Craigslist robin hoods?

[vanvoorhis]

There are alot of buyer, resellers, whatever you want to call them in my area.  Lego lots on craigslist always disapear fast! So, if they supply half way decent pictures, I usually make a higher offer than what they want.  This always throws them for a loop.  I have learned though multiple offers, that is usually the only way to actually have a chance of landing and/or getting a response about a lot.  I have no problems paying more for some poundage of legos when I know I will still be saving $ if I try to get a similar lot on ebay or goodwill.

 

This past week I offered $100 more for a lot that had pictures of the batcave instructions in the pictures.  It is a gamble sometimes, but like the stock market... do your research and you can stay in the green.

 

So yeah, i am one of those guys that emails the customer telling them what their legos are worth, but I only do that if I am going to purchase them.

[leaningjowler]

Some 2nd post I wouldn't post your address on this site. 

[Quacs]

There are alot of buyer, resellers, whatever you want to call them in my area.  Lego lots on craigslist always disapear fast! So, if they supply half way decent pictures, I usually make a higher offer than what they want.  This always throws them for a loop.  I have learned though multiple offers, that is usually the only way to actually have a chance of landing and/or getting a response about a lot.  I have no problems paying more for some poundage of legos when I know I will still be saving $ if I try to get a similar lot on ebay or goodwill.

 

This past week I offered $100 more for a lot that had pictures of the batcave instructions in the pictures.  It is a gamble sometimes, but like the stock market... do your research and you can stay in the green.

 

So yeah, i am one of those guys that emails the customer telling them what their legos are worth, but I only do that if I am going to purchase them.

 

My guess is that in Willy's world, this is fair game - every man for himself if you're working for a deal, and you do what you have to do to get the sale.  His original post expressed furstration at the folks who had no intention of buying Lego and still e-mailed/called people with CL listings telling them what they felt their lots were "worth".  I've done exactly the same thing you have a couple of times and suprisingly it hasn't worked.  Both times, the seller has said he/she had another buyer and they were sticking with their offer.  However, my early failures will not keep me from trying this tactic again.

[willy431]

Correct Quacs.

 

I have no issue with vanvoohies' strategy--it is valid.  If he can still make money doing that--more power to him.  He is attempting to use money, in place of diligence.  I try to use diligence, instead of money to the same end.  Scoring legos as cheap as possble.  I check my local, semi local, and regional craigslist for each spelling of lego many times daily.  MANY times.  This has been rewarding---but I must spend time checking for deals, and making calls/emailing, and dropping what I am doing to run and pick up the deal before either someone else "outbids" me, --which is fine.  It's the jerks that email people telling them to sell on ebay--sending them links to amzn and ebay showing their item selling for 10x their ask---even though they have no intention of buying the item themselves.

 

I guess that is the same as people on ebay bidding up prices, even when they don't want the item themselves--they just don't want others getting too good of a deal---or they are trying to keep the selling prices up.  Which isn't a horrible strategy I must admit.

[vanvoorhis]

My guess is that in Willy's world, this is fair game - every man for himself if you're working for a deal, and you do what you have to do to get the sale.  His original post expressed furstration at the folks who had no intention of buying Lego and still e-mailed/called people with CL listings telling them what they felt their lots were "worth".  I've done exactly the same thing you have a couple of times and suprisingly it hasn't worked.  Both times, the seller has said he/she had another buyer and they were sticking with their offer.  However, my early failures will not keep me from trying this tactic again.

 

at leaningjowle... what is wrong with my post?  Is something wrong with trying to getting a leg up againts the competition (other collectors/resalers)?  I dont mind posting my location, as I rarely try to get craigslist lots, maybe once every 6 months.  So, this is my way of getting a quality lot.  My business model for resaling is... inventory the lot, get as many sets complete as possible, keep the themes I enjoy to collect... then resale the others to try to break even on the endevor.  I know I will probably never break even, as time is money, but I love legos as a hobby, so I dont really count time invested.

 

Anyway. as Quacs said, this is my tactic to make sure I can get a quality lot that is worth my time to sort through.

[tonysbricks]

I think you are assuming way too much in regards to their intentions. Maybe they don't plan to buy that exact lot, but the higher they can get their competition to pay the less firepower they have on the next deal. Or, it gets the price up so they can re-sell their left overs to the next wannabe lego baller.

 

The point is, no one spends their time on cl to help other people. No one. They are doing this for themselves even if you don't understand their exact intention. Quite frankly, it's genius. It has happened to me and you just gotta roll with it. But I do make those greedy sellers pay. By the time they are done dealing with me they wish they never listed their stuff to sell. I too can use their greed against them. 

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

You know I agree with you on several things, but on this I just can't. I've done what you did with that lot some times and some not, but either way I don't think there is any difference between scoring a CL deal and one on eBay for way less than it is worth. I might be wrong, but I don't think you advice ebay sellers about the true value of their listings, judging by some of the great scores you get over there! (and that have very gently shared with me every now and then )

 

To me I think the line is simple. You can offer whatever and that puts the ball into the other persons court to make sure its right, whatever else. I mean, I have gotten several lots way cheaper than they were worth OR what the people asked for.

 

However, I straight up said "I would like to pay this" and they accepted.

 

What I don't think is moral sound is lying or being deceitful to people - telling them this isn't worth anything, etc. - used car salesman stuff - just to get a killer deal. Yes they can check up and should, but that doesn't mean you should do it. Not that anyone here was or would

 

 

Bottom line though, I don't really have sympathy for folks who are trying to rip off someone (or a store, like the guy who was blatantly abusing the TRU Price Match) and then that well runs dry.

 

First of all - what you are referring to here was long resolved. No need to keep mentioning it. Dallas is a great member

 

At what % of the original price do you draw the line? If it was worth $200 and you offered $75 (way less than 50%) could you not make an argument that you were trying to take advantage of the guy as well? Just that at a smaller magnitude than the other guy.

 

Exactly. no way to qualify it. You can offer 1$ - they need to check. My wife asked me this. It comes to this: If they are willing to sell it for a price, its worth that to them, then its fine. If you deceive them into thinking its worth less, thats when it gets out of hand.

 

Recently I purchased a lot from a guy (he was awesome) that was worth in the vicinity of $1500 in used sets. they were all mixed together in a bin though. He was asking 900.

 

It had been on CL for several weeks. I sent him a message and said "would you consider lower? Your price is good, but I am looking to add most of these to my collection and was going to see if you would come down." We talked and eventually he agreed to $400 (killer deal).

 

When I came to get them, I told him how grateful I was because I really wanted these for my collection and it was an awesome deal. he said he knew the worth, but he wanted them to go to a fellow collector and wasn't concerned with pulling every penny he could out of them.

 

I have kept all of them - I wont resell them because I told him I wasn't right there. Had I been lying, maybe something was wrong there. But he was perfectly willing to part with them for a third of what they were worth, so I don't think I did anything wrong by accepting that.

[akohns]

All this chat sounds like banter from Storage Wars.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

All this chat sounds like banter from Storage Wars.

 

Lol. except we are speaking in complete sentences, we aren't raising our arms like "come at me bro", and we don't have nicknames like "T-money".

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

 

I was thinking the same Akohn.  While the robin hoods are a pain it's part of the game/ huslte

[leaningjowler]

I don't have a problem with your post. Some peeps on this site take this way too seriously based on the anger level in some of these posts. 

 

People are going to do what they want. Get your paper by any means possible! 

 

at leaningjowle... what is wrong with my post?  Is something wrong with trying to getting a leg up againts the competition (other collectors/resalers)?  I dont mind posting my location, as I rarely try to get craigslist lots, maybe once every 6 months.  So, this is my way of getting a quality lot.  My business model for resaling is... inventory the lot, get as many sets complete as possible, keep the themes I enjoy to collect... then resale the others to try to break even on the endevor.  I know I will probably never break even, as time is money, but I love legos as a hobby, so I dont really count time invested.

 

Anyway. as Quacs said, this is my tactic to make sure I can get a quality lot that is worth my time to sort through.

[gregpj]

I guess that is the same as people on ebay bidding up prices, even when they don't want the item themselves--they just don't want others getting too good of a deal---or they are trying to keep the selling prices up.  Which isn't a horrible strategy I must admit.

 

Emailing someone to tell them their lot is worth more when you have no intention of buying it is different than this. If I bid on auctions to drive the price up <oh, I've never done that> then it's also a binding bid and I could get a "no payment" feedback which I don't want. Unless I'm willing to make a bunch of new accounts with zero feedback to do it, then I guess the risk may be worth it.

 

And although I agree with you that CL Robin Hoods ought to mind their own business, by your own words, if the person who created the listing tries "to make more money" from it, then that should be OK in the good ol' USA.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Poor Robin Hood is also used unfairly to justify certain actions. Despite what modern movies and such say, there is not one Robin Hood story that can be named as the original and end all version. By all accounts, Robin Hood's real enemy were not the rich in general, but rather those rich government officials who abused their powers to steal from their citizens (Sheriff and King, etc)

[willy431]

It should be, and is!  I was fine with it when the guy called me (even though I was getting ready to leave the house) and said someone offered him more.  I told him I wasn't a buyer at $80--only the $50 we had agreed to.  If he thought the $80 was a real offer, and person would have come through--he should have taken it.  I was more referring to the jerks emailing craigslist sellers links to ebay and amazon showing what their items can sell for there---without making them an offer--or having any intention of buying the item(s).

 

There is someone on our list now posting minecraft sets for sale---with links to amzn and lego store---to cut into the sales of people who are asking over retail.

[Diabolos80]

Willy your idea of an every man for himself America is working out really well so far, huh? Millions of jobless, homeless, starving people sounds like just the kind of thing Ayn Rand had in mind, right? Not all of them are ignorant and lazy. Some of them were laid off so a CEO could put gas in his Ferrari. Make no mistake, there's a fine line between self-preservation and greed. This country crossed it the day after it was born.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Willy your idea of an every man for himself America is working out really well so far, huh? Millions of jobless, homeless, starving people sounds like just the kind of thing Ayn Rand had in mind, right? Not all of them are ignorant and lazy. Some of them were laid off so a CEO could put gas in his Ferrari. Make no mistake, there's a fine line between self-preservation and greed. This country crossed it the day after it was born.

This country has not been about everyone for himself in a long time (think the New Deal and such). We could all get into an argument about all this, but the public section of the forum is not that place.

[Diabolos80]

This country has not been about everyone for himself in a long time (think the New Deal and such). We could all get into an argument about all this, but the public section of the forum is not that place.

Well the govt changes policies as often as presidents. I was speaking more to the mindset of Americans making money. And it wasn't really an argument, just a point that capitalism always leaves someone behind and stepped on. This country is in dire need of more neighborly consideration, not less. Also I believe in karma, so there's that... Willy has gone out of his way to enthrall us with all his unscrupulous maneuverings, and even expressed a bit of guilt about it from time to time. I'm just saying the guilt is a little bit founded, maybe.

[Fcbarcelona101]

Well, there really is none other politcal economic system that works. Plus, the US is one of the most giving nations in the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Giving_Index#World_Giving_Index_rankings

So most people in this country are already pretty generous

All of this comes from someone who lived the first 20 yrs of his life abroad, but that loves this country and its way of life more than any other. (Me, lol)

[justafrog]

Also, there aren't millions of starving people in America. We can argue social systems all day (though not in these forums), but you can't name me a society, past or present, where everyone is equal.

 

What you call "unscrupulous" some of us call "smart". Some can look at Willy and think "bad man", some can look at you and think "stupid man", but end of the day, personal morality is personal.

[Diabolos80]

NM

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

Also, there aren't millions of starving people in America. We can argue social systems all day (though not in these forums), but you can't name me a society, past or present, where everyone is equal.

 

What you call "unscrupulous" some of us call "smart". Some can look at Willy and think "bad man", some can look at you and think "stupid man", but end of the day, personal morality is personal.

 

I can name you a society thats equal:

 

1. Aztecs

2. The Guanches

3. The Arawak

 

They are all equally dead and extinct.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

NM

 

Great argument here.

 

Seriously I get what you are saying and I am with you. I think we would be better off if people didn't care so much about money and so little about the people we are taking it from.

[justafrog]

I guess I'm still not getting what you think the difference is between a neighbor selling their old Lego on eBay and one of us paying their asking price without telling them it's worth more, and a neighbor selling their old Lego at a garage sale or on Craigslist and one of us paying their asking price without telling them it's worth more.

 

And, social systems encompass the society, i.e, the businessmen and the neighbors. Maybe you missed that day Freshman year? :-D

 

(I'm done now, my apologies to the mods for my part in taking this off the subject a bit too much.)

[Fcbarcelona101]

Great argument here.

 

Seriously I get what you are saying and I am with you. I think we would be better off if people didn't care so much about money and so little about the people we are taking it from.

 

"receiving it" would be more appropriate.

[lowillsw]

&amp;nbsp;

This country has not been about everyone for himself in a long time (think the New Deal and such). We could all get into an argument about all this, but the public section of the forum is not that place.

&amp;nbsp;

It's more like the other way around. The government redistributes weatlh so people in this country can take risk as we can have the every man for himself mindset. At the end of the day, there is a safety net if you fail. That unleashes human nature while the government keep it in check at the same time with law. Everyone might be born at different levels (wealth and social status), we all have the equal opportunity to be move higher or lower.

At the end of the day, it's all about survival. While our ancesters hunt, gather animals and vegetation and live in tribes, we hunt for Lego to enhance our survival with the added medium of fiat currency. If you are not breaking any laws to get what you want, it's merely a discussion of morals. My view of my reality might differ from others, it is in no one's place to see one moral is better than other.