Creepiest Craigslist Transactions!

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hehawbrew

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I've done a lot of creepy CL transactions over the years between car, guitars, lawn mowers etc, but tonight was up there! Some guy had a brewers best IPA extract kit with the bottleing bucket, fermenting bucket, capper, caps, and other random stuff- all new. He was askin for 100$ or trade for camping gear, guns, or ammo!

I had a few boxes of cheap ammo I never planned on using, so I said, " what the heck! I've never done an extract kit, so, it will be a chance to try one and get some extra gear!" I made sure it was legal and went ahead. Creepy part- we met at a park, 830 at night. I wasn't sure if the ATF was going to jump out of the trees or if the guy was going to kill me! I survived! What creepy CL transactions have you all survived?
 
I spotted an allegedly new-in-box Lincoln 180C mig welder on Craig's List for under half the MSRP, sent an email, a week later got a response that I was like #23 on the list. I made a joke in return that if the other 22 passed to let me know.

Got an immediate reply that it was mine if I wanted it (?) and to call the provided phone number. That kicked off two days of the seller changing the meeting time and place, from his house, to his brother's house, to another brother's house, and finally to the parking lot behind a McDonalds in the fourth town he considered. He also provided a sketchy back-story on how the welder came to exist and why it was being sold, and that the transaction had to be in cash.

Sooo...when the appointed time neared I grabbed the needed cash, jumped in the truck, got to the McD's lot...and while waiting began to wonder if this was all a setup for a robbery. I turned the truck around in the lot so it was facing the exit, got out a piece of paper and a pencil and positioned both on the center console so that as soon as the seller's car arrived I could jot down the plate number so the cops would have a clue if they found my corpse.

Sure enough, the guy that popped out of the car looked like a hard-bitten someone you'd see at the horse track leaning against a wall, packing concealed heat, chewing on a toothpick and eyeing all the marks going by to decide which one he was going to roll at the first opportunity. But, he was alone, stood all of about 4' 11" and about 140 pounds (I'm 6'5" and going on 220) and looked to be someone's granddaddy. He tried re-selling his current back-story, but considering the fact that the carton was still sealed it looked like one of those "fell off a truck" deals to me.

We did what we were there to do (which really did feel clandestine as heck) and a $700 welder came home with me for $300. And when I needed a warranty replacement of the gun, Lincoln didn't blink a corporate eye about it, so I'm pretty happy with what went down...

Cheers!
 
Damn people. You sure don't heed the inner voice (the one telling you Danger!) in face of a deal. I always bring my gun, never let the other person choose the meeting place, and arrive early enough to cruise around to check it out.
 
When I was living in New York City I posted an ad to trade a pair of GS race skis for a new dyson vacuum for my wife. I got a response, met on 18th st. And 5th (very busy) two Mexican guys hopped out all of 5'2" ( I'm 6'3" and the skis are taller than me...) out of an unmarked cargo van and pulled out what appeared to be a floor model.

Long story short, traded. Happy wife happy life.

Still an odd transaction.
 
I have actually had overwhelmingly positive Craigslist experiences. The worst are just no-shows or they become non-responsive after a few messages.

Just recently I bought an "antique" (it has been well used and has a faucet welded on it that looks like it would belong on a village water source, but still it's in good shape) 10 gallon stainless steel kettle, two Ale Pails and a 5 gallon orange drink cooler with steel braid on it (mashing) for $60 from a really nice local military guy thanks to CL. Going to try to build an electric portable countertop Brutus 20 of sorts.

I think the reason for my almost 100% CL success is that I just refuse to meet with anyone if I get so much as a slight creepy vibe, which there is plenty of to go around on CL.
 
Posted an ad on CL about trading spent-grains for chicken eggs. Our spent grains make chickens "poop out eggs like crazy", according to my neighbor (and the chicken owners I've dealt with). Guy texted me about it, we went back and forth a little, I felt comfortable giving him my address to come pick them up...I know, kinda scary. Anyway next text he sends me is "Do you have kids?"........!!!

I was like, that's an odd question to ask considering the business we're discussing...he said, oh we have a small chicken that lays tiny eggs, my grandkids get a kick out of them, so I was going to include them if you had kids. I said, Oh, good...I was thinking I needed to have my .45 on hand after that question.

True enough, we swapped eggs and grain a few times, never met him (I left grains outside, usually when we were going out for a few hours) but he did bring me some eggs that were roughly 1/3 the size of normal "large" eggs, along with the rest.

I've since found someone more reliable, who brings me 18 eggs per 9g batch of spent grains. They seem very excited to get that much chicken feed, and I like farm-fresh eggs for "free".
 
