hands, it'll be worth it. So I get in my car and drive 45 minutes to the location. The guy calls me halfway there to ensure I'm coming. I arrive at 11:31. There's no one there. :garamet: So I call him. Get voicemail. Double-check the number and call again. Voicemail again.
So I've just blown around 2 hours and a couple gallons of gas on a wild goose chase. He eventually called me almost an hour after the time he said to show up. Of course by then I'd programmed my cell phone to show him on caller ID as "waste." I dunno. Maybe I'll call him back and offer to sell the car to him for $1200 if he comes to me to see it.
The moral of our tale? I dunno. At the most literal level, that the people who buy beater cars on CraigsList in Hawaii are even less reliable than the cars they're buying.
At a more philosophical level, Jesus, while he had a pretty neat idea, was completely wrong. You can't be nice to people. Because most people don't deserve to be treated with compassion--don't want it, even. They want to be herded and told what to do and taken advantage of by the few that are hard enough and mean enough to do it. And that everyone from the Marine Corps, with their method of training to Johnny Cash in "Boy Named Sue" is on the mark in that you have to be a hard, mean, dickhead to succeed in this world.
-or-
Dealing with goofballs on CraigsList and other random musings.
So if you're selling a car on CraigsList, you've got to understand that about 80% of the people you deal with are flakes that will waste your time. They'll want the car--need it--have to have it--TODAY. Then when you set up a time and place for them to see it, they won't show. But I've never come to someone's house and had them not show.
I'm moving and won't be bringing my car with me. Tomorrow night I get on a plane so lets just say I'm a motivated seller. Initially I priced the car at $1,200--fair market value for it, according to Blue Book. That got no traction, so I went down to $999.
This at least generated interest. One guy absolutely wanted to see it and wanted to know when he could see it. He never replied when I gave him some times. One kid actually looked at it. And I mean "kid". I offered to let him test drive it and he drove it around the mall parking lot(!). He never got back to me.
So last night, I got a call while I was at a going away party from someone who wanted to see the car--that night if possible. I arranged to call him a couple hours later when I could talk. I called him and he said he wanted to see it this morning BUT could I come to his house? Sure, I said. AND would I take $700 for the car? :garamet: Sure, I said. (Heck, I'll either get fucked by a used car dealer who'll give me maybe $500 or just donate the car to charity, so $700 wasn't terrible.)
So he e-mails me his address and the time to show up: 11:30 barely still morning. But if the car gets out of my hands, it'll be worth it. So I get in my car and drive 45 minutes to the location. The guy calls me halfway there to ensure I'm coming. I arrive at 11:31. There's no one there. :garamet: So I call him. Get voicemail. Double-check the number and call again. Voicemail again.
So I've just blown around 2 hours and a couple gallons of gas on a wild goose chase. He eventually called me almost an hour after the time he said to show up. Of course by then I'd programmed my cell phone to show him on caller ID as "waste." I dunno. Maybe I'll call him back and offer to sell the car to him for $1200 if he comes to me to see it.
The moral of our tale? I dunno. At the most literal level, that the people who buy beater cars on CraigsList in Hawaii are even less reliable than the cars they're buying.
At a more philosophical level, Jesus, while he had a pretty neat idea, was completely wrong. You can't be nice to people. Because most people don't deserve to be treated with compassion--don't want it, even. They want to be herded and told what to do and taken advantage of by the few that are hard enough and mean enough to do it. And that everyone from the Marine Corps, with their method of training to Johnny Cash in "Boy Named Sue" is on the mark in that you have to be a hard, mean, dickhead to succeed in this world.
