Hellobee Boards

The craziest emails have always been when I'm giving away free stuff. That really seems to get the crazies out of the woodwork.

I had a broken treadmill that I put on the free section, and I had so many people giving me their sad stories about why they need a treadmill to exercise or they'll die. First of all, it was summer (go for a walk!) and second of all, the treadmill was BROKEN. Did not work.

Another time I gave away a big old sectional sofa and the people who came to get it showed up from the next state over with 5 cars and put a section in each car. The things people will do for free stuff!

I was almost scammed when I was looking to rent a house. Found the house for rent on a legitimate site and met the owner and toured the house. When our first house fell through, I searched again and found the house was still available. So I contacted them to see if we could start the process. Turns out the real owners already rented the house and a scammer took the same info from the original ad and used the same pictures and created a similar email address with the real owner's name to scam potential renters. Luckily, I caught on to it and ended up notifying the real owners about the fake ad.

someone took a futon mattress that my cat had peed on.

i don't list on craigslist anymore... i get too many scam emails!

I purchased a double stroller on CL. When I got it home and washed the cover, I found a sticker on the frame from a stroller rental company in FL I am pretty sure the lady stole it.

Sold a gaming system on Craigslist. A woman tried to scam us with a check scheme using stolen checks from NY. Turned her in to the police, but it was a weird situation for sure.

@Greentea: i sell everything on my parenting listserv. you have to pay so there are no crazies.

I've had pretty good luck. What has surprised me the most is how people haven't really tried to haggle with me! The past few times I've intentionally priced things higher expecting people to haggle me down, but the person comes to look at it and then hands me the exact amount of money I asked!

@Greentea: also they came to buy something else and saw i was throwing the mattress out and decided to take it!

The best story was following the yard sale we had, we listed on our ad that when we were done things left would be curbside free, but only until 8pm as we wanted to take things inside. Lady shows up with this little car and gets mattress and boxspring on her roof and is tying it down with dog leashes. We laughed and watched for a little while from inside, but made sure we got out there to help her secure it as best we could. She said it was urgent she get it because it must be in good condition if we were going to bring it inside at night, lol.

We sold a blackberry playbook this spring for way more money than it's worth (I even said open to offers!) and the guy that bought it thought it was the most amazing piece of anything in the world, my DH and I were trying to contain our laughter.

I currently have 6 BGs for sale and made a point of saying "sold together, will not separate" knowing I have three (of the same) prints in there to go with three green ones, and I have had at least 30 emails from people wanting complete sets just wanting the prints!

I *just* got a double bob via online classifieds but the hoopla in that process was insane. I did drive an hour plus to one that was pictured as the current model, but actually was the older one....sorry....me no dummy! I think the guy was shocked I stood up to him and said he was trying to scam me, and I think he knew perfectly well what he was doing. I left empty handed, but glad I didn't get suckered in. I'm not ready to tell the other awful story yet, too embarrassing. But I've got one now, it's legit and I got a sweet deal, feel like I stole it.

I try not to buy anything on there that I can't use and sell again and not get my money back. I try to be a bit of a shark, but I think it's really paid off! We have a ton of amazing furniture we have sanded down and refinished, all wood, great stuff for steals, the bob was a huge steal and I have gotten lots of BGs super cheap from Mom's that didn't end up CDing or did minimally and gave up.

On top of that, have you ever put anything curbside and waited to see how long it takes to be taken? DH and I get entertainment out of that, some of the crap we've put curbside and the excitement it had given people to "find"? haha.

@Beebug: I'm curious about your other story too!! How did you know the stroller was from the previous year?

@LindsayInNY: not previous year, I think bob changed their model in '11 so it's either '11 to present is the current model and prior to then is the older one. I was willing to wait it out for newer/current model (like my single, that was a gift!) and I'm glad I did!

I got scammed out of 1,200 last year for a vacation rental. Never again.

I'm trying to sell two strollers and I don't like people knowing where I live, so I agreed to meet this person at the mall. She has stood me up TWICE!! All for $50 for a jogging stroller.... Hoping the next person inline isn't as flakey.

@Greentea: Its a long story. My friend and I wanted to stay in a dog friendly beach house in Santa Barbara and we weren't having any luck on airbnb or vrbo, so we decided to check out craigslist. The "owner" was very prompt, sent us the contract, gave us the address to the place and everything seemed legit until my friend sent the payment in (Western Union-- I didn't know that at the time or I would have objected.)

He then sent us an email saying the previous tenants trashed the place and needed us to loan him more money to get it ready for us. We said absolutely not and that we wanted our money back. He said he would have to talk to the other owner but that he would give us even more money if we gave him our bank account numbers and sent some money Western Union to someone else. We, of course, said no. We threatened legal action if he didn't comply and he stopped talking to us once it was clear he wasn't going to get anymore money from us.

We talked to our banks and the police but there was nothing to be done. I did some research and realized the house posted was once for sale and that was how they got the pictures. I kept checking back on Craigslist and the "rental" went up again, so I tried to get in contact again to get some more information but something happened and they stopped talking to me.

I know it probably makes us sound really stupid but everything looked legit with the contract, correspondence and I have found rentals on Craigslist before but never again. Pretty sucky.

@Greentea: Nope. Spent too much money being scammed.

@Greentea: It is amazing what people will buy on craigslist! Me and my husband have sold a lot, but haven't really done much buying. Nothing too crazy but my biggest pet peeve is when you take the time to put down ALL the info on something, sizes, dimensions ect and they still email asking how big it is. One time I had a lady come look at a small hanging bathroom cabinet I was selling and it was one of those where we were on the phone for a long time because she got lost and couldn't find my house and when she finally got to my place she was like, " Oh, I thought it was a tall standing one" HELLOOOOO It says its height right on the listing! such a waste of time for her and me.