I put an ad on Craigslist to trade trees but included "would sell/buy", got an offer that I suspect is a scammer, badly need advice!

[bonsaibp]

Just block his number and ignore him if your that uncomfortable no need to say anything. $500 for all three is not out of the question though.

 

[jriddell88]

I’ve used craiglist for years , never had any problems yet, I’ve bought cars , trucks , mowers , tractors , my buddy bought a 36k$ cash bass boat.smooth sailing. You can usually tell if someone’s fake, meet them at the court house /police station lol

 

[Cadillactaste]

For trading...don't you have a club around you for a chance at trading?

 

[Rose Mary]

I’ve used craiglist for years , never had any problems yet, I’ve bought cars , trucks , mowers , tractors , my buddy bought a 36k$ cash bass boat.smooth sailing. You can usually tell if someone’s fake, meet them at the court house /police station lol

me too. Lots of safe purchases thru craigslist. Just meet in a public place. I often go to the home of a seller to pick stuff up. would never let a stranger come to my place for trees!

 

[jriddell88]

I just sold a boat , local guy, came to my house , I could tell he was no threat though , brought he whole family

 

[GailC]

I've never had a problem with craigslist either. Usually meet in public but a couple times I've had to go to someone's house or have them come here. Always take a friend to meetings.
I don't see anything that screams scam to me. Sometimes people lose or forget passwords, I know my hubby could never get into his email if I didn't have the pass wrote down. He only logs on maybe once a year if that.
What I would do it call the guy, yes, use your face and make actual words. I hate working out details through text, anyways, call and work out a time and place to meet. If he gives you the run around or later tries to change the meeting, then block him. Make absolutely sure he understands its cash only, never take a check.

 

[Nwaite]

If your feeling this freaked out then don't do it.... No need to make it any bigger if a deal then that....

But you should not put stuff on there if y9ur not really going to do it... If all you wanted to do was trade then say that!

If you really wanted to sell then you will have to meet people you don't know, and it's most likely going to be a bit word untill you have don't this sort of thing a bunch of times.

And FYI just because some one sounds "fishy" doesn't mean they are... some of the most smoth talkers iv met were some real MFen scum bags.

Good luck, hoofully if you sell it works out ok.

 

[SU2]

I dont' think robbery is on his mind, more likely he's going to try and sell you something. Robbery, of course, is never out of the question.

As for going to a meeting like this with a handgun? well, if you're going to do that why bother at all. You've got obvious severe reservations if you're considering that.

Best response is "got a better offer. Trees are sold!" and leave it at that. Doesn't matter if he thinks your lying. HE'S lying. If he persists, don't respond.

Sell me something? Interesting, hadn't thought of that- to be honest he didn't seem to have any knowledge of bonsai at all....my best guess is he was an odd foreigner who was tire-kicking, won't find out because it never even came to me having to make-up an excuse why I wouldn't meet, he simply never replied after the last text re meet-up locations!

That happened to a local guy. He took the car he was trying to sell to the buyers work parking lot. The "supposed" buyer, took the car for a test drive, killed the seller, and stole his car. Even if you need the $, I would stay away. Not saying the guy is dangerous, but just sounds suspicious.

Wow that's terrible

What? You not my offer take seriously!

ROFL! The first times he contacted me was by phone (not text) and that's basically how he talked, I couldn't peg the accent but it was clear english wasn't his first language.

$500 for all three is not out of the question though.

It was actually just for two, upon further texts it realized he was just looking for the huge one and the twin-trunk (not the raft as well), if anything it's a real cool silver-lining to find out I've got some specimen that're actually 'ok' enough that they'd be desirable, I spent a lot of my collecting time just collecting whatever I could so it's cool to know some of them actually have some potential!

For trading...don't you have a club around you for a chance at trading?

Negative, at least not after my first search (the day I posted this thread), am going to look again but facebook and google didn't turn up anything useful - have been thinking to post to a bonsai-club's page to see if anyone's looking to trade (even though it's not a 'trade page'), also thinking to make a thread in this subforum w/ location in the title to see if I can find anyone local! I've just got sooo many bougies / little diversity in my collection so figure there's gotta be people who'd want to trade, not everybody is happy to dig-out huge bougies like I am

If your feeling this freaked out then don't do it.... No need to make it any bigger if a deal then that....

But you should not put stuff on there if y9ur not really going to do it... If all you wanted to do was trade then say that!

If you really wanted to sell then you will have to meet people you don't know, and it's most likely going to be a bit word untill you have don't this sort of thing a bunch of times.

And FYI just because some one sounds "fishy" doesn't mean they are... some of the most smoth talkers iv met were some real MFen scum bags.

Good luck, hoofully if you sell it works out ok.

It wasn't the quality of his talking it was the specifics of the situation (cannot say he was a smooth talker or linguistically sounded fishy, it was the details/specifics that seemed fishy) Fully agree w/ your first sentence though and that's the approach I took, insofar as having made the post I just didn't expect offers and said "really just looking to trade" but was afraid it'd get flagged-for-removal if it was a trade-only listing in a for-sale section (and I know a bonsai ad would get much less visibility in the trading area than the Farm&Garden area yknow?) Am comfortable w/ craigslist I use it very frequently for buying & selling, though not once for anything bonsai-related..

I just sold a boat , local guy, came to my house , I could tell he was no threat though , brought he whole family

Yeah I've found at least 2/3rds of CL'ers to be decent people, both my laptop and my TV were items I had delivered right to my house and could tell (over the phone) that they were not deserving of any worry! The remaining people tend to be kind of scuzzy types of people, like trying to negotiate downward after agreeing to a 'firm' sale (I think they presume you've put the time in and will just go for their 80% offer - I never do, just on principle lol, and have had more than one time where someone's said they only had x% of the $ with them, like "crap I didn't bring $35 I only have 28 on me" stuff, I've had multiple times where that's happened, I said 'ok then we'll re-meet', and they simply went to their car and magically find the $ to meet my 'firm' price!)

 

[jriddell88]

I automatically throw a low ball offer out if I really want the item ! ?

 

[sorce]

So is @SU2 bagged in the back of an SUV?

Sorce

 

[leatherback]

I think the prices mentioned are not ridiculous at all. The bougie you have there..
I could not get that for probably 500 euros..

What I do is ask people to meet me at my work's parking. (Granted, I work at a university, so loads of cars). But it is public, and if you are worried you ask some good colleagues of you to also walk out with a cup of coffee. Then they can 'pretend' to eye your trees, and at the same time you have the personal security you seem worried about.

I never get people over to my garden have not know in some way for a bit.

 

[M. Frary]

I would meet him someplace remote. If he doesn't want witnesses then I probably don't either.
Crooks go missing all of the time.