Craigslist - Is this a thing?

henryrobinett

henryrobinett

Fractal Fanatic
I bought a new Axe Fx XL+. Should arrive tomorrow. Yay! So I'm selling my II/MkII. I posted it here and on CL. I had a couple of bites pretty quick. But here's the deal. The first came from a man who said his wife was interested in it. Please write her at this email address. She's on vacation but wants to send me a certified check. As long as the unit is in excellent condition, he'll come and pick it up AFTER I have cash in hand. Cool.

The VERY NEXT DAY someone else contacts me with a very similar story. A man's wife is very interested in buying the AxeFx IF it's in great condition. She's very excited. But she's a flight attendant and is not in town. She lives in NYC but can arrange picking it up next week.

WTF????? Is this a scam? And if so in what way? I tried writing the first one back saying that if she wants it please firm it up because I have another interested party. Nothing yet. What do you think?
 
Lol - see you found the CL link while wrote this but since put the time in :)

SCAM - the first handful of replies for everything put on CL is same story
1) Certified check - um, no. It's fake, will clear initially then bounce after x days and bank claim back funds. You've shipped unit and now out both
2) Anyone claiming we do PalPal it's safe and protects and on and on... whatever. If you have to explain how safe it is to use PayPal you are trying to assure me won't scam me. PayPal will always side with scumbag. buyer scamming system.
3) Anyone who will have their agent/shipper pickup. WTF really? BTW PayPal only protects if you ship and I use that lightly

Stay safe... cash only, meet to pickup in person. Don't get me wrong, I've sold an AxeFx, MFC, etc on CL and even did PayPal and ship but only because found people who actually knew what the hell gear was and in chatting vs. generic I know nothing but interested for someone type wanks.
 
Craigslist used to be awesome. So sad and frustrating that scumbags always have to ruin things for honest people.
 
And when taking cash, meet at a bank. Lots of cameras and the tellers will be glad to check and see if the cash is counterfeit.
 
Xrocker said:
And when taking cash, meet at a bank. Lots of cameras and the tellers will be glad to check and see if the cash is counterfeit.
Click to expand...
Or meet at the local cop-shop.. many US cities have added "safe" spaces at police stations that are WELL LIT and on 24/7 video - specifically for this type of exchange.. NEVER do an exchange at your house - always a public location.. use common sense.

PS: To the OP. definitely SCAMS.. do not accept cashiers checks..
 
Henry, as mentioned, these are scams. I usually only buy/sell used equipment in person. Cash only at a busy coffee shop or if a larger transaction at local police station.

Oh, and congrats on the new XL+!
 
One of the drummers I pay with sells a lot of gear on Craigslist. He plays these scammers (certified check for more than the asking price, I'll send my shipping agent, etc.) like a trout on a fly rod. He's had "buyers" send their bogus cashier's checks to addresses like the local police station, then strung them along for weeks as they tried to get him to send a Moneygram with the "excess" money that was on the cashier's check. Some of his email threads have been epic.
 
Every time I list anything on Craigslist, with my cell phone for texts, I always get a scammer within a day, asking me to respond to an email. It doesn't matter what it is, gear, bunk beds, car, you name it!
I always respond that I will work via text or phone only.
Also, the messages are usually in some kind of weird, tortured English, when they translate directly from their native language. Everything might be spelled correctly, but the phrasing is unusual for the USA. I immediately spot that as a scam.
 
I've gotten to where I'd rather sell cheap to Guitar Center or local music shops than deal w/ all the scammers on CL. Just not worth it... at least at a store you know you're making a straight deal. In my area there are a couple of local FB groups that are pretty good... you still have to be smart, but they somewhat self-police themselves since you have to be a person w/ a FB account which can be verified, traced, etc in the event of something going wrong. Other than those, if you want to sell online I second the recommendation for Reverb.com.
 
For CL transactions, I prefer to meet at a coffee shop. I'm buying a piece of musical equipment, it's from another musician, and I'm always happy to buy a coffee for them. I am also very careful about what I buy / sell on CL, and if the transaction is for something that is worth more than $100, I insist a public meeting and a cash transaction. I sold a PedalTrain Pro + flight case + VoodooLab power supply + tuner and pedals for $350 a few years ago, and the seller (completely understandably) wanted to be able to test the gear, and to meet somewhere neutral and public. I asked a local music store if they would host the demo and sale for a $25 fee, and they agreed. In the end, everybody was happy, and felt safe in the transaction.
For gear I'm willing to ship, I use eBay or Reverb.com as the sales platform.
 
I've bought and sold lots of stuff on CL here in Vancouver and, frankly, it's always been basically fine. Sellers almost always do the transaction out of their house, which I'm fine with... you're probably not going to show someone where you live and then rip them off unless you're a gangster or something. As a seller, I've used my own house for the same reason: I don't need to show them the rest of my gear or let them plug in the item to prove it works. I can just say "here it is, bring it back if it doesn't work". Nobody has ever brought it back.

If was doing $1,000 deals all the time I'd find a more secure way of doing it, but as it is I'm not showing anybody that my (modest) house is any more worth breaking into than anyone else's.
 
+1 on meeting at a police station for the transaction. Just mentioning it has ended some communications rather quickly.
 
I was PMed on ebay after the auction of my Prosonic ended (spring 2015) by the "wife of a guy" who was very interested if things fell through. At the time I thought it was legit but not after seeing this.Happily everything went well with the ebay sale.
 
So here's the latest. Tell me what you think. This person, the first woman, said she mailed me a check on the 28th of Nov. I haven't seen it. She sent me a USPS tracking number that shows something was delivered to some place in my zip code. There was no address listed. It just says delivered to mailbox on Nov 28. I'd love to sell this to her, but I am not doing anything until cash is in hand and whatever days need to pass.
 
It's a scam Henry plain and simple! I ran into this type of deal when trying to sell a Honda 250R Quad 10 years ago. Same BS story i'll send you a certified check money order Bla Bla Bla.

Just stick to selling it either here on the board to someone that has posted enough or ebay and reverb and wait for legit funds to clear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom