Triangle Motorcycles: 400 a day ?? (for sale, real estate, home)

[Sonorio]

So I'm putting my beloved classic Suzuki for sale on Triangle Craigslist, and what do I see but about 400 motorcycle listings a day !! I mean like every day !!

Wow. I saw a lot more bikes on the road up North than I do here. Do people just buy 'em, never ride 'em, and then sell them here or what? It seems like you'd want to be out all the time here.

S

[TheBigKahunaNC]

People relist their ad a few times a day, at least every other day. And every shop within 85 miles of the Triangle lists their entire inventory on there as well. Then you factor in all of the bogus ads with bikes listed at half of their value, plus the 100 scooters listed daily, and you get about 400 a day! It's quite tedious to shop.

[MainLineMommy]

Agreed! If you sort the bikes down to sale by owner, the listings reduce drastically. Plus, you can assume that a buyer is going to sort further, so just make sure you have good keywords. Make sure to include the make, model, size, type (touring, cruiser, etc), year, etc. For those of us currently looking for a bike, there really aren't that many options once you sort down to what you're looking for. And be sure to include a picture. I don't even bother clicking on a listing without a picture. You might also want to try Cycletrader.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by MainLineMommy

Agreed! If you sort the bikes down to sale by owner, the listings reduce drastically. Plus, you can assume that a buyer is going to sort further, so just make sure you have good keywords. Make sure to include the make, model, size, type (touring, cruiser, etc), year, etc. For those of us currently looking for a bike, there really aren't that many options once you sort down to what you're looking for. And be sure to include a picture. I don't even bother clicking on a listing without a picture. You might also want to try Cycletrader.

All good advice.
Make it easy for buyers.

You are going to have scammers, but don't use that as an excuse to make it hard for honest people to contact you.

Use the Craigslist anonymous email that forwards to your own email, and answer emails that look legit.
Don't bother posting "No Scammers." That is hopeless and looks totally silly.

If you are taking phone calls, just put the number in like it dials, 9195551212
Don't do the goofy 9One9 fivefive5 one21two stuff. Just hang up on jerks, but make it easy for the honest people to reach you.

Craigslist gets eyeballs and makes the phone ring.

[TheBigKahunaNC]

When I'm searching for something in particular on Craigslist, ( I shouldn't give away all of my secrets), one trick is to misspell the words on purpose. A LOT of people struggle with what seem like the most basic words. In the motorcycle category, the most commonly misspelled word is "HELMET". I've seen helmut, helment, helmit, etc. Brakes and breaks is often mixed up as well. Be creative. I've grabbed a few smoking deals because the seller couldn't spell.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by TheBigKahunaNC

When I'm searching for something in particular on Craigslist, ( I shouldn't give away all of my secrets), one trick is to misspell the words on purpose. A LOT of people struggle with what seem like the most basic words. In the motorcycle category, the most commonly misspelled word is "HELMET". I've seen helmut, helment, helmit, etc. Brakes and breaks is often mixed up as well. Be creative. I've grabbed a few smoking deals because the seller couldn't spell.

LOL
Yep
Also true on Ebay.
I got a big Dell printer for less than the freight I paid a couple of years ago because the seller spelled the model wrong, and it went off at my minimum bid, despite my max being much higher. $20 +$45 shipping, and that model sells for $275 and up in working order yet today.

[wheelsup]

Get a free Google voice # to forward to your cell phone, so people don't call your real cell.

[RDUBiker]

I'll be selling a motorcycle soon on CL and this is a good thread. One thing I've seen friends do on there is to put something along the lines of:

"If you contact me, tell me what your home town is so I know you're not a spammer"

Or maybe a math problem.

The ideas above about the spelling errors is genius...which is why I am not smart enough to have thought of it, but I will be using it!

[Sonorio]

Originally Posted by TheBigKahunaNC

People relist their ad a few times a day, at least every other day. And every shop within 85 miles of the Triangle lists their entire inventory on there as well.....

Geez.
I put up two pieces of furniture, went to put Sophie (the Suzuki) up and Craigslist wouldn't let me because I was putting up too much stuff.

Makes me want to get up and, uh, Scream.

But seriously, folks, Craigslist ought to recognize that letting any individual or few individuals (shops) flood the system is a bad thing to do.

S

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by Sonorio

Geez.
I put up two pieces of furniture, went to put Sophie (the Suzuki) up and Craigslist wouldn't let me because I was putting up too much stuff.

Makes me want to get up and, uh, Scream.

But seriously, folks, Craigslist ought to recognize that letting any individual or few individuals (shops) flood the system is a bad thing to do.

S

I don't think Craigslist has the control over the proceedings that they used to, due to exponential growth of abuse.
Heck, go to the real estate section and see continuous abuse of TOS all day every day by the same people, with nothing done about it.

Craigslist can stop users by blocking one unique static IP address, if they care to. But when unethical posters violate the TOS, when they use multiple third party, out of country, posting services from multiple dynamic IPs, even though that also is a violation of CL TOS there isn't much CL can do to block it.

Did you try more than once to post your bike? Try from work, or your phone?