Buying off Craigslist question...technicalities

[haroldpe]

When I sold mine on CL, it was cash on the barrelhead, no exceptions. I signed over the title to them, removed the plate, and drew up a bill of sale (as-is).

I would have it no other way.

The buyer came from over 200 miles away, and he said he was buying it sight unseen. We agreed I would hold it the 5 hours it took for him to arrive. I had another buyer waiting at the house, hoping he did not buy, but was not the case.

Yes, it was priced to sell. Sold in 2 days. 50% to 100% over the trade-in quotes I was getting from small dealers.

Never considered a deposit situation, but I suppose I would have an agreement written up that if seller did not return in 24 hours with remainder, it's mine. Why would anyone refund a deposit? That's it's purpose.

 

[haroldpe]

Before I married, my now M-I-L sold their 26' TT after her husband died for some ridiculous low amount. Wish we had it. It does happen.

I've seen some amazing deals go before I could get to them. Just today an older lady listed a 2009 starcraft 10 footer for $1500. The picture looked perfect. I thought it might too good to be true or a scam, but I called her. A guy was on his way to pick it up. I guess she just needed the money quick. Those kinds of situations are rare of course. Most involve vague descriptions or exaggerations of quality. After talking to them you find out there are problems they were glossing over or features weren't accurately described.

 

[kurtes]

If it was a good deal I would go look at it right away, if I wanted it I would ask them to ride to the bank with me and get the money, if they wouldn't I'd ask them to hold it for however long it would take to get to the bank and back and leave my cel phone number and/or a deposit.
I've sold a lot on craigslist, nothing that big though, and when I did it was the first person to show up with cash that got it. Lot of flaky buyers and sellers on craigslist it seems.

 

[benfrench]

I am in the process of trying to sell my pop-up on CL. This is the second PUC I have done this with. The first, I had a guy come out and look, give me a check for $800 and told me to give him a call when it cleared and he would come back with the rest in cash and pick up the trailer. I went through and had him set-up and take down and then set up again. It was October and he said he wasn't going to use it until the next year, so I showed him how to winterize the trailer.

With the one I currently have listed, I had it lister for 2500, a guy came Saturday to look at it and asked if I would take $1800 delivered to his house and hour away...my answer was no. I have some negotiation room in my price, but that is too much.

Also, in MA, trailers are not titled until they get to a certain weight, so, make sure that you as the buyer know what you are looking at and if it requires a title or not. And please, don't tell the seller that you will call and then you don't. Both people that looked at the PUC this weekend said that they would call by the end of the day and neither did, I e-mailed both before moving down my list just to be sure that they were no longer interested.

 

[Agfadoc]

I have been thinking about selling mine, my wife really isn't into camping as much as me and with the kids being older, I just haven't used it as much.

I hate the thought of selling it and going through the CL hassle, I hate garage sales, you know when someone offers $0.25 cents for a decent drill or tool... If I threw it on the ground and stomped on it, it would be worth 25 cents.

I'm the kind of guy that would rather donate it than take a huge loss, I don't know.. I love my pup, but I haven't used it as much as I wanted to for the last few years, and am afraid I will be one of those that have it sitting while some family could be using it to bring memories to their kids... It's a tough call to put what you cherish on Craigslist...

 

[Morgan23]

Wow, thank you all for your info! We were out of town for a few days (unfortunately, not camping- stayed at a cabin with some friends ) so I didn't get to reply till now.

I have sold and bought things on CL before, just nothing worth this much $$! So I understand what sellers are going through and I try to be a 'good' buyer. No matter what we are looking at, I usually call/email first and ask my questions, then set up a time to look and I always always always call to confirm before showing up. I try hard not to be a flakey buyer At the same time, it's frustrating to deal with flakey sellers!!!

BTW we just ordered a complete towing set up for my van but it's still in transit. So if we find a pup in the next week or so, a friend of mine who tows his boat already said he'd come pick up our pup for us. Now it's just a matter of finding one! Oh well, we will keep scouring CL and hopefully find our own pup soon.

 

[5willards]

I feel your pain. When we were shopping for our first PUP only a couple of months ago we got beat to the punch every time we'd find something decent & in our price range. I'm talking within MINUTES of the post going up on CL the seller would tell me or my Mom (she was helping us with our search too) that they had several people in line waiting to view the camper - it was so disheartening! The one we finally purchased was one that I was the first caller on exactly 11 minutes after he posted the ad. He was asking $1500 & we got it for $1300. Excellent condition, with the only upfront expenses being the tow package (our Honda Odyssey was not equipped), new tires, permanent tags/DMV registration & a mini fridge (it came with a built-in cooler only) which we also bought off CL (never been used, for only $40 by the way!). Hang in there - when the time is right it will definitely happen for you. Good luck!

 

[TNTtravelers]

Like most of the other posted....we called and then went to and look at it. First one with the cash gets it. Luckily we had people who were good about going down the list in the order they got the emails...so the one we currently have we were the first to email (I think by luck actually). Of course I wouldn't probably go alone. I prefer to do a deposit and then if I like it I'll get the balance. But with the b/f along, I don't worry too much about it. Here titles are taking 3 months...so if someone bought it before and are trying to turn it around, the paperwork is a bit of a problem. But they should have a copy of their paperwork...so for me it wouldn't be a big deal as long as a bill of sale was written.

With our first one(we were very naive), we did give them a deposit before seeing it and they delivered it to us and set it up(they were a couple/few hours from us). Then we just paid them via paypal while they were sitting there. We were anxious and couldn't wait to shop around a bit.....lesson learned!

My opinion is, if you are wanting one, you better be willing to drop everything and go look at it when you reply to the ad or you'll probably lose out if it's a good one.

 

[Morgan23]

Re: Buying off Craigslist question...technicalities UPDATE

So we finally found our perfect pup!!! After months of scouring CL and EBay, I found a 1993 Coleman Destiny Royale for $1200 Pics and story here http://www.popupportal.com/index.php?topic=62283.0

Thanks to the advice given here, I knew to ask the seller what kind of wiggle room there was on the pup and if he was willing to take a deposit. Turns out no wiggle room, and yes to the deposit. So we put down our deposit today and Will go pick up the camper sometime midweek after the seller puts some cleanup work into it.

Thank you for all your stories and advice.... It was comforting to have some idea of what should be reasonable when we were looking at pups!!