Craigslist Marketplace
Craigslist is a spectacular marketplace for buyers and sellers to meet to exchange just about anything. In my opinion, the best place to buy and sell cars is on Craigslist. I scour the site all the time looking for vehicles for fun. Just like me, there’s a lot of other people (probably including yourself) using Craigslist as well. But, with so many different people in this marketplace, there’s bound to be some conflicts. Especially when it involves buyers trying to find the lowest price and sellers trying to sell at highest price possible. Out of my experiences (both good and bad) buying Craigslist cars, here is one that was one of my most frustrating.
A 94 Acura Integra GS-R on Craigslist
About 6 years ago, I was doing my routine searches on Craigslist looking for a good deal on a second car. I came across this 1994 Acura Integra GS-R Coupe in a manual transmission. The condition of the car was what I was looking for. It was a slightly oxidized red car, which a detail could really brighten back up. The car was owned by a middle-aged woman (and not some racer-wannabe kid). It also had 100k miles and was in the GSR trim which is highly sought after (next to the Type-R). I noticed that the listing was only posted within the hour and so I thought I might have a chance at snagging this deal up before anyone else did.
Sounds Promising
At this time it was mid-day on a weekday. I took the day off because I had to run an errand and so I thought, “what a great opportunity… mid-day, I happened to see this listing just as it was posted, and the price and condition looks great!” So I called the phone number listed and spoke to a woman who didn’t sound incentivized to sell the car. I asked if she was available later in the day to which she reluctantly agreed to meet. I thought about it some more and realized that the car may be snagged up by that time, so I asked if I could see the car now. Because she had work she said no, but I asked if I could look at it during lunch time. Again, she reluctantly agreed. All this time, she sounded uneasy and to this day I’m not sure why but I would guess that maybe she was just getting bombarded with phone calls about the car.
I had to run my errand which required me to drive an hour away from home, then I drove back almost another hour to buy the Integra GSR. When I drove into the parking lot (that I was supposed to meet her at), I looked for the seller. I couldn’t find her where we were supposed to meet. Then, I tried calling her but got no answer. I drove around the parking lot to see if I could spot the owner or the car. After a few minutes, I spotted the red Integra in a parking spot in front of Bank of America. The car was empty, so I figured the seller was meeting me in the Bank. So I entered the bank…
“It’s been Sold.”
As I walked in, I noticed a woman sitting down with another man and he was signing a pink slip. At that point, I knew exactly what had happened. This woman obviously was not able to manage her interested Craigslist contacts and likely promised to meet us with the intention of selling to whoever she met with first. I was infuriated. I went up to them and asked what was going on and she looked bewildered. The man looked up from the pink slip and smugly said to me, “It’s been sold!”
It’s unbelievable what this woman did and even worse was the rude comment the buyer made. I stormed out of the bank and got in my car. As I drove out of the parking lot, I saw the woman again as she was leaving. I gave her an earful about what she did was wrong and how it wasted my time. In the end though, I felt the woman was just clueless about how to handle the sale of a car on Craigslist. I was probably more angry about the asshat that told me, “It’s been sold!” To the guy who said that to me, I hope your car turned out to be lemon!!!
2 Comments
Dude, that’s just the way it is in the used car market. Most sellers on Craig’s List and FB Marketplace just don’t know what their car is worth. Many list it for too much, but every once in a while you’ll see a gem with a ridiculously low price. If you find a car like that you gotta move now. My guess is that you’re not really angry at the seller or the smug buyer. You’re probably really angry at yourself for running the errand instead of meeting with the seller immediately. You missed out on a great deal and really you only have yourself to blame. But all is not lost: you learned something from the experience. Chin up.
Yes, the used car marketplace is just brutal. It pays to be aggressive, unfortunately that’s not my style.
As for running my errand that morning, the seller already told me that she wasn’t able to meet me right away, but lunch time would possibly be okay. Perhaps I could have insisted after she told me that she wasn’t available right away, but I don’t feel comfortable pressing further if she’s already telling me she’s not available immediately; this is probably why I didn’t get the chance to buy the car.
You are right though for the need to be aggressive and to try to meet with the seller ASAP to make the deal, especially if its a great deal. But I’m also not going to stronghold the seller into meeting with me right away if they’re telling me they’re not available. Just like anything else in the world, you win some and you lose some.