To think people really are CFers when it comes to second hand items?

[TheIckabog]

I am selling an item on a local selling page. It cost me £280 which included the main item plus some extras. The item is in ‘as new’ condition, all original box etc, in fact I think I only used it a handful of times. These items don’t come up very often as they are expensive but they are desirable.

Anyway, I’ve had lots of interest in this item and have had at least four people agree to purchase it, right down to arranging to meet up. Each one of them have then said they won’t take it unless I lower the price! Someone wanted to pay £80 and said they could get it for £200 new. When I refused to lower the price I got a load of abuse!

AIBU to think this is CF-ery to the highest degree? I’m not about to practically give it away and it’s unlikely that they would be able to get this item in such a excellent condition for any less.

I sell a lot second hand on local pages so I know about pricing items at a reasonable price to sell however I think that given it was £280 new and I’m asking £150 it’s a bit cheeky to then try and undercut by another £70!

Totickleamockingbird

This is my experience with all second hand stuff ever.

"As boden top age 4-5" (with very carefully lit picture).
They are usually selling it for as much as 50% of the rrp.

It arrives and it's clearly been worn and washed about 10 times at least. The navy is that distinct faded shade of something washed repeatedly in persil non bio with its aggressive whiteners. Its at best a reasonable condition second hand item.

I haven't had too many CF's with things I've sold but then I am very clear with pricing and my own T&C's, as such (and good at ignoring total twats). My better half has had more than his fair share of the CF's though, and, like you, mostly from local/Facebook type groups. The ones that really wind him up aren't so much the ones that try to knock a tenner off higher priced stuff, but ones he sees where things are already dirt cheap, like a fiver when someone is having a mad clear out, and up pops said CF saying "will you take £1.75?". He knew one lady whose hubby buggered off just before Xmas and she was selling a few bits to get money for presents for her kids and Xmas dinner, and still people tried to knock the price down even though what she was asking was already under-priced for quick sales. I've had a few that might be CF's or might just be bloody thick, when I have sold pricier items and put in big bold capital letters something along the lines of "COLLECTION ONLY - WILL NOT POST UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - PAY CASH ON COLLECTION OR PAYPAL, NO CHEQUES' ...and then get the inevitable "I was wondering if you could just send to blah blah blah" - OR ..."Can I write you a cheque?" (As well as not trusting the post or people who say they never received items and try to claim a refund as well as whatever they bought, I am housebound so I'm not just being an awkward cow, getting stuff to the Post Office is a mission for me!)

Stick to your guns, ignore the CF's or send sarcastic replies and if anyone takes the piss refuse to sell to them at any price - their loss, and might teach them a lesson in not being a twat! Some people seem to have that sense of entitlement that makes them believe you should accept any cheeky offer they make. Oh, and anyone that gets abusive should be blanked without a second thought - you are selling items not inviting people to abuse you - block, ignore, report if needs be, but don't have any dealings with them, one way or another they'll be trouble. If someone agrees a price then that is the price - the only time there might be wiggle room was if the item was found to be other than described (e.g. a fault, mark etc was found at time of purchase). Good luck with your sales anyway, I hope you get your things sold for acceptable prices and don't have to endure any more gobby idiots!

was selling a brand new Amazon Echo Dot in an unopened, sealed box - checked the going price and they were £40 so I listed it at £30 on a local selling group on FB.

To be fair these are frequently on sale at £20 from amazon and then you get the guarantee. I'm not surprised she didn't want to pay £10 more for a product that would t be covered if something went wrong

Market place pet hate is when the listing says needs a clean/wash..... so dear seller bloody clean/wash it!!!!

I often don't have the time or energy to do so, the price reflects this. No one has to buy it but people do as it's worth it for them.

Theres a women on one of my selling sites,always selling womens clothing with tags on.
It just makes me really suspicious,why not just return it.*

Could be seconds/end of line purchased for a bargain so making a profit, you see a lot of things with tk max labels too where the original price of the product would have been significantly higher than what was paid

@Twigaletta

Collection only from X

Can you deliver? Nope collection only. And a please would be nice

I don't drive But you know someone who does and you don't know me so ask them to collect

Where are you? X is the name of a small village but sure here's the postcode

Sorry too far Which part of X village would it have needed to be to NOT be too far??

