Selling protocol on 'For Sale' ads?

[dentist90]

A question for the brain trust here.

My wife has been selling stuff on a local Facebook page called "Beg, Borrow or Barter". It is basically an electronic garage sale. The stuff she places ads for sell within seconds of posting.
On her first sale the buyer posted "I'll take it" for an inflatable gym for $75. The second and third responses came within a minute. She replied to those two that the item had probably sold and contacted the first ("I'll take it") buyer. Well, I'll take it became "what condition is it in?", "how big is it?", "can I look at it next week?" and finally "will you take $50 for it?". My wife calmly said that the price was firm -as posted in the listing- and there were two more buyers for it if she wasn't sure. So the lady says sure, I'll take it. Can you deliver it? An hour away! My wife happens to travel to this town every week so she will do this out of the goodness of her heart, but a lot of extra work for her.

So today she sells our trampoline and has several responses in 10 seconds. (do these people have their hands hovering over their keyboards like a game show?) The first buyer posts that she "is interested, but wants to talk to her sister first". Can probably come to look at it in two or three days. The second offer is to come look at it tomorrow. She gets a pm from the third saying she will come right over with cash in hand. So my wife calls the third back and we have the money inside the hour. She posts on the site that the trampoline has sold and thanks all for the interest.
Then the b*tching starts. How come you didn't sell it to the first person? That's not fair! She had it first! So my wife just deleted the for sale post to make all the negative comments disappear.
Needless to say she is a bit frustrated and confused. What is the proper protocol for something like this? There are no rules posted on the B,B &B page. If the first response is a 'maybe, I'll let you know as soon as I can' and a subsequent one is 'here's the money and I have my pickup in your driveway', do you send the $$ away for the maybe sale?
Some of the people on that site are nasty, like we owed them something. What would you do?

[VaSteve]

Let her define the rules in her favor. Buyer picks up. Will no hold. First person with cash, etc.

Everyone has paypal, please send the money and I'll hold it for you to pick up.

I like craigslist. Email me and if your response isn't too stupid, I will call you with my address to come pick up during the hour I'm around cutting the lawn.

The level of BS you're willing to accept is proportional to how bad you want the $$ in your pocket. I had some woman dicker me down on a set of patio chairs (the table broke) and she showed up in a giant Caddilac Escalade. (Back when the economy was good).

[vangndy]

first one to commit gets the sale imo. "interested, but wants to talk to her sister first" is not an offer. if the sister said no would your wife say "but why didnt you buy it? we had a deal!" not likely. do'nt take it personally. i would have done the same thing.

[stomachmonkey]

Each posting should include, "Money talks BS walks"

She needs to make it clear that she will sell to serious parties first, those being the ones who come by with cash.

No tire kickers.

[crustychief]

All good advice. First cash carries.

[legion]

After my dad died, he left behind about 20 CRT monitors.

I listed them in the work newsletter for $1 each. I got about 50 e-mails in the first 30 minutes.

The first one read: "I am interested, but I think that $1 is entirely too much for such a monitor, would you be willing to take $0.25?"

I told him I already had enough acceptances to sell the entire inventory at asking price, but because he was the first response I'd give him until lunch to decide.

[craigster59]

First garage sale, I must have been about 9 y.o. We were selling a bunch of items around the house. In my memory the most expensive item was a dresser, maybe $20. This older gentleman comes up to me early in the day and says "My grandson needs a dresser, this is perfect! I'll be back with the cash."

I kept telling my family and everyone it was "sold". At the end of the sale my family asked if the guy was going to pick it up. "Yeah, he's bringing the money with him". That didn't go over well. I/we could have sold that dresser 20 times over that day. I learned early "money talks"

[dentist90]

Originally Posted by vangndy

first one to commit gets the sale imo.

That's basically how we start, but a committed buyer might want a week to get over to see it. How much time to give.. 24hrs? 48 hrs? And there is no guarantee they will buy it when they see it. I've been in the position before where you wait and wait for the prospective buyer to come over and you end up losing other serious buyers.

And this is garage sale stuff, not houses and cars. No down payments here, but these people act like you profiled them if you don't sell to the first person who responds.

[dentist90]

Originally Posted by craigster59

I/we could have sold that dresser 20 times over that day. I learned early "money talks"

Yup, BTDT.

