So I'm selling my old Xbox 360 and I've popped it up on Gumtree, ready for the onslaught of messages from one of two types of buyers.
BUYER TYPE 1: Scam artists
Usually you cop these with big ticket items like cars. They'll message you to say that they want to buy your item for their son and they work on an oil field overseas a million miles away from you or anywhere and if you could use this payment system you've never heard of that would be great and they never actually mention the item you are offering and so on and so forth. All these little things out of the ordinary that don't really make sense in a simple cash for goods transaction.
If there's a whiff of a scam, then it's probably one. Avoid like the plague.
BUYER TYPE 2: Those that can't even read simple instructions.
Over the years I have had many people who ask 'is this still available' only for them to never actually do anything but fade back into the woodwork as soon as I say 'yes.'
'That's nice.' They must say to themselves before popping off to send someone else the same question, only to never get back to them either. So I put these in my ads as a time waster filter:
Because if they can't follow that then there's a high chance they're not going to turn up when they tell you they will, if they even get back to you at all in the first place. I copped one this morning (inspiring this post) which I promptly ignored.
(It's an Xbox, it will sell eventually).
And don't get me started on the people who offer a third of what you're asking only five minutes into the ad going up. Or those who can ask if you could hold it for a month while grandma returns the $4000 she owes for something.
Aside from all that I still enjoy Gumtree. Mostly :p