Classic For Sale By Owner Encounter

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Many banks flat out refuse to verify any details of a cashier's check, citing security and privacy issues.

A good deal of fake cashier's checks are copies of legitimate ones. They will verify by amount, routing, and account number. I have come across several of these I have been sent for high ticket marine parts.

Cash is extraordinarily easy to verify if you take a couple of minutes to learn about US currency and buy a checker pen.

A bill of sale is the strongest legal protection you can get that payment was fulfilled. A claim of "I wrote a bill of sale for full payment, but never got it" would be a claim that would fall on deaf ears.

The gas in the locker is about the only thing that would have floored me about that boat.

The real clincher is not starting the motor. In any winter belt state, that is a huge no.
 
Boat starts, boat runs, boat shifts F-N-R with no funny noises. Bilges are squeaky clean and dry. Trailer is good and boat cover has no mouse holes. Anything less is a walk away with a have a nice day over my shoulder as I'm heading for the car. Way too many good boats out there for sale to mess around, unless you are looking for a project ...

Maybe for an older Donzi hull (as an ex), I might take a bit of a beater, but cheap ...
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Taking cash only is a pretty good idea, lots of forged checks out there. But if you insist on it he should be able to meet you at your bank and take the check from the tellers' hands.


Gotta be careful on cash sales too, counterfeit currency is becoming fairly common. The AUSA's often won't prosecute it unless the person has made a and/or passed a shiat-ton of it and state and local police are too tied up with violent crimes to spend too much time on the casual counterfeiter. Counterfeiting is becoming the new petty theft.
 
A guy listed objects as very good on a Craigslist ad. He misrepresented big time.
When I instantly reacted to how worn out the products were he assumed a cute little smile.
I told him straight to his face that he was a garbage person, a filthy liar and that he wasted my time and walked away.
Had I stayed a moment longer I would've hurled many dirty words at him and likely broken some law.

I reported on that episode here and stated it was the very first time I was baited by misrepresentations on Craig (which was true).

Everyone here exclaimed that experiencing one episode like that left my success rate well above average.

I still think of that creep's stupid smile.

On boats: I honestly wonder how many boats are bought and maintained by people who don't use 'em, can't afford 'em in the first place and end up trashing them.
All the boat storage places in my circle are jammed full. It does seem that there'd be tons of them for sale.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high

I feel bad for whoever buys that boat. He said he had two other people coming with "cash in hand."
Anyone here have a similar story ?


I ALWAYS "call that bluff"

"Fine, go ahead and sell it to them"

I call 2 weeks later and they usually have it.... for a lot less


Yeah lol
Like car dealers- a couple is looking at a car I was looking at and the dealer tells me I better jump on it now as they are putting in an offer.. I always tell the salesperson to just let them have it as I don't want to interfere with their deal.
The salesperson gets you know what........ hot items don't sit long and if it is really hot the buyer shakes with anticipation and can't get the deal done quick enough.........
 
Originally Posted By: Imp4
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
The final straw was when he said he wouldn't take a certified bank check, "cash only."

Originally Posted By: gathermewool
I don't mean that as a dig, but the OP did not imply anything that you're stating... You're reading into it

Fellas, when you complain that the seller won't take a bank check, it implies you tried to negotiate the sale. Just sayin.

As stated earlier, and quite well I might add:
Originally Posted By: Bladecutter
And seriously, if you weren't going to buy it, after the description of it that you gave us, why would you know how he did or didn't want to be paid, and how did that become the last straw? If you didn't want the boat because it was in bad condition, it shouldn't have been a straw at all.


You can ask about payment method before doing any kind of negotiations.

I also literally just told you how the topic of cash only came up, and it didn't have to do with any kind of negotiating.

"I wouldn't even consider handing over a check until a Marina looks this over and I do a sea trial."
"I won't take a check, cash only."
"Not even a certified bank check?"
"No, cash only."

Idiots on BITOG: "You're negotiating! You're an idiot! blahblahblah"
 
So many decent used boats for cheap.
I'd be irritated as well since this sounds like a beater grade POS that had been described as a gem and you wasted a couple of hours of your time going to look at it.
What would have been a fair price for this boat and how much would you have had to invest in dollars and labor to make it suitable to you?
This thing will still be available in early June at a much lower price if you want it.
You'll tell seller that he'll need to haul some water to the barn or haul the boat on its trailer to a lake so that you can see and hear the engine run and see the prop turn.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
I also literally just told you how the topic of cash only came up, and it didn't have to do with any kind of negotiating.

"I wouldn't even consider handing over a check until a Marina looks this over and I do a sea trial."
"I won't take a check, cash only."
"Not even a certified bank check?"
"No, cash only."

Idiots on BITOG: "You're negotiating! You're an idiot! blahblahblah"

Like Groucho used to say...
The food is terrible, and the portions are too small!!!

Whether you intended to say it or not, it certainly came across like you were negotiating.

This is the only point.
Hey, do you know how you sound?
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Originally Posted By: NormanBuntz
A shyster like that seller deserves a beat down. I'd be burnt up having spent the effort to see that POS craft. And I wonder what kind of bill of sale this fraud will give to the eventual buyer.