I’ve never sold on FB/FC (just eBay) but tempted to try just so I can try these lines

@EmbarrassingAdmissions he’s really shot himself in the foot hasn’t he? I’m glad for your sake he did, you were doing far too much. He doesn’t sound much of a friend, especially as only inherited. Please don’t cave when he inevitably realises he realises how good he had it.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Just wondering why, did they want it to be given to them for nothing?

I can only assume so. Boot sales are strange old places where people will quite happily spend the time of day haggling over literally 5 or 10p. Others will just wait until your back is turned and help themselves. I suppose it must be the frisson of overall victory and not just the 5p saving on a bit of old tat itself that enthralls those with very sad, dull lives. Most of them are not hard-up at all - plenty will go and pay £4 for a burger or £2 for a coffee without complaint.

I see this a lot at our local market, which can be brilliant for bargains (mostly new stuff).

People quibble over 50p and then go to buy souvlaki and chips for £7

Don’t get me wrong I love a bargain and will haggle as it’s accepted bur think some take it to extremes.

I just had one last night - not so much CF, just annoying and a little rude. Selling in FB, something for £3. Get the usual 'is it available?' Reply yes and they ask where I am! It gives you the location in FB and I write it in the description! So I tell her where I am and just get 'oh, ok.' No, 'sorry it's too far' or anything! I always check their profile and saw they were a little far away but they may have come this way for work etc so gave them the benefit of the doubt. But to not 'say sorry, but no', is just rude!

Yes. It gave me a very different perspective on the fact that he obviously believed that he was doing me an enormous favour. Whereas I thought I was doing it because he was an (inherited) family friend and (ironically) I knew that the state of his flat wasn't good for his respiratory problems. It's not my idea of a good time to do that much deep cleaning and repair work. (In addition to the above, I not only washed out all of the cupboards but dismantled and reassembled all of the traps, undersink, washing machine/dishwasher plumbing to clean them all out of slime mould because it affects the drainage and smells so much.)

This sounds like an extraordinary situation. He was getting all that work done by you, for nothing. Wow.

This sounds like an extraordinary situation. He was getting all that work done by you, for nothing. Wow.

Sadly, there are more landlords out there than you'd like to think (and this is sort of what he was on a short-term basis) who gladly take hundreds or even thousands each month from their tenants, but still believe they're doing them a massive favour letting them live in their house.

Not even just landlords: plenty of busybody neighbours who think they're cock of the walk just because they happen to own their home (or have a mortgage) and that people who rent their homes shouldn't be allowed to make any noise at all, let their children laugh and play in the garden or take a free parking space on the public road that a homeowner 'needs' - and will keep calling to 'report' them to their landlord, as if they were naughty little children.

@inappropriateraspberry

I just had one last night - not so much CF, just annoying and a little rude. Selling in FB, something for £3. Get the usual 'is it available?' Reply yes and they ask where I am! It gives you the location in FB and I write it in the description! So I tell her where I am and just get 'oh, ok.' No, 'sorry it's too far' or anything! I always check their profile and saw they were a little far away but they may have come this way for work etc so gave them the benefit of the doubt. But to not 'say sorry, but no', is just rude!

I don't think she was rude. She may not be familiar with FB and missed the location. She asked, you answered and she acknowledged your response with 'oh, ok'. That's more than enough, why should she apologise?

I don't think she was rude. She may not be familiar with FB and missed the location. She asked, you answered and she acknowledged your response with 'oh, ok'. That's more than enough, why should she apologise?

I think she was quite rude. It's a bit time-wasting to ignore the description and just ask a question that has already been clearly answered; but even then, would a "Ah, that's a bit far from me, but thanks anyway" have been so difficult?

Aside from the politeness question, 'Oh, OK' doesn't practically communicate to the seller that you're no longer interested. It could equally mean 'no, that's not doable, I'm out', 'suits me perfectly as I'm only around the corner' or 'that's not ideal, but I'll work out a solution and find a time when I can come over'.

A lot of CFs out there think that messaging you one or two random words gives them automatic first refusal and will return with abusive messages when they discover that you sold it to somebody replying five minutes after them, who communicated politely and coherently to arrange the deal, by saying "But I replied to your post and said 'mine', 'OK', 'yes' or 'interested', so you were well out of order to sell it to anybody else."

by saying "But I replied to your post and said 'mine', 'OK', 'yes' or 'interested', so you were well out of order to sell it to anybody else."

