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Craigslist war stories


tonysbricks

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This isn't quite LEGO related, but I bought a little Aiwa CD stereo off CL for $30 last year for my LEGO room.  I go to pick it up, and the tape door is glued shut- seller says his grandkid broke it.  No problem.  I get it home, and it skips horribly whenever I stand up or move around;  I end up putting rubber furniture pads underneath to dampen any vibration.  Then, a few weeks later, one of the speaker jacks stops working.  You never realize how much stuff in popular music is panned hard left/right until you're missing that speaker. (We listened to classic rock through a one-speaker stereo at one of my old jobs; "Devil Went Down to Georgia" was missing the entire fiddle part).

 

I decided to make the best of a bad situation.  I took the stereo out to the garage, then my two boys (4 &7 years) and I beat it to death with some hammers before I trashed it.  Turns out that was worth way more than $30.

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I decided to make the best of a bad situation.  I took the stereo out to the garage, then my two boys (4 &7 years) and I beat it to death with some hammers before I trashed it.  Turns out that was worth way more than $30.

Was geto boys playing in the background while you were beating the CD player?

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  • 3 weeks later...

You think dealing with Lego is bad on CL, try dealing with musicians...... I have discovered that CL is flypaper for freaks. But, I've had some great deals and some so-so ones.

 

One deal was $300 for what appeared to be around 40-50 sets with boxes and instructions. Lots of Castle, Knights Kingdom, Creator, Dino Hunt, Indiana Jones, Ninjago, Power Miners, and more. The place was about 2 hours away, but the deal seemed well worth it. About 15 minutes before getting there, the guy tells me that he got an offer for $400. I told him that I will be there in 15 minutes. I get there, and there were a ton of Lego stuff. I brought my 3 year old son with me, and when he got there he was so excited about all the Lego. At that point, I think the guy felt guilty about asking more and let it all go for $300. We load up my car to the hilt. My son had to ride home with a Creator ferry boat on his lap, and literally covered in Lego boxes. Over the days, I find that most of the sets were incomplete, and some of them were just the box only. Some of the sets were very incomplete, for example the Coast Guard set had the lighthouse but no boat. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get nearly as many sets as I thought I would have considering the number of boxes. But, I did come out with a Green Grocer with sealed bags and Temple of Fire, both with original boxes, so I shouldn't complain too much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've had some pretty sh**ty luck on craigs list. BUUUUUT ironically enough, the UCS

R2-D2 on my picture I got off there. Literally 4 emails a couple of texts messages later, and I had it in my hands an hour and a half and on my way home. And to top it off, I only paid $75 for. Brand spanken new in flawless condition. Just like what he said and how the pictures looked. He apparently won it in a game of poker a couple nights before and doesn't collect Lego or know anything about them. He just wanted cash. I didn't even try to haggle. Lol. But I thought about afterwards and had I just pulled out a crisp new $50, he prolly would have even taken that. Lol... Anyway, that's the best luckiest most awesome, will never happen again that's ever happened to me on craigslist. Other then that one experience, craigslist has been pretty much ALL BAD for this guy....WELP! Off to build the rancor pit (I was able to pick it up today AT TRU today for $41 on a price match. Last one too, only one I've seen in stores) to put underneath THE PALACE! YESSSSSSS LOL.

THE END

THANKS FOR READING

-JakeTheGreat

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Is this in our hood? If so nice pick up!

Yes it was. I replied within 15 minutes of the ad being posted and luckily I was the first one. Drove out 20 minutes and grabbed it immediately before the seller could rethink it. When I got there he said after I called there were another 3-4 people right after me. Lucky!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another crazy sweet find.  Grabbed a near complete (with box/instructions, I think some of the smaller pieces will be missing but who cares) 6991 Lego System Monorail Transport Base for $40!  Just put in a 9V battery and the motor works to boot.  I'll have to put it together sometime this weekend to see what's missing and piece it together with the boatload of spares I have from my bulk buys :)

 

As a follow up to the Emerald Night purchase, indeed it is complete except for the 1 minifig.  It was a fun build (around 3 hours) and the train looks amazing!

