I go in for my surgery Wednesday at 5AM, have a list of prep work from the doctor I need to do Monday and Tuesday. So just trying to kill some time the next few days so here goes, sorry if this does not interest a lot of you. I feel that if you see an online ad for something for sale you are very interested in on sites like this, Craigslist, Facebook, your first/initial response to the seller you do not know can be critical especially for an item you feel is priced to sell quickly. There was a recent post on the STUFF ON OTHER SITES forum about a nice Mead Ranger that someone may have missed out on. I replied to that post saying, "Sometimes you just need to be lucky. Whether you are searching on Craigslist, Facebook, or here, a minute or two can make the difference between adding a bike you may have been searching for many years, or losing out to someone who may have seen the post a minute, or seconds before you. Same goes for swap meets where being at the right place at the right time is the key. It is luck, combined with how hard you look. Some people must check online every hour or less, just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into finding these bikes and parts that come up for sale. At swaps I try to increase my chances for a good score by hanging around at the swap meet entrance and try to catch stuff early, used to do this at the Simonian Farms Fresno annual meets. Gates for sellers would not open until the specified time so I would try to be one of the first vehicles in sellers line before gates opened. Then just wait for the next in line to come/check out what they have, start a conversation with the seller, then wait for the next vehicle, and do this until the gates opened for sellers. I am looking at many bikes right now I got in that line at Simonian Farms 30 some years ago. You can still see me lurking around the entrance to swaps in this area, but then while you are at the entry someone might be unloading a pile of treasures inside the meet so luck comes into play as well. Better yet, contact friends the week before that you know that will be selling at the meet and ask them what they might be bringing to sell.
There are also many different approaches on how to respond to a seller online keeping in mind a poster may post an item, then not go and check responses for a while at which time they are reading many times all the responses before responding, I am sure everyone has their own way of doing so. Keep your initial response to the item for sale simple I always think is best, asking a person to send more photos in your initial response may be the difference between the seller responding to the person who wants more photos, or the person with a simple response to the post."
It all got me to thinking what to say or not say when responding to a post online for an item for sale. I understand if anyone does not want to divulge any secrets you may have, guess it all depends on how you look at things, no big deal. My advise for what it is worth is to be polite of course and maybe be more careful in what you do ask for on that first response. What I would never say in an initial response to an item I am very interested in is,
I need more photos
Would you take a trade
Price is to high
Would you take X amount for it
Now those are all possibly good questions, but maybe not the best on a first response, especially on an item you feel will sell quickly. I could go on with more, but does anyone else have any suggestions on how to reply to an online for sale ad that has just been posted of an item you really want and feel that there will be many other responses to the same ad. And instead of possibly hijacking the other post, thought I would start this one if anyone is interested in this topic.