What sort of Neanderthal responds to an offer with "Mine"?! Or even "Yes"? Beyond belief 🤯
I'd shove it in the bin rather than deal with them.

What sort of Neanderthal responds to an offer with "Mine"?! Or even "Yes"? Beyond belief 🤯
I'd shove it in the bin rather than deal with them.

Trying to think charitably, I wonder if some don't realise that something said in person with a wink and a wry smile doesn't necessarily translate well to cold letters on a screen.

I reckon another main factor is that so many people are egocentric/dim/both that they don't comprehend that what appears on their FB feed also appears on lots of others' as well. Maybe they genuinely believe that you've specifically chosen them to make the offer to, rather than just advertising it to lots of people. Similar to when people receive automated mass emails from Amazon saying "Somebody has asked a question about this item you bought" and take the trouble to share the very helpful nugget of wisdom "No idea - it was a present for my Granddaughter who lives in Belgium" rather than ignoring it and leaving it to other buyers who have used the item and can give a helpful answer.

In fact, it occurs to me that, as people get so used to the fact that FB stalks you, knows everything about you and tries to personalise as much as possible to make money from help you, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot assume that FB simply wouldn't show them something that's not local or tailored to their interests, thus YOU are the timewaster, by somehow invading their own personal feed to sell something they don't want, can't afford, is 30 miles away and they don't have a vehicle to collect it!

But you do see it the other way around too - recently on our local buy/sell page there was a guy selling a 2nd hand fridge freezer. The fridge didn't work and he wanted £50 for it! Who would pay £50 for a half working FF???

Weirdly enough, I just had a man come to the door about our caravan on our drive. It's old and not worth very much, but we love it and it serves the dual purpose as a front 'garden room' and, of course, accommodation when on holiday. As caravans go, i's unremarkable for its age.

He banged on the door for a good five seconds and, as I was going to answer, he spotted the very prominent doorbell and rang it twice as well. Basically telling me that he was very important indeed, his time was important and I must therefore stop whatever unimportant thing I'm doing and report to him immediately. The conversation went like this:

"Are you selling your caravan?"
"No."
"How much would you want for it?"
"I wouldn't - it's not for sale."
"Have you already thought about how much you'd want for it?"
"No, because we don't want to sell it."
I'd give you a good price for it."
"No, thanks - it's not for sale."
"Why wouldn't you consider selling it?"
"Because we bought it because we wanted it and we use it so we don't want to sell it"
"Are you sure?!"
"Yes."
"Oh, well OK - you have a good day, then."
"You too - BYE THEN!!!!!!!"

Was he really thinking that long made my mind up to sell it, but had somehow never heard of putting up a sign or using one of the many online media to advertise it to a buyer? Maybe I'd thought about it carefully and concluded that by far the most efficient way to achieve a quick sale was to not indicate or publicise it in any way but to wait for a man to come and ring my doorbell

It's really creepy to think that somebody has been on your drive and examining your property sufficiently to know they want to buy it. Unless he routinely does it whenever he spots one and his 'good price' is about 10% of its minimum value. I had a lot of people do that before when my old but otherwise very good-condition car was off the road for a few months, awaiting funds for an expensive but essential replacement part - come to the door and/or put 'Scrap cars wanted - good prices paid!' business cards under the wipers.

What makes people do this? Fair enough of course to enquire if you've put up a For Sale sign in the vehicle window, but otherwise? Not even a tentative "I don't suppose you'd consider selling it, would you?" but straight in with a "How much do you want for the car/caravan?!" It's the 'the' that makes it doubly rude, I think - not 'your car' but 'the car', as if you have no real sense of ownership apart from on a technicality and the deal is already half done. I'm no super-sleuth, but I could spend two minutes online and find thousands of cars and caravans that are very much for sale in my area, or go on down to a dealer that exists for that very purpose.

I genuinely think that there are a lot of people who go through life deciding what stuff they want (or could resell for a profit) and grudgingly doing the minimum that they think necessary to get it. It's irrelevant if it belongs to somebody else, whether they want to sell and, if so, what price they will accept. They're like toddlers who've never grown up - you half expect them to start stamping and burst into tears with a "WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! But you don't understaaaaaaand: I WANT IT!!!!"

