I know, I know it has been discussed before, but it seems to be getting worse. Past week I had three confirmed classified sales. Only one followed through. One posted on my ad the he would take the item. Had me check shipping cost, said he was sending # for part and shipping. I packaged the part. Calls me a day later and said he changed his mind, taking his build in a different direction. Another contacted me via phone and said he would take the part. He was relatively local, so we worked out an exchange meeting. I posted sale pending. On my way to the meet this morning he called and said he had decided not to buy it. My morning was shot, plus out gas for delivery. Used to be this happened only occassionaly. Now it occures about once or twice out of every 10 prospective sales. Of course it costs the buyer, who posts or says he will take the part nothing. No loss to him. But there is a larger ethical matter here and really nothing the classified administrators can do. SO TO YOU DIPSHITS THAT CRUZE THE CLASSIFIEDS AND TELL SELLERS YOU WILL TAKE AN ITEM, ONLY TO BACK OUT AT THE LAST MINUTE, FIND ANOTHER VENUE TO SCREW AROUND ON.
......or the people bug the shit out of you for info on the part. I have a 235 "core" engine for sale on here and Craigslist. I have a guy that wants to come completely tear the motor apart and measure everything before he buys it. It is $100....roll the dice. I am not hiding anything. That's why it is a core motor. He's going to waste $100 worth of my time.
I have sold many items on here without and problems, thanks HAMBers. I do see alot of people postng on the adds still, the sticky tells you what you can and can't post. I sold some parts to a HAMBer a short time ago, replied to an add he posted in the wanted section, all went smoothly. Someone had posted on his wanted add before i saw it that they had what he needed, before he found the reply on the add another member saw the reply, PMed him and bought the parts out from under him. If the person had responded to the add with a PM, all would have been great. Many here post adds for sale and wanted and don't check them regulary, a private message will get you MUCH better results.
I have had similar experiences so now, I don't travel or package for anyone until cash is received...then it's sold.
No offense intended but life goes on. I do understand where you are comming from completely. It is more than a frustration when you are just trying to get by and loosing money in the process. A few years back I had made a deal on an engine that I really wanted and sold a bunch of stuff to pay for. I had a couple of fellas back out on sales of some of the things that I had sold. It put me in a bad spot but I had made the deal and didn't want to leave the other fella hanging. I dropped him a not and let him know my situation, I was embarrased as hell but you got to try and deal straight up with folks. Long story short I ended up making a new friend and a good one at that. He wrote back and said its your engine pay me when the money comes in. I know this isn't my place or my thread but I want to say this to those who feel the need to back out on a deal. Make all your dealings in life as straight up as possible, the end of the day all you really have is your word. No one cares how cool you are or how many toys you got what they will remember is if you kept your word or didn't.
Or you have the idiots like me who get everything ready to go(pallatized) then delete your PM's( as ryan asked awhile back) now I can't remember who wanted this thing....
Two things: 1. Nothing is sold until it is paid for... Like wise, never list something as sold unless cash is in hand. Simple. 2. We aren't a classifieds site. If you are using us for that, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. Our classifieds section is only there for members to help each other out.
I guess the HAMB is like any other group, you get lots of different kinds of people. Most will respect fellow members and also want to keep a good reputation on here, but some don't play by those same rules. I have only had a couple of dealings with members on sales but all have been first rate. I also take special care to make sure the buyer knows all the little flaws because this is a small community and I don't want another member thinking badly of me. My real problem is with Craigslist.........they must screen people and only let people buy who A) Never show up, B) Try to beat you out of more money after you have already dropped your price, or C) Try to scam you in one way or another. I hate to list anything on there any more. Don
Then there is the other side of a deal. I "bought" something from a Hamber and sent him the PO Money order he would only accept as payment. After a week or two he says he can't find the item, that maybe he sold it at a swap meet. WTF? Didn't he have it in hand when he posted the item and photo? Its not like it was an old ad I responded to. He did return the MO. A couple weeks later he says he found it if I still want it. Yeah, jerk me around a second time. So... if you're selling something, get your act together as well. It goes both ways.
Listed my car trailer yesterday and of course a new guy 1st post ,no intro posts on the ad .Very intersted in your item,would like to see in person. This guy is in Pa. and I am in Fla. Now if that doesn't sound like a Craigslist flake what does. I have bought a lot of good parts and sold stuff to other Hamb members and had good,honest deals. Even have had a few deals where the seller puts the stuff in the mail same day as I send him the payment. Respect is earned not automatic. If you flake out on a deal you have reached the shit list and nobody picks up shit.
According to Carlin between 5 and 10% of the populous is " Fucking nuts" so accordingly that's 7 to 14 thousand nuts on here, hey even if you think hotrodders are more mentally stable you still have 1000 nuts at 1%. You should have bought a squirrel.
I'll never understand why someone would post "Sale Pending". It's sold or it isn't. Have you received the cash? It's sold, mark it so. Not seen the cash? It's still for sale. What the hell is sale pending? All it does is scare off people who otherwise might have bought the thing.... As for bad buyers, I don't know how you measure it. I think the sellers are to blame a chunk of the time. I for sure have backed out of a deal or two because I started getting a bad feeling.
