Too good to be true?

[skramer360]

I have bought and sold multiple items on Marketplace. Most recently was an inexpensive car. It was in another state. I contacted the seller, set up a time to meet and inspect the car. The car turned out to be better than I expected and I bought it for slightly less than the advertised price.

 

[4570Man]

I have hate, hate, hate relationship with Facebook. Nothing but scammers, "...My father is on a 6 month submarine deployment in the Pacific, if you will take a PayPal check and ship it...blah blah blah..." 3 Different versions of that scam. The ad read "In person transactions only." Somebody from about 50 miles away was going to put an Australian Shepherd puppy on a plane with a handler for $250 bucks. I replied that I would just drive up there and get it. They ignored that comment and just kept asking for the $250 check. Different experiences, I guess.

There’s even more scammers on Craigslist than marketplace. And Craigslist will let people spam post the same thing 100 times. Marketplace requires a different picture.

 

[Mike0616]

why anyone even considers buying online is beyond me

There are no legit items on FBM at all. NONE! People must like being ripped off, must get off by being cheated / abused.

 

[Spanner]

If it sounds and looks to good to be true - it is. Lots of scammers out there

This.

 

[4570Man]

why anyone even considers buying online is beyond me

This is a little outside my comfort zone I’ve only done it twice but I bought this machine online sight unseen in New Jersey. I live in Tennessee.

 

[big bubba]

good to see honest deals out there, in that case you done good.

 

[CliffordK]

There are good and bad purchases online.

E-Bay has been generally good in the past. I have snagged a couple of scammers generally overseas with the too good to be true new parts sales. There is always a little funky of a tell.

One of the new things on E-Bay is drop shipping. Perhaps even a seller that is selling on E-Bay and ordering on Amazon to cover their order. Not particularly a scam, but the actual stocking and shipping is out of their control. I did have someone drop shipping car tires. They marked the ad as shipped, except their shipper was out of stock, and it wasn't until a few weeks later I reported not receiving the item. They got negative feedback.

Most of my Craigslist/Facebook purchases have been in person, although I did have a roofing machine shipped to me from Alaska. Odd... I was pretty careful that everything seemed to be coming from a legit business.

One of the things I've seen on Craigslist in the past is that a single ad would literally be posted as local to 100 different cities. I've gone on flagging binges in the past. Now that Craigslist allows searching up to 500 or 1000 miles, those types of ads are easier to pick out.

I have considered purchasing a skid steer or mini excavator in the under $10K price range. But to be in that market there is something that throws them below others. Ancient? Blown Engine? Burn? Blown final drive? Etc.

Oh, one of my general rules when buying broken stuff... the sellers that give a simple description for why something doesn't run are generally WRONG. Whether that is intentional or not.