A little off topic but, day_trippr's stories reminded me of a co-worker who was approached by someone in the BestBuy/CircuitCity/etc. parking lot with two TVs. One was an open box. Beautiful TV (tube tv) for a STEAL! This guy was a good salesman and my friend wanted the TV, so he gave him a couple of hundred bucks and decided to take the sealed box. When he got home and opened it up, it was a couple of cinder blocks. I'm always a little leary about CL sales. I bought a $1300 electrical tester for $650. This isn't something your average homeowner would buy. The guy said he'd bought it and didn't need it anymore... yeah right.
 
highgravitybacon said:
Damn people. You sure don't heed the inner voice (the one telling you Danger!) in face of a deal. I always bring my gun, never let the other person choose the meeting place, and arrive early enough to cruise around to check it out.
Click to expand...

I listen to the inner voice, but sometimes he has no reason to speak until I'm already in the situation. A few years ago my daughter's boyfriend (now her husband) asked me to go with him and her to look at a car from CL he was thinking about buying. The car was at a house in a neighborhood in West San Antonio that both looked like something out of an LA gangland movie. There were several young Hispanic males sitting on the porch--let me point out that me and my daughter are the definition of "gringo" and "gringa." An older Hispanic woman said the owner was running late but that we could test drive it while we waited. I drove it and told him to offer about $3000 which we had with us, in cash.

A few minutes later the owner called and said how much he was asking. He was going to be about an hour. I told him we were interested, but not wanting to waste an hour if he wouldn't go down on the price, I told him we'd offer $3000 cash, if he'd take it. He agreed and we were going to do the paper when he got there. I handed the cell phone back to the woman, who walked into the house speaking on it. Mr. Inner Voice suddenly started screaming, so I pulled aside my daughter's boyfriend and told him, "We are outnumbered in a small yard that can easily be blocked, and like an idiot, I just told that guy I have $3000 dollars cash. Take my keys and my daughter and wait in the car with the engine running--tell her you want to listen to music. If anything happens drive like hell and don't look back until me or the police call you."

It got kind of creepy when the guys on the porch started whispering, but after a bit the guy showed up and we made the exchange.
 
highgravitybacon said:
Damn people. You sure don't heed the inner voice (the one telling you Danger!) in face of a deal. I always bring my gun, never let the other person choose the meeting place, and arrive early enough to cruise around to check it out.
Click to expand...

This seems a bit alarmist to me, as I don't understand why doing a Craigslist deal makes me any more of a target than any other time in my life, or anymore than the person next to me.

I guess they know I have a certain amount of money on me, but usually the money involved doesn't seem worth the effort of a elaborate CL scam to rob me.

Obviously, use some common sense but I've had nothing but good luck with CL, both buying and selling.
 
broadbill said:
I guess they know I have a certain amount of money on me, but usually the money involved doesn't seem worth the effort of a elaborate CL scam to rob me.
Click to expand...

To some people, in some situations, that money IS DEFINITELY worth an ad and a few phone calls or text messages...
 
I once sold a large quantity of paper Air Miles coupons which I won in a competition. They are technically non transferrable, so it was not a completely above board deal. They guy wanted to meet in a Subway station, at night, on the other side of town. I was extremely dubious. I felt a lot safer when I saw his black hat, coat, beard, and prayer shawl. The guy was an Orthodox Jewish jeweller. This was going to be strictly business. The transaction went fine, we haggled briefly, he handed over a fat wad of cash, and we both left happy.

Craigslist transactions I've had with home brewers have always been extremely friendly.
 
alien said:
I once sold a large quantity of paper Air Miles coupons which I won in a competition. They are technically non transferrable, so it was not a completely above board deal. They guy wanted to meet in a Subway station, at night, on the other side of town. I was extremely dubious. I felt a lot safer when I saw his black hat, coat, beard, and prayer shawl. The guy was an Orthodox Jewish jeweller. This was going to be strictly business. The transaction went fine, we haggled briefly, he handed over a fat wad of cash, and we both left happy.

Craigslist transactions I've had with home brewers have always been extremely friendly.
Click to expand...

OK! I know it sounds racist and I'm sorry! So any of you forum police just leave me alone! I laughed myself silly when you mentioned haggling with the Orthodox Jew. People used to call haggling with someone to lower the price, "Jewing them down." So, when you said this my first thought was, "Well, duh!" BTW, I ran this joke by a Rabbi friend and he said it's Kosher.
 
Excuse me, I should have been more sensitive to that. We were bargaining. And he gave me a pretty good deal in the end. (The irony is my wife is Jewish and she never looks at the price of things at all, whereas I am an utter cheapskate.)

Perhaps CL etiquette varies a little on this point. I wouldn't jawbone a little old lady out of $2 but some people obviously trade quite regularly and it's pretty much understood that there's going to be some negotiation about price.
 
