OT: Gumtree - rant.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Have a TV I need to dispose of. Been replaced by an OLED. Too big to pack and send by any of the usual carriers - it's a 50" LCD HD smart TV. So my usual way of selling things spare - Ebay - not much use.

So tried Gumtree for the first time. Looking at Ebay etc, a guide price about £150-200. So priced it at £175.

Got about 20 replies quickly. So plenty interest. Most just said 'is it still available'. Bit of a pointless first post, if you think about it.

Then 'do you accept offers'? Again a bit pointless if I dunno the offer.

Then can you deliver? Again pointless if I don't know where they live.

So did a copy and paste to all of them saying the best offer received before 5 pm that day would be accepted. And stating it could be seen working when collecting, and reiterating it is in unmarked condition and working as new.

One chap was very upset and said 'it isn't an auction' I replied he could have it at the asking price as soon as he could collect. No reply.

I accepted an offer of £160 from a local buyer and they arranged to collect yesterday evening. Then no show, and no phone call.

Another offered the full price provided I delivered it to the East End of London. Seemed strange to me. I'd want to see it working before buying. And being cynical, wouldn't be surprised if they then offered less on seeing it. For any reason they could invent.

There must be an easier way for both buyer and seller.

[Fredxx]

I don't sell much but I feel your pain.

I would put: Can be seen working No Offers Collection only Cash only. Please send a message indicating when you can vie and pick this up, preferably same day, and I will reply as quickly as I can.

Anyone else I would ignore or I would refer them back to the advert.

I would start high and reduce the price each day.

YMMV

[R D S]

Nah, Everyone is a moron. I've sold a few things via Facebook recently and it played out much as you describe.

[Theo]

Not really - there's loads of stuff on Gumtree that's sold but people didn't bother taking down the listings. So quite sensible to engage the seller in that way.

Gumtree seems to be a shadow of its former self. Lots of people seem to be decamped to Facebook, leaving Gumtree with relatively few listings. The large component of scammers are still there - you may find some of the requests to deliver are followed by a suggestion of a dubious payment mechanism (anything that isn't cash, really).

When I sold an appliance recently, I listed on ebay for collection for £40, got an offer for £30 (which is what I expected would happen) and actually received about £25 after ebay costs. The buyer opted to pay via ebay, otherwise I would have got a bit more using cash. Item collected a few days later. It cost money but reduced the amount of timewasters involved.

Theo

[Mark Carver]

Likewise. Plus they turn up with their car with the boot already full of crap, and/or they haven't checked the dimensions to see if it will actually fit in their vehicle and/or they are incapable of understanding the measurements anyway.

Now and again though I do get someone with common sense, and intelligence

[Steve Walker]

Yes. It's always the first thing that I ask, for that very reason.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

Gumtree as with Facebook marketplace you are dealing with a bunch of Bozos....want everything for nothing don't turn up lead you on endlessly....waste of time....trash it

[John Rumm]

I have managed to shift plenty of stuff on ebay "for collection only"... The whole auction, pay in advance bit takes away lots of daft back and fourth...

[ARW]

Now had you posted this 10 days ago I would have bought it and picked it up.

[Chris Green]

Er, this does suggest a bit of a problem on your side as well! :-)

... and anyway you can hardly expect someone not to try offering (say) £45 when you say your 'best price' is £50 when the original offer price was £55.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

It happens that Dave Plowman (News) formulated :

It is similar on Facebook. I have just been turning into cash a few items I no longer have a use for. Two items which I expected to take a while to find buyers, were some FP (fireproof cable) and an expensive electro/hydraulic vehicle lift. I made clear they were collection only and the lift very heavy, needing disassembling - needing two to just lift it.

I was inundated with lots of enquiries for both items, some foreigner wanted the cable to wire his home, not understanding it was rather special. Some wanted to knock the already cheap price down even more. Others expected me to deliver it and take cash, if it suited them on my arrival there. Eventually it sold to a company who were struggling to get hold of the cable for a particular job and for full price.

Likewise with the lift, lots asking if it was 'still available', a few asking for money off, then when you agree they disappear. One thought it reasonable that I should disassemble it and transport it 40 miles to them, for them to decide whether or not they might actually want it or not. This after making it clear I was only selling because my failing health means I would no longer have a need to use it.

It eventually did sell to a nice guy who planned to set up a business stripping cars for parts, but I knocked him &50 off.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

R D S submitted this idea :

+1 They seem to reply, because they can, because it requires zero intelligence, zero effort on their part.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

David submitted this idea :

Freegle seemed to attract lots of second hand dealers, rather than genuine people wanting stuff for nowt. We regularly dispose of items with little value, or which we can't be botered advertising by simply popping them at the end of the drive with a note on - 'FREE'.

A 12v TV went in two minutes. The upper section only, of a polished wood dresser, sat there almost all of the day, until an old couple picked it up, or rather the female did, struggling to carry it - the male just toddled on behind her watching her struggles.

[Roland Perry]

I saw a TV for sale on a Facebook local group, and despite "claiming" it within half an hour was apparently sold. Asking about delivery for such thing is OK, because rarely would an items be more than five miles away.

Unlike eBay when the "location" can be significantly askew. I've had family-run house clearances with the wrong county, for example; people selling stuff that's at home from a work account; people posing on behalf of friends twenty miles away; eBay themselves rounding the location to the town representing the first half of the postcode when its a village right on the edge, and I'm on the opposite edge. The list is endless.

[David Wade]

E-Bay and put "collection only"...

Dave

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

This is exactly why running buy and sell services is so hard. People are strange, and seem to have forgotten manners as well especially on line as if that made any difference. Brian

[Roland Perry]

In message <ske12m$pdq$ [e-mail], at 09:04:31 on Sat, 16 Oct

2021, "Brian Gaff (Sofa)" [e-mail]> remarked:

It's not just buyers. Sellers can be unrealistic too.

I once went to help someone collect a £50 fridge-freezer offered for sale on Gumtree. Turned out to be inside an upstairs maisonette where the parking was a hundred yards from the stairs, and inside the appliance was essentially one block of ice, which they were too embarrassed to ask us to take away, but not embarrassed enough to ask us to stay for a couple of hours while they de-thawed it (they were already attacking it with hair-driers)

We made our excuses and left (along with the £50).

[R D S]

I sold a A0 pavement poster holder, massive thing, a woman drove about

20 miles to pick it up directly after work with the back of her car chock full of work related crap, I can't remember exactly what car but i'm thinking Citroen C1 or similar, cue much pissing bout in the rain.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Thing is I replied promptly. Saying yes. Then no followup from them.

I did put it on the local FB page for such things. Same sort of replies, but not so many. One actually asked for details which were in the text below the ad.

I'm happier with the Ebay system where no cash is involved, and they can't try and reduce their offer when collecting. But generally most want things posted, rather than picking them up.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I agree. But in this case I wanted rid as quickly as possible, due to the space it was taking up.