I worked out why Gumtree Sellers are so difficult ......

[Sir Stinkalot]

I must admit I do enjoy hunting on Gumtree for a bargain. I have been quite alert over the past few months searching for sanitaryware for our extension. I have been running a spreadsheet to keep track of the expenses and so far I have spent $1595 on goods retailing at $6477, saving $4882 over the retail prices, just using Gumtree and Ebay and this includes postage costs.

I have also been able to make a couple of hundred over the past few days on items that I was seriously considering binning but couldn't stomach the waste.

It was funny this afternoon. I had a guy enquiring about a few things, his questions kept coming in quick and fast, from the condition of the box, the amount of ware etc ..... in the end I was starting to get fed up with him and basically said to him the items were 30 years old, they are no longer made and they have the average wear that you would expect (and can be seen in the excellent photos I provided). I was just on the brink of telling him where to go as I was getting tired of the games, but as he was considering three items and a potential buyer I bit my tongue. Just by chance I was on the computer answering his emails within seconds of him asking when I had another enquiry from another buyer. 45 minutes later I was handing over the goods and collecting the cash (full price) from the second buyer after a quick and polite exchange of emails, all while waiting for Mr Questions to make up his mind. It felt so good emailing him back to let him know he had missed out on everything.

I know that as a seller a buyer is a buyer but there is sometimes its better not to have to deal with some people.

[Master Splinter]

...and then there are the people who advertise things at somewhat over their secondhand market value, with 'or nearest offer', and when you contact them, their idea of 'nearest offer' is the next couple of hundred dollars UP from the price they listed!!

[Optimark]

Recently I placed the opening bid on eBay for some old tiles; the other half amongst other things does ceramics. The opening bid was $0.99, I won the auction, a drive across town to pick up the tiles and make payment happened.

Upon arrival I noted the tiles were placed just outside of the front door, I also noted there were children present, due mainly to their pushbikes and other sundry items littering the grounds. It also wasn’t what you would call a flash house, more like one where food and clothing bills were just met, and somehow, utility bills managed to be paid.

Ringing the doorbell, mum appeared along with two daughters, probably about 7 and 10 years old. I found out that it was the daughters who had found the tiles and had gotten mum to put them up for auction; pocket money.

The auction realised 99 cents, and it was at that moment that the girls found out the auction only garnered 99 cents, the silent look the girls gave each other made me dip into my wallet for some more dosh, an amount that could be shared by both of them.

Mum thanked me profusely, more so with her eyes and expression. However, on the way home I thought I was a bit stingy and should have given a smidge more, sometimes it’s hard to get the balance right.

On the way home I actually thought that here was someone who in some ways, had a more valid reason to block the sale, or terminate before the sale happened, than other items I had seen pulled before they could be sold.

Then I started reading this thread!

Mick.

[chambezio]

I had a similar experience as Mick. I won on Ebay a number of hex drivers for a drill. There was a couple of rills with countersink, a couple of Tek drivers and some screwdriver bits. All were used and a little rusty. The Ebay name was something that kids would put up but the money went to an adult sounding account. The bid wasn't for much and so I overpaid them. I sent an Email telling what I had done and the response was was favourable. I figured that the kids were looking for pocket money

[BobL]

I've been a recipient the other way several times.

Back in the 80s just after my son was born we had no money and very little furniture and were looking for a recliner rocker for new mum to feed bub in. We looked in the classifies and found a small rocker for not much money so we all went around to look at it. The sellers were an older couple who were besotted with bub and wanted to give us the chair for nothing - in the end we settled on half the advertised price.

Other times have been when purchasing stuff for mens sheds. The sellers have been most generous on pricing and additional donations, including members of this forum. One thing that sticks in my craw a bit over this is I sometimes wonder how many buyers are dishonest about this and claiming things that are completely false.

[Chief Tiff]

Years ago I won a child's desk and chair on EBay for a dollar. It was the best part of an hour's drive away and on the way I got thinking about the seller who sounded about my age and appeared to have a "win some/lose some" attitude about the price. I couldn't bring myself to simply hand over a gold coin so I swung into a bottle shop on the way and bought a six-pack to go with it. He appreciated the gesture and gave me a hand to load it into the car. That was my feel good moment for the day, although my beloved rolled her eyes at my foolishness.

[China]

Playing "devils Advocate" maybe if they had had stopped the sale the owner may have had his or her tiles returned

[q9]

A couple of years ago dad sold his bug scooter via the 'tree. Guy called up, said he was looking for one for his son. He was interstate, and I thought 'yeah sure'....

Next day guy turns up (several hundred k's of travelling) says 'looks perfect' hands over wad of cash, deal done. Gotta be lucky I guess...

