Why does selling things on craigslist always seem so shady? When you sell items on ebay, you take the anonymity of it for granted. You send email back and forth, ebay plays moderator, telling you when and where to ship the item. Everyone polices themselves with feedback. Granted, the fees ebay charges can be a little much and the number of items for sale is astronomical, but overall it is a great system.
But you want to save a couple of bucks and you use craigslist. Craigslist works in theory because it is local. If you have larger items that would be impossible to mail, you can still find a buyer. The problem is that when you sell on craigslist, you usually have to actually meet people. This is where it gets weird.
These meetings usually take place in public places such as parks or near subway stations. I once sold an old printer to a guy and had to meet him in the parking lot of the Hilltop Steakhouse in Braintree. As I waited there in my car, I could not help but feel that I was doing something illegal. Now granted, this particular deal went down at 10am on a Sunday morning, but it still seemed wrong. The other thought that went through my head was if this was worth the effort for $50?
I think that from here on in I will stick with ebay, or just ship everything. So what if it hurts my bottom line? I am selling crap from my basement, not trying to start a company.
There is just something inherently wrong with a business transaction that requires either party to describe their appearance so as to find one another in a crowd.
"I will be wearing a blue coat... carrying a red backpack... and I have a wooden leg... "
*Oh yeah, and the guy who bought my printer paid me $50 in one dollar bills
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