Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)
  • Trying not to get scammed on Gumtree…
  • ebennett
    Full Member

    Posted an ad on Gumtree to get rid of my old bike for £350. Within a few minutes I had 2 replies, one asking if I’d accept £250 and he’d collect it today, and the other just saying ‘£250?’. Seems a bit odd to me to get replies so fast, what does the STW hive mind think? Do some people just have alerts set up for this type of thing? Stated cash on collection only so don’t imagine it’s our foreign friends trying to scam me.

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    If I wanted to be scammed or buy stolen goods, I’d use Gumtree. If I didn’t I wouldn’t.

    ebennett
    Full Member

    Not interested in posting it though, is there anywhere worth selling it through for collection only?

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    chakaping
    Free Member

    Your local Facebook riding group?

    Pinkbike classifieds and state collection only?

    Ebay lets you do collection only too of course.

    ebennett
    Full Member

    Thanks, first time selling 2nd hand so not got much experience with this stuff.

    ross980
    Free Member

    I had a similar experience with Gumtree when selling my old bike. There seemed to be a few chancers on there that put offers in significantly lower than my advert almost straight away. I waited a few more days and sold it to someone in the classifieds here.

    If things are priced competitively on Gumtree I’ve always found they sell very quickly. It’s a shame there are so many many time wasters on there who make offers by email and then disappear into the ether.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    Sounds like ross980 has it to me. Is say it was a coincidence 🙂

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    Generalising unfairly, if they expect you to be shifting stolen goods then you need to get rid quick and might cave to a low, early, offer of cash (or even direct payment in crack)

    ebennett
    Full Member

    Yeah, I’d mostly just like to get rid of it as it’s just taking up space. Priced it pretty competitively but willing to accept a lower offer so I’ll see how Gumtree pans out and re-advertise elsewhere if needed.

    mitsumonkey
    Free Member

    I’ve used gumtree to buy and sell.
    I sold my orange crush on there, yes I got a few silly low offers buy I held on and sold for the full asking price with no problems.

    stevedoc
    Free Member

    Tried to sell my m109 on Gumtree , I had so many texts that were just stupid offers , not queens English texts just a number and question mark , or the best are txts asking you to email someone would wants to pay full asking price and send a “collection agent ” this being obviously dodgey as

    Yes there are a load of asshats on gumreen but a few gems and genuine people , unless someone takes the time to ring you and chat about what your selling they get ignored , Pinkbike and EBay with a contact number are thee best ways ,or on here 😉

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Never had a problem selling stuff on Gumtree.

    Every time I sell a bike on here though, whatever bike it is, I get an email from the same guy who can pick it up later that week. No posting history. Never asks for pics, checks sizes or specs or anything “usual”, so I ignore them.

    codybrennan
    Free Member

    I’ve had the same thing happen, where 2 offers of exactly the same amount are made within a few minutes of each other, and I think what might be happening is that someone is trying to convince you that the amount offered is all its worth.

    No evidence except its happened to me just this way with the last few items I’ve sold on GT.

    ebennett
    Full Member

    Good point codybrennan, I’d expect anyone who’s genuinely interested to have a few questions about it so the immediate offers are probably spam/scam.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    If it’s COC how is it a scam?

    bruneep
    Full Member

    £255?

    ebennett
    Full Member

    If it’s COC how is it a scam?

    Don’t know, as I said I’ve not really sold 2nd hand before so I’m just a bit wary! The speed of the responses just seems a bit suspect to me.

    bruneep
    Full Member

    Put iPhone on gumtree had sold it and cash in hand in under an hour.

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    Watch out for offers to collect where they want you to meet in some car park. Been known for people to have the stuff nicked by distraction or get mugged.

    I’m wary anyway of people wanting to collect from your house, especially if it’s clearly old stuff you’re getting rid of. Don’t know about Gumtree for that but I tried Freecycle to clear out stuff and decided I was uncomfortable with the scruffy people coming to collect. Though nothing happened, but chucking out stuff like old TVs, some could clearly be thinking you’ve probably just bought a nice expensive new one and may have got a look at the house security in the process.

    ebay is full of scammers also but the reputation system does give more confidence. Even then people fake the reputation, but more with the overseas buyers and sellers. Main problem with eBay I find is the amount of fakes now when buying, especially for smaller and popular items.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    I’ve been selling a lot of stuff on Gumtree recently.

    I don’t think OP’s experience is sign of scammers, just the more annoying Gumtree users. I suspect they just reply to every ad and offer 60% of whatever your price is. If you reply and say yes, they’ll actually read the ad and decide whether they want it or not. The guys who immediately and only ask about price (but not about condition, equipment, whatever) are just tyre kickers or dreamers, they’re not actually interested in the thing you’re selling.

    Just ignore them or say “no – 350 is my last price”.

    cbike
    Free Member

    Sounds like all your potential buyers were doing exactly what singletrackers were offering for a lads computer on here earlier this week.

    They are not annoying users. They are making an offer you are not accepting. That is how it works. It is only ever worth what people want to pay. If you want to hold out longer and get a higher offer thats up to you. Speedy responses are people with alerts set up, a budget in mind, and don’t want to faff about. If the item is still not moving a month later you can go back with a higher offer when the seller wants it moved. A low offer also helps weed out the criminals. Use the phone number.

    For me I have no affection for the item you are selling and have no interest in the history of a computer for example. Does it work? is about as much as you need to know. For Cars you need the paperwork to check its history/life and that is best done in person.

    I have bought and sold from the house, met folk halfway in car parks for kayaks with no issues. I don’t judge people by race or social class or have paranoia issues but am always prepared to walk if necc. Its not rocket science.

    Lawmanmx
    Free Member

    yup, I have put our lass’s specy stumpjumper on there yesterday and had 2 Errrrm ‘offers’ of the same price within a couple of hours, anyways, you can’t get scammed if its a cash and collect can ya 🙂

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    I put my car on gumtree a couple of days a go and since then I’ve had several scan texts and a scam call. Local Facebook selling group has given me many more genuine enquiries

    codybrennan
    Free Member

    I think the GT alert system only sends an email once every 24 hours, its not an instantaneous thing as far as I know.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    Facebook selling groups (for me) got a much quicker response but it was full of muppets claiming dibs by saying “sold, pending price, pending confirmation of size, pending my inspection, pending mercury in retrograde”, which then created a clusterfuzzle of subsequent dibs. In my book, “sold” means “let’s fix when to exchange cash for item”, nothing else!

    Anyone got any good links to facebook selling groups in Edinburgh/Central Belt….esp with cars? Or Lexus groups anywhere in uK? (Got two relatives looking that need tech help).

    ebennett
    Full Member

    Well, got the bike sold for the asking price without too much hassle. Guess I was just being paranoid!

Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)

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