Post it... It's not like its privileged info.... It's on a public website

Waste of time, 50 people have already seem it by the time u post. You could also possibly ruin a locals deal..pass it along to someone u know instead...

Lots of threads about this. Some say you are possibly killing deals for locals who saw it first. Some say everyone checks craigslist, post it. Doesn't bother me. The good deals, I mean the real good deals are gone in minutes around here. People post them on occasion and don't get lynched so your safe.

And so what if your one the people that has contacted the seller within minutes and now everyone else is after the guy to sell it for more money? My experience is that once that happens 99% of the time your out and it now becomes a bidding war. I've lost out on many great deals that I had been working on for weeks or months (because the seller is dragging there feet to get it done) and the next thing I know someone had to open there mouth to everybody. My advice is to not post anything unless your the one selling it.

John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836

Can't argue with this. It's one of those thing that dosent bother you unless it happened to you.

Not CL, but if I see something a little less known (like an auction), sometimes I'll find people that have that pin on their want list that are in the area on pinside and send them a PM. Did this with a whitewater not long ago.

this happens all the time now.

How do you find the auctions with pinball machines?

tell only your close friends the good ones, and tell everyone the terrible and funny ones.

I guess another point would be, who are you trying to help? If your goal is to help "pinsiders," you probably aren't. My guess is that there are 9 lurkers for every 1 active poster.

On the very off chance someone from "pinside" saw and got the deal, what are the odds they've even posted once?

If it is a CL ad it does not matter if you post it here, many have already noticed the ad. If it is a friend you are trying to get the best/fastest deal, throw it up here.

For every person that is mad that they missed a deal, there are two happy people. The actual buyer and seller.

I agree with this since thats what I did for the first few months I was in the hobby.

You guys are right. The CC I am getting almost didn't happen because of this. It took several conversation and a very persuasive email. I am thankful the seller stuck to the price he advertised.

Dan

Keep in mind that there are those that have CL apps that as soon as something gets posted, it send them an alert. So, chances are that by the time you post something, the seller's already getting calls from those people.

The only true recourse from this kind of thing is if the seller is completely unwilling to ship. Keep in mind, too, that most people would like the money NOW, in CASH and have the pin leave at the same time. They don't want to wait a week, get a "cashier's check" they hope is good, and then have some shipping company hopefully show up in a four hour window that they have to take time off work to make sure they're home for!

Use this argument to keep a local sale local if the seller is saying something like, "There's one guy from the internet who'll give me $XXXX......"

I tell my friends...but I don't post it on here.

I was scared to post a question about picking up a pinball machine, thinking someone here might undercut my deal if they saw my location and went on craigslist. Didn't happen, and got a ton of help here.

It's unlikely that any craigslist find of a desirable pin won't already be known by people who are interested. Even though I am not in the market ATM (unless a safecracker in my area comes up), I still have an RSS reader pinging craigslist w/ my search terms every hour.

Here's a rant I have about CL of a different nature: The last 4 emails I've sent to sellers telling them I'm interested in buying have been ignored. These are ads that have either been up for several days or were just placed.

Don't these people want my money? I realize that somebody likely beat me to the deal, but I'm striking out every time here. Is there some secret codeword I don't know?

CL is hit or miss. No minimum IQ required, so anyone can post anything. I don't understand why some folks don't respond to new ads...

I also think a lot of guys worry about the haters. Believe it or not there are (like in all hobbys) some guys who will send a message to a seller telling them their price is to low. Then the ad gets pulled and reposted for a higher price. I've seen it several times. I think most people wouldn't sell to a guy across country with all the scams out there. How many times have you posted an ad and got the "Im out of the country ATM but will send you a check" scam. The chances of you posting here and someone from a far away town stealing your deal is slim to none. If the pinsider is local and sees a thread on here about a killer deal in his home town most of the time he already knows about it. It's the haters you have to worry about not the out of town buyers.