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!

I had the opposite experience, well I gave away 2 leather sofas and some garden furniture for free as moving to a flat without a garden, the couple came to buy a dresser and then asked about the other furniture, I liked them, they were setting up home so I asked them to have them for free and threw in a petrol mower as well (i would have no use for it). I was suprised they wanted to sofas as they were 12 years old, but they seemed delighted and it saved me taking them to the dump.

My DD had loads of cuddly toys including the whole set of wombles all with tags and in good condition, she wanted to raise some money and put them up for £5 each, there were 8 in total, expecting a child to be interested but a lady who collects womble memorabilia was at my door with her money in a flash, bless her, they were lovely wombles though and quite expensive when purchased.

Glad I’m not BU. I can’t say what the item is as it would be outing to anyone in my area who is on the local selling forums and I didn’t NC for this post.

I know people are pointing out that if 4 people have offered under the asking price then maybe I’ve overpriced but I definitely haven’t. They are just trying it on.

I once sold an item that I'd paid about £200 for and only used maybe twice and it had the original box and came with some extras. I put it on the local selling page for £100. I got a message from someone 90 miles away that she would take it for £20 and I would have to deliver it to her because she didn't drive!

I’ve only discovered Facebook free or selling pages over lockdown & i’m amazed by what you see!
There was one yesterday wanted (free) chest of drawers, got to be white don’t waste my time with wood or brown got to be delivered. No time wasters!
How can anyone have the nerve to be so bloody demanding & rude!

www.google.com/search?q=you+won%27t+haggle&oq=you+won%27t+haggle&aqs=chrome..69i57j33.9924j0j7&client=ms-android-motorola-gfw&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#

I love having a bit of fun with these people. I posted some items on a local FB selling page this week. Both first respondents on 2 items started faffing around. One wanted me to deliver when I stated it was pickup. Then they wanted me to take a picture of the shelf with something on it. Then they wanted to arrange a courier. Whilst this was going on, someone else bought it. Then the first person went ballistic when I told them.

Second item a person messaged me and tried to bargain me down by 30%. It was such a bargain in the first place. By this time I had 5 people interested. Sold it to person no.2 and then no.1 got all stroppy when I told them someone else had just offered me full price so thanks but no thanks.

If you faff about, there is a strong chance you are going to miss out.

It's the fact they agree to buy/collect and THEN start haggling which enrages me; I agree something's only worth what others want to pay, but that's why you sort this out before agreeing to purchase

My own favourite was selling a high quality, barely used camera lens and being offered a pittance because of various non-existent faults on it. Each was clearly disappointed when I said I couldn't possibly sell them a faulty item and that obviously I'd have to scrap it ... though one "kindly" offered to dispose of it for me

Cue hollow laugh, and a later sale to someone who was thrilled to have it

Urgh, I put a buggy for free on a fb mums group asking of anyone knew a charity or family who could use it.

Clean, all the accessories and extra gubbins, gender neutral colours, barely used and less than a year old.

I had a woman have a go as I didn't have it in pink?! Her daughter was apparently pregnant with a baby girl and needed it in pink. Massive sob story, abusive language and just generally rude! Sorry love, I'm not a shop.

Thankfully someone from the local lighthouse charity saw the post and collected shortly afterwards. I always ask them if they are needing x item before I post now.

I tried to sell my car for £1K. It was worth slightly more but I wanted it gone. I listed all the work done on it in the past 6 months. New clutch, new exhaust, new brake discs front and rear and about 5 or 6 other stuff.. and mentioned an ecu repair with a lifetime guarantee. Although there was nothing left to do and the whole thing was practically new with all the new parts, all that cost had annoyed me and I'd got "the ick" with the car.

A bloke came on and said, "it's scrap. I'll give you £100 now."

I said no thanks. He insisted that you couldn't have an ECU repaired and the car was worthless. I told him it was perfectly fine, had a guaranteed repair done by professionals and had been running without any issue.

He kept insisting and he was having that car and I should be grateful I was getting £100. I told him to sod off. He started getting aggressive and demanding it.

He followed me on every single post about it PMing people that it was scrap and he'd been to view it and I was trying to rip people off. He had never been near (The ad had been up a day and he had no idea where we were). Checking out his profile he was a car dealer.

I ended up blocking him, doing a whole new advert and sold it for the £1K. It ran for years after as I'd see it on the road every now and then.

I’d love to do that but unfortunately live on a road with no passing traffic!

Within the same group of free stuff, I also had someone who said they would take it but followed up several hours later with ‘will it fit in specific make and model of car?’. Well I don’t know, I don’t own said car but it fitted in my similarly sized car. Apparently it didn’t fit and this was my fault for her making a wasted trip?!

It’s sad because it was all perfectly useable stuff but my boyfriend had moved in with many duplicates so we went through and picked the stuff we preferred for size, colour etc and listed the others for free for someone who might be in need. After two weeks of hassle I still ended up taking half of it to the tip because I just didn’t have the time to deal with it anymore. Tried charity shops but all the local ones have specific days and times for delivery that I can’t do with working full time!