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by dentist90

That's basically how we start, but a committed buyer might want a week to get over to see it. How much time to give.. 24hrs? 48 hrs? And there is no guarantee they will buy it when they see it. I've been in the position before where you wait and wait for the prospective buyer to come over and you end up losing other serious buyers.

And this is garage sale stuff, not houses and cars. No down payments here, but these people act like you profiled them if you don't sell to the first person who responds.

He/her is not a committed buyer if there is no money down. 10-20% non refundable deposit?

[artplumber]

Originally Posted by dentist90

That's basically how we start, but a committed buyer might want a week to get over to see it. How much time to give.. 24hrs? 48 hrs? And there is no guarantee they will buy it when they see it. I've been in the position before where you wait and wait for the prospective buyer to come over and you end up losing other serious buyers.

And this is garage sale stuff, not houses and cars. No down payments here, but these people act like you profiled them if you don't sell to the first person who responds.

There is a difference between "I'm interested" and "I will take it." Sometimes, I just don't have the time to get places for the actual purchase as others might who don't have so many demands on their attention/time. I am on several sites where an "I'll take it" means just that. No questions, no bargaining. I want it at that price. It seems only fair to allow those kind of people to complete the transaction at less than breakneck speed. If I can't make the purchase (eg/firearm in a city that is somewhat far) for some time, I offer to leave a deposit or even pay in full prior to me taking delivery.

[A930Rocket]

Money talks, credit walks.

First with cash gets it.

As mentioned, set the ground rules in the ad.

[cgarr]

Cif

[Schumi]

This is the difference with selling something on facebook, where people can just publicly post under the item.



I do all my used goods bartering thru craigslist. Nothing but email and telephone that way, lot less BS.

[LeeH]

In my mind, an item is available until I have cash in hand. If a person says they're coming to buy an item, I'll get their cell number in case I get a call from someone else who's interested. Then I can see if they're really on their way or not.

When I post free items on Craigslist I always include:

"Please respond only if you are able to drive to my house right now and pick this up. I will not hold for later. Once someone tells me they're on their way I'll give that person a reasonable amount of time to get here."

I always get the person's cell number and an estimate of when they'll arrive. I'll tell the subsequent responders that they are 2nd or 3rd in line should the original responder flake on me. If the first person doesn't show up within the time they said, I'll call them to see if they are, in fact, on their way. Usually they are, but I've had plenty of "I changed my mind" responses, too.

[dentist90]

It gets better! My wife's group access was removed: they banned her!

I got signed on because I wanted to read the posting rules. They were hidden well and the only admonitions were against bumping more than once/week (not guilty) and that rude/threatening behaviour would not be tolerated (again, not guilty).

The 'moderators' on this group just make stuff up as they go along. What a bunch of petty, power hungry capricious housewives with nothing better to do than reign over their little cyber-dominion. One of our friends heard that my wife was banned and posted a comment in the BBB asking why. The mod made some reference to selling under 'false pretenses'. The ad said first to show with cash would own it, and that's what happened. The mods didn't contact us to find out what happened: they have no idea that my wife got a pm offer as well as the posted ones. But the mods feeling is that whoever replied first should get it without adding any qualification. I'll just bet that one of the people beat to the deal was a friend of the mod (actually, this one particular mod was #6 on the list for the trampoline).

Petty.

[look 171]

I was always under the impression that if you talked or exchange email with someone where you get a bad feeling you should have every right to not sell to that particular person. I don't understand the calling it first deal? What's this third grade?

If two people come to me with money in hand who want to buy my old TV set, I should have the right to sell to the person who I deem is the nicest? My stuff, my rules. I don't know about Face Book? Never been on it and may never will.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by dentist90

The 'moderators' on this group just make stuff up as they go along. What a bunch of petty, power hungry capricious housewives with nothing better to do than reign over their little cyber-dominion.

Sounds like another forum I know of...

[billybek]

I was selling off some of the strollers we had accumulated on Kijiji and was amazed at how many people would email an offer lower than the asking price without seeing the item.
I started replying that traditionally you would look at the item before making an offer on it. It weeded out the lowballers quickly.
Come see it, bring cash. Buy it or don't. It is really pretty simple.
As stated above the first person with the cash gets it.

[BE911SC]

Originally Posted by dentist90

What a bunch of petty, power hungry capricious housewives with nothing better to do than reign over their little cyber-dominion.

Honey badgers!