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Sooooo I had the idea to list my Creative Towers on Craigslist. Had probably 5 replies of "Since these were $30 at Walmart I think $35-$40 is a steal for you." Man come on. Who calls and tells someone what is fair based off of what they were at a store. I went out on Thanksgiving and almost got mauled by the hoards of people then had to wait to checkout and you think I held this for you at $5 extra. Insane.

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Sooooo I had the idea to list my Creative Towers on Craigslist. Had probably 5 replies of "Since these were $30 at Walmart I think $35-$40 is a steal for you." Man come on. Who calls and tells someone what is fair based off of what they were at a store. I went out on Thanksgiving and almost got mauled by the hoards of people then had to wait to checkout and you think I held this for you at $5 extra. Insane.

 

There's an ad on my local CL asking someone to sell it to them basically at cost ($40 CDN).  Conversely there are 5-6 ads selling them for anywhere from $85-120.  Not sure how successful they are in selling yet.  I think I saw one ad for $70 but it disappeared, perhaps it sold at that price?

 

My creative towers havent arrived yet but i have a feeling the same thing would happen here if i listed on CL. maybe i'll hang onto them until the new year...

 

I have a bunch on hand but not sure when to sell either.  I was thinking of listing them soon for $70-75 (since retail on these are supposed to be $90 CDN right?)  But competition will be fierce!  One thing I make sure NOT to do is to undercut everyone all the time.  Otherwise prices for everything will drop cutting into our profits.

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My creative towers havent arrived yet but i have a feeling the same thing would happen here if i listed on CL. maybe i'll hang onto them until the new year...

Its only been a day since listing them. I am for sure they will sell for what I want as Christmas gets closer. Last year it was the same way and then people got desperate and came back asking when and where to meet. Craigslist teaches patience and eBay teaches you to be willing to fork over money. lol
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Its only been a day since listing them. I am for sure they will sell for what I want as Christmas gets closer. Last year it was the same way and then people got desperate and came back asking when and where to meet. Craigslist teaches patience and eBay teaches you to be willing to fork over money. lol

On ads that I post that I believe may generate crap like that, I put a disclaimer right under the opening line that "Lowball offers and spam-like email go straight to the trash bin." In my experience it only turns off the morons. People who are really interested don't care.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today I bought 15 bagged complete sets without boxes (about half SW, and half City) for $80 from a CL Listing.   I'm more into parting on BL, but am a little torn on doing that since these are already built in the bags and 99-100% complete... 

 

Current Average Part-Out value on BL is about $350 but since they are mostly 2013 & 2014 I may just sit on the Star Wars sets for now.  

 

Decisions, Decisions...

Edited by Victorymike18
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Sooooo I had the idea to list my Creative Towers on Craigslist. Had probably 5 replies of "Since these were $30 at Walmart I think $35-$40 is a steal for you." Man come on. Who calls and tells someone what is fair based off of what they were at a store. I went out on Thanksgiving and almost got mauled by the hoards of people then had to wait to checkout and you think I held this for you at $5 extra. Insane.

Haha I got plenty of those from angry moms. I just reply with u can buy it eBay or amazon for more :)

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Interesting experience today via CL.  A good one actually.  Very nice guy, met me at a Mickey D's and I sold him a SC.  The interesting part was he mentioned brickpicker during the transaction.  I replied with "oh I guess you know what kind of scumbag I am then" heh heh.  Had a good laugh, he doesn't resent lego investors though instead seemed genuinely interested.

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Interesting experience today via CL.  A good one actually.  Very nice guy, met me at a Mickey D's and I sold him a SC.  The interesting part was he mentioned brickpicker during the transaction.  I replied with "oh I guess you know what kind of scumbag I am then" heh heh.  Had a good laugh, he doesn't resent lego investors though instead seemed genuinely interested.

 

Well, that's the kind of folks we want for our customers in Brick Classifieds.

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Well, that's the kind of folks we want for our customers in Brick Classifieds.

 

Definitely.  Stinks I have to feel defensive about being a lego reseller.  Why don't soccer moms attack big business for being greedy, insensitive jerks out to rip them off during Christmas when they sell them items that cost them much less to produce?

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