I've just remembered a time when I attempted to sell a sofa on eBay due to it not fitting in the new house.
I listed it with a reserve of £50 which got a few higher bids.
Four times I listed it due to someone I the dying seconds of the auction bidding stupid money, think 5k etc and losing me the sale.
On the 5th attempt I watched with baited breath as the seconds ticked down and fortunately a genuine bidder won it.
Complaints to eBay led nowhere as the troll deleted their account at the end of each auction.
Why do people do such pathetic stuff?

@TheIckabog I bet it's a hot tub

I follow a few selling pages on FB and it always gets me how some people don't get how second hand works. Not getting at you OP as I don't know the item but things like second hand 'IKEA Billy Bookcase, cost £35 will accept £30'. You don't just knock a bit off for a second hand item, unless it is basically brand new but you halve the original price or more. Also people expecting a lot of money for something because it cost them a lot of money ages ago. I have seen some people listing tired looking 5 year old sofas for a few hundred quid but they just don't sell. I think people feel they need to 'get some of their money back' but it just doesn't work like that. As PPs have said, an item is only worth what others will pay for it. Someone is asking £30 for a cheap looking MDF coffee table on one of my local pages, they probably think 'well it cost me £40 so seems fair.' No takers unsurprisingly. Nor for the bundle of 10 kids' books the seller has listed for £30....

I’ve been having a mass clear out recently of stuff that is either brand new and unused (with tags) or used but in great condition. I’ve had people messaging with low offers and expecting me to agree and then being surprised when it sells for what I asked for, people messaging about an item really enthusiastically until they don’t turn up when arranged because they’ve suddenly realised they live ‘an hour away’ and unless I reduce the item to make up for their petrol money, they’re not interested, people arranging to pick up and never turning up at all. Some people don’t know the meaning of the word communication as they don’t reply to your messages but then just randomly turn up without notice! It’s worth putting up with it for the money though as some of the things I’ve sold have been high value items. I’ve also learned that the things you think will sell really quickly don’t and the things you think no one will want sell almost instantly!

Generally for anything it’s at least half the value is lost as soon as it leaves the shop.

Then another chunk for each time something used etc.

Therefore for something which cost £280 new and used a handful of times would expect it to be priced at less than £100

Just to add I know some people really need the money from FB selling but I think people who do are quite savvy about bargains and price their own wares realistically when it comes to selling second hand. It tends to be people who have never set foot in a charity shop (where kids' books are 50p and coffee tables £5) who price unrealistically! I think anyway. Who knows.

@UnfinishedSymphon
I hope you got what you wanted for the Dot but they normally sell from Amazon (last 2 years anyway) at £22

Gosh now I'm worried as have two rollators for sale and was going to list them. One was only a year old and excellent condition and is sought after as it folds up so small despite having other sturdy traights ,the other is a bit basic.
The c.f. that you ok have experienced has put me off. I knew there were so many hassles , so not sure.
I know someone that was a c.f buying something and it made me wary, also some buy to resell on other sites for profit. They really are cfs.

Four times I listed it due to someone I the dying seconds of the auction bidding stupid money, think 5k etc and losing me the sale.

Didn't eBay used to have a mechanism whereby the second-highest bidder could be offered another chance to buy if the 'winner' turns out to be a liar or if it's a child playing or something? Does that not still exist? it did before, didn't it?

The big, big thing that I'll never understand about timewasters, apart from wondering how it can bring joy to annoy a random stranger, is that it's also their own time they're wasting!!

Are they really too stupid to realise this or do they just have far too much time on their hands and have never heard of volunteering?

Sadly, I doubt that putting 'No Timewasters' deters them; if anything, it probably encourages them. They know you don't want them, but they just don't care.

to check what things are currently going for, search your item on ebay and click on the 'completed' and 'sold' tabs. You will see what they sold for and also you will see the ones that didn't sell and can try and work out why.

I’ve had a nightmare with Ebay recently. I’ve never understood why people bid on things that they don’t have any intention of actually buying. I sold high value pair of trainers barely used, first winner was out bidding everyone but then didn’t pay. Relisted then sold them. Two weeks later buyer says they’re faulty. Sends me pictures of the sole hanging off and a massive tear in the back of the shoe. Now I have to go through the returns process and issue a refund on shoes that have clearly been worn for nearly three weeks, then deliberately damaged to claim the refund.

Hate CFs. Was selling some bricks (new just left over) for less than half the retail price.

Bloke asks for lowest offer and I say £100. Keeps messaging me asking to lower it to £75 as he's travelling an hour and will need to borrow a van!

Keeps telling me he wants them but no date for pickup. I then sell them to a local builder who pays more than what bloke offered.

Bloke then outraged after 2 weeks of no contact that I haven't stored them for him as well had a deal'.

@Dishwashersaurous

Generally for anything it’s at least half the value is lost as soon as it leaves the shop.

Then another chunk for each time something used etc.

Therefore for something which cost £280 new and used a handful of times would expect it to be priced at less than £100

Not true, by your way of thinking a used iPhone/iPad would go for less than half price and they certainly don't. I have sold a few over the years and always get really good money for them on ebay.

@honeygirlz - she was a cheeky fucker because she advertised on a local FB page for local people (if that doesn't sound too Royston Vasey). She should have put it on her own neighbourhood page, Marketplace, Gumtree or E-bay. Like I said, driving 10 miles where I live can easily be a 2 hour round trip. I guess it's different in London.