Is this Typical Craigslist?

Be very carefull dealing with ads on CL. Not everyone is trustworthy.

 

I am guilty of taking a bit to get pics for people. If the people want other pics or pics of baby chicks sometimes it can take a bit because I have a lot to do one the farm or my camera is always dead on batteries.. Lol. I always try to post pics of what I'm selling... But if they want others , then it can take me a few days.....

 

In my experience, I only reply to adds that have a picture and a phone number. It's almost like people don't really want to make a sale or something. A lot of spam as well.

For selling, I list it first thing on my day off work. Good photos, phone number. Available time to make the sale. First come, first serve, no I won't hold it for a week or deliver it to your house for free.

I've gotten some really good deals. Found some great homes for ducks. Spent the better part of 3 months looking for a granny car. Car shopping on CL is terrible. People won't answer you back. They lied. Not enough info in the add, making you call, only to find out it's not what you're looking for. Or they made up a price that has nothing to do with the actual value of the vehicle. Or they have it priced on the "excellent" KBB price, say OBO, but are only willing to drop $100. As if none of them have sold a car before. I ended up at a dealership, totally frustrated. When I got home, I looked for my car on CL... I paid less, on average $1,000 less on 1 year OLDER! And got a two year warranty thrown in since the car is 7 years old. Stupid CL!

After using CL for a long while, you can get a feel for if the add is worth responding to or not. Like in the car area, if it has copy&pasted vehicle stats with a stock photo and no phone number, it's spam/scam. If you blue book it and it's way less... spam/scam.

With animals... if there isn't a photo you're better off going to look after speaking on the phone with them. If there isn't a photo in the add, it's like pulling teeth.

Try to always take someone with you, or meet in a public place. Always speak over the phone, you can initiate contact through email, but you need to speak to someone before you commit to meeting them.

CL has weirdos all over it. But it gets so many more hits than Ebay classifieds.