"Why wouldn't you consider selling it?" 😂😂😂

But you do see it the other way around too - recently on our local buy/sell page there was a guy selling a 2nd hand fridge freezer. The fridge didn't work and he wanted £50 for it! Who would pay £50 for a half working FF???

That's unrealistic, of course - although we did give away something exactly like that on FreeCycle a few years ago. We thought we'd offer, just in case anybody was desperate for a stop-gap freezer, and made it extremely clear that the fridge didn't work. Somebody came for it and said they could do with an 'overflow' freezer in their garage and would just use the fridge bit as a larder. We wouldn't have dreamed of asking for money for it, though!

I think the main difference is that, as a chancer would-be seller, people can just ignore you and your advert, but if you're a genuine seller, along with the genuine buyers, you also have to deal with all of the chancer buyers/freebie-wanters who crawl out of the woodwork and get in contact purely to irritate you and rip you off.

There is alot of overpriced stuff on selling sites nowadays.

I gave away an unused mattress on gumtree. Two people turned up and totally ignored me, just took it and left.

When I got a free slow cooker the same way, the "seller" was out and left it out for me. I left a note saying thank you.

I’ve just put a child’s toy on our local FB site. It was £200 new 2 years ago but it’s an outside toy so some of the paint has flaked. I was very clear about this in the ad but it was structurally perfect. I put it on for £50 as I thought I’d take a little less. The very first message I received within 1 minute was “I’ll take it today for £30” err No you won’t byeeeee

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I’d keep an eye on your caravan, he may well be back!

Not quite the same, but I have a house in my home country that I have rented out. Every so often, I get letters from property developers/house flippers wanting to buy it. They want to buy it cheaply, of course. They often call my parents’ number to ask about it (as that’s where all my paperwork goes). My DDad answered one such call the other day that went like this:
Property developer (PD): how much would you take for the house?
Dad (DD): 190K (which is more than the house is worth)
PD: ok, well I’d be paying cash and all closing costs, so how much would you take?
DD: 190K
PD: oh, so that’s your price?
DD: yes
PD: why are you interested in selling?
DD: I’m not, you called me and asked what price I’d want to sell it for

Yes, we wondered that too It's really unnerving when somebody shows an unhealthy level of interest in something you own and have made clear you don't want to sell. My only thought was why would he have bothered to come and ask to buy it in the first place if he was just thinking of trying to steal it? Also, we love it, but it's 23 years old and nothing special to look at, so why would you target that one over any of the much newer ones in the area (not saying that I want anybody to have their caravan stolen, mind)?

I'm not resting on my laurels, but he came across as cheeky and hoping to get himself a good deal rather than an outright thief, but how could we know for sure?

I think he was hoping that somebody maybe older or more vulnerable and less assertive would answer the door. Just a guess, but I've been overthinking this and, had I been more hesitant, his MO might have been something like this:

"It looks quite nice, but it's obviously very old, so not worth much - I'll do you a favour, though, and give you £200 for it."
"Don't be ridiculous - yes, it's old, but it's still worth at least £2,000!"
"Fraid not - i'm a dealer and I can tell you for a fact that a van of that age is worth nowhere near that - you'd be lucky to get £400 at the most for it, but I've got a customer looking for one of that make, so I'll be a fool to myself and give you £500 if we shake on it right now - I'll be lucky to make £50 profit on that myself, as a dealer."
"No, thanks, I told you we aren't selling it."
"But YOU mentioned the price you were hoping for and I just came back with a much more realistic - actually extremely generous - offer based on its true value. I'm very busy, you know - I hope you're not just trying to waste my time and play games with me, trying to rip me off."

As I said, way too much time overthinking it, but it just left me feeling rather unsettled. I can imagine an elderly or frail person could have been really scared indeed. We were genuinely pondering getting some of the old MN favourite penguin bollards for the drive some time - we're now strongly considering that as a matter of urgency. Probably a couple of cameras too. We were hoping to have a few days away at the seaside in half-term, but it doesn't look like that's going to be happening now with everything going on, so we might have a bit of money spare to spend on improved security.

This is what is so horrible about CFs who deliberately pressurise and try to harass you into giving them the knock-down deal that they believe they're entitled to - they may just be trying their luck, but they leave you worried about what their end-game might be, and often having to spend money on guessing and trying to thwart whatever lengths they may be willing to go to.

What AntsMarching wrote whilst I was typing my post has just made me think that I might not have been too far off the mark in my surmising there!