[smidsy]

Guumtree is actually owned by (fe)ebay now and since being owned by ebay it has changed so that the original ad is free but you have to pay to edit it - IE if you list a lot of items you can't edit the ad to delete items or mark them as sold unless you pay.
Ebay is just as bad, they brought in mandatory paypal which is nothing about buyer protection just double dipping on fees since ebay owns paypal.
One time I sold something for $40, the buyer used paypal, the buyer and seller were in Aus, paypal defaulted the payment to USD gave a lousy exchange rate on the conversion and charged me fees to pay the money to my bank - I think I got about $26 for the item in the end. Now on the rare occasions I sell on ebay I stipulate that the buyer must cover paypal fees or pay DD - twice I cancelled a sale and left F/B when people ignored this.
As for paypal, I bought a laptop battery from O/S through Paypal, the battery was clearly not as ordered and Paypal did nothing.

Don't get me started on ebay's feedback farce...

[casjon]

Some annoyances, whether it be Gumtree, ebay, Trading Post, whatever: I generally add 'no emails or texts please' and what do I get? Emails and texts. I almost always put fixed price and what do I get? offers... People who ring and ask for information that is contained in the add or ask how much I'm asking. I once advertised a guitar for $400, some idiot texted, I'll give you $50, but only if you deliver! And how about the ones who want to negotiate a price before they have even seen the item. Biggest hate of all, people who just don't turn up...
Frustrated, in my last ad I added: 'Telephone enquiries only please', 'price is not negotiable', 'Please read the add carefully as I will not respond to questions about the item that are contained within the ad'. Did not get a single enquiry until after I deleted those bits. And then of course once I did delete those bits, they were the only questions I got.

[Sir Stinkalot]

Well I have taken some of the advice here. I had a heap of stuff that I advertised under the Gumtree free section ..... within minutes the enquiries started to come in. I found it hard not to be fair on the first enquiry who said she would be here within the hour. As I had a second enquiry at the same time I said she could have 90 min before I gave the second guy the address. No show after 90 min so I emailed the second guy the address and advised the first lady she had missed out. Then she responds telling me how difficult that the kids had been and her husband would collect in 15 minutes. About 90 min later she emails again saying that her husband forgot to come past on his way home . The second guy must have been scared off and it ended up being picked up by somebody else by the end of the day.

After that it is simply a first in best dressed situation. The buyers email me, I provide the address and let them know that the item is still available but I will remove the listing as soon as somebody does collect it. When it has gone I also email all the buyers who made contact. I'm sure that this scares off some buyers as they may be travelling half way across town only to find it is already gone but unfortunately there are too many tire kickers to be able to be fair to all. It would be easier to just post the address in the listing and leave it up to the hungry masses, but I don't really want my address put out there if I can help it.

[A Duke]

Hi,
Now I know for sure I made the right decision when I decided to steer clear of the whole con.
Best of luck

[smidsy]

Years ago I won a camera lens off ebay, got it for about 30% of what I expected it to go for so I was quite happy.
Within 2 minutes of auction end I get an email from the seller saying the pics were wrong and offering to cancel the auction, I told him I had gone by description rather than pics (I knew he was just trying to get out of the sale) was happy with the deal and asked for bank info for payment.
Finally got payment info after a week of daily emails culminating in a threat to complain to ebay.
The lens arrived in Perth from Melbourne 2 weeks later (inspite of pay extra for express freight) with totally inadequate packing.
I gave him honest neg feedback, he did tit for tat neg which ebay refused to remove inspite of all my email records and a bank statement showing I had payed within 5 minutes of getting his bank info. And, because FB goes on your transactions for a year, after about 8 years of 100% FB I dropped to mid 70's and had sellers refuse to deal with me.

The whole feedback system on ebay is flawed, no one gives true feedback because they know they will get tit for tat neg'd - all ebay has to do to fix this is set it so feedback is invisible until both parties have left it.

[Evanism]

Is that $15 for the lot, per m or per length? Do you have any other colours other than blonde and red? Can you deliver for free to Adelaide? How much for the small bits on the side? Can I borrow your hand trolley?

Have you had any of these yet?

I see from the above posts that people are not heeding my Gumtree Dealing Widsom!

Never. Ever. Ever. Accommodate.

Blah. Blah excuse, excuse, husband this, kids that, dog ate the spare tyre. 7.15pm sharp or the deal is off. There are two people coming at 7.30...

Apply ruthless unrelenting inflexible pressure.

I didn't mention it, but another tactic is to say you have 15 when you have 6. When people ring, tell them 9 are already sold. Watch them galvanize into action then! People never negotiate and are around in minutes. Unethical, but it's rock solid for getting a zero-BS sale.

Stinky, yes, I received a total of four drongos ring me. 2 illiterate jug blowing bogans, one woodie and some scumbag dude who thought it could flip it for a better price. I also received a guy on the forum who swore black and blue he wanted 3 planks.... Sent him the details.... No word.

I didn't heed my own advice!

[Sir Stinkalot]

I think my problem is that as a seller (or give awayerer of free stuff) I try and treat the potential buyers like I would like to be treated as a buyer. As a buyer if I say I'm going to collect I turn up - this however is too much to expect from the majority of the "Gummies".

Even with free stuff there doesn't appear to be any manners, simply "still available". To be fair 2 out of the 4 people who have actually collected free stuff so far at least said thankyou!