I can't stand seeing dudes post "I'll take it!" and then the ad gets bumped. Worse yet, like you said, are the "buyers" who post "Sold!" on the ad. When I see that I typically delete it with a message that the seller is the only one who can say an item is sold. I was pretty happy when replies were not allowed at all. Less crap to deal with. Unfortunately, people quit posting new ads when we did that.
Really never had a problem. Very pleased with the buyers I've had and the sellers I've bought items from. Thanks guys for suppling the classified portion of the board.
Have never sold anything on the HAMB---did have a taker on an item but he needed to wait until payday---color me stupid but I waited for him and lost a couple of other possibilities in the process. The appointed time comes and he won't respond to PM's. Like Beaner said, make your deals straight up. As for me, it'll be a cold day in hell when I wait for someone again....$$$ talks, bullshit walks.
At the end of the day, if you only buy from or sell to Alliance members, you are much safer... In fact, I've never had a deal between two alliance members that I haven't been able to solve quickly. And that's a lot of transactions in 6 years...
I saw something I needed a while back and sent a pm stating I want it and asked about shipping. It took the guy over a week to reply with a shipping price. Then I asked another question and it took another week and a half to reply, and he ignored one part of my question. He was fairly new with low post count, not alliance. My gut said no. I think he was offended but who knows when this guy would ship if it takes a week to answer a question. I agree with Ryan, buy from alliance members..
I have never sold anything here, (tried) but I have bought a lot of parts and buying from a fellow member gives me some comfort that it will be a fair deal. And so far they all have. When I decide to sell I will only do it here on the HAMB to alliance members because I know most are up right fellow members and will be posted as such. Ryan if this is outside the classified rules please advise.
i'm a flakey pick-upper. it only happened once and still can't find the guys info to contact him. i found a 59ab semi complete engine on craigslist in delaware and only dealt with the seller over the phone. i sent him money, but I needed borrow a truck to go pick it up. he was fine holding it for a week or 2. 2 weeks later my buddy offers me his truck so I look but can't find his phone number. it's been over 8 months. hopefully he resold it by now or he is bitching about the guy who never came to pick it up. my loss. if anyone knows a guy in northern delaware with a flathead that some punk in NJ hasn't come for yet, PM me!
I've said this before many many times over the years and why people don't buy or sell this way is beyond me. Buy or sell stuff with USPS COD Sellers get their money. Buyers get there stuff. ( WITH INSURANCE FOR BOTH SELLER AND BUYER) So if broken, then you get some money back. If the buyer re-fuses it - it's returned to the seller. Bump your shipping by $ 5.00 to cover re-fusal risk. If the seller never sends it - the buyer is out nothing. Seems like a reasonable way to cover both ends. Could there a small percentage of buyers who may open a package and not quite what you thought ? Sure, but you still have a part to keep or re- sell and maybe work out a deal with the buyer for a refund or some sort or a break on a future deal. I can't tell you how many guys have contacted me about I sent the money and I'm waiting a month to get my part. Or - the guy said he would buy it and never sent the money. USPS COD would eliminate 98% of - seller never sent part or buyer never sent money. Granted Alliance member a little less risk but really buy and sell with anybody USPS COD and your risk is a whole lot less anyway. How hard is it to understand this ? Cob Moderator
Heres the one thing that drivesx me up a wall when selling on the HAMB: 1: Ad is posted 2: I receive an "I'll take it" PM 3: I reply immediately with payment details and check the senders profile to see they are still online 4: Twenty minutes go by without a response 5: I continue to check and see that the member is still online 6: The "buyer" signs off the HAMB without a response That kind of crap makes me want to smash my monitor. WTF?!?!? How do you not see the blinking envelope on your screen? ANSWER YOUR PM's.
it's possible that while still being logged on to the hamb, they're checking on another site, perhaps the jockey journal. i do it all the time. i'm going there now.
idea A: post it on ebay and advertise it here, then the sale will be secured. well... 98% secured. yu will have that many more ppl looking at it as well. there are ppl that flake on ebay but, they don't last long. ++++ idea B: post a restriction: "I only sell to Alliance members". as for the blinking envelope, i think there is a setting for that. some ppl kill it on the settings. i have a SMF forum, not sure how it works on vBulliten. for HAMB, I only get a msg notice upon logging in, my browser does not show me any notice once I have logged in. idea C: and CornCob is right, the post office offers COD. use it.
Dealing with ONLY HAMB Alliance members does weed out the crap pretty fast. I have never had a HAMB deal go bad yet..... knock on wood.... & I have bought & sold a ton of parts through the HAMB & Everyone seems to be close knit & men of their words from my experience but......I have run across a few HAMB Alliance members that have let their buddies sell parts using their HAMB Alliance credentials. Any Alliance member that allows third parties to sell parts using their Alliance status puts their ass on the line & they are at the mercy of their buddies to come through clean on the deal. It starts to get shady when the Alliance member who posted the For Sale ad & the REAL seller are not the same person & even more shady when they want the Pay Pal payment to go to someone that is neither the HAMB Alliance member or the actual seller of the parts. Just sayin'.... Cover Yer Ass even with Alliance sellers. Maybe there should be a rule that if you are an Alliance member.... you can only sell your own parts & not rent out your Alliance status to just anyone who comes along ?
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