I wasn't offended. I figured I would get jumped on for finding it funny--which I thought it was. It is a matter of culture. My wife is Korean and will try to negotiate easily. She once argued with a lady (in Korea) for a half hour over a purchase. When I got close enough to hear they were arguing over a quarter. I threw the lady a quarter and said, "Let's go." My wife was pissed because I had ruined her fun. When I lived in Korea I did it too because there was the actual price and then the price you paid if you were stupid. Bargaining was assumed so it was built into the asking price. For fun, I would go into a place and negotiate down from "Special GI price" and then walk out and send in my wife. She would come out with it for half what I would have had to pay--she was ruthless and I have seen store owners through a product at her just to get her out of the store.
 
Sounds like a pretty Italian woman who was a friend on the opposite corner of our development when I was young. She'd haggle over everything...even in the grocery store.
 
When we first moved to the states, we went to an American grocery store and while the cashier was ringing up our purchase I was bagging. After a few minutes she was done, and I hear her in a loud voice tell my wife, "No you won't! You'll pay the whole price!" I almost pissed I was laughing so hard.
 
i bought a fridge. showed up, the top was melted by "the previous owner" but it functioned and was for a ferm chamber so what the hell. it was 95F degrees out and the guy was in a black leather coat, black shirt, black jeans, black boots - and looked EXACTLY like jack black, no joke. so we load it up and he says - what are you doing now? I said nothing (mistake) and he asked if I could give him a ride and I say yes (mistake). So he hops in and directs me down the road to a gas station, chatting me up - what do you do for a living? I pull in the gas station and say later - and he asks if I can wait and give him a ride back. So he goes in for like 10 minutes, and comes out with a frickin' big gulp. Probably a sack of weed too. I give him a ride home and basically tell him to get the F out of my truck wondering how the hell I got in that situation.
 
alien said:
I once sold a large quantity of paper Air Miles coupons which I won in a competition. They are technically non transferrable, so it was not a completely above board deal. They guy wanted to meet in a Subway station, at night, on the other side of town. I was extremely dubious. I felt a lot safer when I saw his black hat, coat, beard, and prayer shawl. The guy was an Orthodox Jewish jeweller. This was going to be strictly business. The transaction went fine, we haggled briefly, he handed over a fat wad of cash, and we both left happy.

Craigslist transactions I've had with home brewers have always been extremely friendly.
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvfTNRsVGlM

You can hide a big gun under that shawl.
 
broadbill said:
This seems a bit alarmist to me, as I don't understand why doing a Craigslist deal makes me any more of a target than any other time in my life, or anymore than the person next to me.

I guess they know I have a certain amount of money on me, but usually the money involved doesn't seem worth the effort of a elaborate CL scam to rob me.

Obviously, use some common sense but I've had nothing but good luck with CL, both buying and selling.
Click to expand...

Assume the best but plan for the worst and you won't be disappointed. If I'm buying a $400 range, the seller can safely assume I have appx $400 cash on me at a given moment in time. The know where I will be and what time I will be there.

Normally, it would be a crap shoot to stop anyone on the street randomly and find 1 in a 100 that had that much cash on them any given time.

I don't have too many issues, but I'm always armed. And frankly, I assume the other party is armed too. Because after all, if I think like this surely there must be someone else who thinks the same way.

But I always carry a gun anyway, even when I'm not meeting random strangers for craigslist.
 
I never have had any real issues. ...but I am always armed as well. I would rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
 
I'd pack, but live in MD where criminals rule. Come August, hardly any law abiding citizens will be armed since our state gov is making it so hard to for us to buy guns!!!

Anyway- love the stories!!! I've had great CL experiences, but three or four really scary ones!
 
hehawbrew said:
I'd pack, but live in MD where criminals rule. Come August, hardly any law abiding citizens will be armed since our state gov is making it so hard to for us to buy guns!!!

Anyway- love the stories!!! I've had great CL experiences, but three or four really scary ones!
Click to expand...

What part of MD you from that's where I'm at too
 
Yeah- I'm northern md, close to PA. Hoping to move that way in a year or two. Heck, that's where my lhbs is! Better gun laws amd closer to my lhbs, it's a no brainier!!!
 
hehawbrew said:
Yeah- I'm northern md, close to PA. Hoping to move that way in a year or two. Heck, that's where my lhbs is! Better gun laws amd closer to my lhbs, it's a no brainier!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm close to pa too about 20 min you go to the one in Hanover?
 
hehawbrew said:
I'd pack, but live in MD where criminals rule. Come August, hardly any law abiding citizens will be armed since our state gov is making it so hard to for us to buy guns!!!
Click to expand...

The criminals would LOVE to see a gun free society. Makes their job a lot less dangerous.
 
That's nutz! A international forum and you are right around the corner!!
 
Yeah go figure I only know 1 other homebrewer in this area but I'm trying to get my buddy into it he has liked every beer I made and wants to get a kit
 
All I'm hearing on this thread is guns, guns, guns. it's like a stuck record.
 
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