In theory, if you did a cash deal and didn’t have someone notarize it, the guy could take you to court and say you didn’t pay, and he would probably win. With a certified bank check the sellers name is on your bank statement, which matches the bill of sale, which matches the sales tax paid, and so on and so forth. But everyone knows that, right?
 
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Originally Posted By: Imp4
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
I also literally just told you how the topic of cash only came up, and it didn't have to do with any kind of negotiating.

"I wouldn't even consider handing over a check until a Marina looks this over and I do a sea trial."
"I won't take a check, cash only."
"Not even a certified bank check?"
"No, cash only."

Idiots on BITOG: "You're negotiating! You're an idiot! blahblahblah"


Like Groucho used to say...
The food is terrible, and the portions are too small!!!

Whether you intended to say it or not, it certainly came across like you were negotiating.

This is the only point.
Hey, do you know how you sound?


Geez would you give it up? You sound like a woman in PMS.....
 
I've seen boats advertised on CL that stated in the description "needs head gasket" LOL. Yeah, sure. He forgot to winterize it and the block is laid open.
 
When my dad and I used to boat together (mostly fishing and crabbing), there were always hidden things wrong with each. Luckily, our price bracket was pretty low, so work needing to be done was expected. If the motor ran without issue and the boat didn't leak too badly for a couple of seasons, we were lucky.

When I got older and he started to make more money, we trended more toward those boats owned by boaters, maintained well. Cost more, but the boats had mostly all been recently used and could be shown to run (e.g., hose and rabbit ears for outboards, if out of water, etc.)

Originally Posted By: philipp10
Originally Posted By: Imp4
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
I also literally just told you how the topic of cash only came up, and it didn't have to do with any kind of negotiating.

"I wouldn't even consider handing over a check until a Marina looks this over and I do a sea trial."
"I won't take a check, cash only."
"Not even a certified bank check?"
"No, cash only."

Idiots on BITOG: "You're negotiating! You're an idiot! blahblahblah"


Like Groucho used to say...
The food is terrible, and the portions are too small!!!

Whether you intended to say it or not, it certainly came across like you were negotiating.

This is the only point.
Hey, do you know how you sound?


Geez would you give it up? You sound like a woman in PMS.....


Seriously. It's like when a girlfriend takes something out of context or misunderstands (adds a negative tone to a text, etc.), gets mad, and STAYS mad, even after the whole thing is cleared up and was obviously a misunderstanding.

It doesn't matter what you thought he was doing - it's an online thread and he's likely not a freaking novelist.
 
I will never post to Craigslist again. all i got was scammers 24/7. seriously to the point of if i could get their physical address I would level the place. even after deleting the post still get text asking if my boat is still for sale. my PWC's are not a boat. makes me mad just thinking about it. so now i have 2 awesome older model PWC's sitting in my yard wasting away because i bought 2 new ones. i'll just let them sit to not handle the hassle of trying to sell them.

I did find a PWC that i wanted to buy on Facebook marketplace and my Credit Union made out a check to the name on the title and i had to get a notarized bill of sale for transaction to be valid.
 
Heh, I am selling on craigslist right now, guy texting me from work.

Wanted to see it after work tomorrow.

got all the way upto when he was supposed to leave... I had texted him an hour earlier..

"yep still coming"

I tell him ok then call me and I'll give you the address.. he mysteriously finds out he has mandatory overtime 10min later.

I usually dont give out my address.. if I can meet them somewhere public but some items you have to demonstrate..
Example power washer.. It fits in the trunk but you need water to demonstrate.

Guy might have been legit.. but craigflakes are very common probably 3:1 ratio at least.. and that isnt even the scammers and bots.. just the flaky people.
 
Originally Posted By: Arctic388
I will never post to Craigslist again. all i got was scammers 24/7. seriously to the point of if i could get their physical address I would level the place. even after deleting the post still get text asking if my boat is still for sale. my PWC's are not a boat. makes me mad just thinking about it. so now i have 2 awesome older model PWC's sitting in my yard wasting away because i bought 2 new ones. i'll just let them sit to not handle the hassle of trying to sell them.

I did find a PWC that i wanted to buy on Facebook marketplace and my Credit Union made out a check to the name on the title and i had to get a notarized bill of sale for transaction to be valid.


I use Craigslist all the time. Have had one scammer in 10 years. Seems weird you have had such issues.
 
Selling motor vehicles on Craigslist takes patience. There's a lot of weirdos out there, and marine vehicles tend to attract more weirdos than most.

When selling, my best advice is to never give out your address. Any time someone needs to come to my house to see something, I tell them to meet me at a nearby gas station, store, etc, and they can follow me from there.

I can't speak for most regions, but down here, people seem to understand this practice without even explaining it to them.

There are a LOT of scammers who troll craigslist. The first 10 scammers contact me within the first 12 hours of a posting. It's easy, just ignore them. It's not hard to tell who they are. They all have the same routine. Almost none of them will ever even agree to meet in person.
 
I ended up finding a gorgeous Four Winns and bought it from the original owner on CL. I could tell by talking to the guy that he was an enthusiast and actually gave a [censored] about the boat. This thing was so clean you could eat out of the bilge. Also came with a brand new trailer. In the end it all worked out!
 
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