perchin said:
zerofivenismo said:
Froggy, I understand your sentiments. If peeps are coming out the house, I have the camcorder on point. If I'm meeting up with buyers/sellers, I always have my camcorder on a tripod in my truck (tinted windows) pointing at the bed taping the transaction in case the buyer/seller gets feisty or sheisty. Sometimes, I have a wingman taking their pics with a cell ph# while they're checking out the item. Taking down their plate # is also a good one. One time I was selling my car subwoofer. Met up at Cabela's lot, and here comes four dudes to check it out. They didn't buy, nothing happened, but I learned real quick what not to do. Sounds stupid, but from then on I always ask how many peeps they got coming to the dance....so I know how many rounds to pack :LOL2:
That's why I use our 2nd amen.
Great thread, sorry to hear the horror stories. A lot of this stuff you might think sounds obvious. I never even considered anything like checks, money transfers, etc. Because of the associated risks, and never pay for anything unless its hooked up to your truck, and don't trust anyone, not even your mother.
To me, some of these precautions seem a little extreme, like a lot of work, and kinda defeat the purpose of craigslist to me at least. With that said, trust no one, I was taken for $800 a little over a year ago by a guy I had known for over four years, went to school with and worked with. Not craigslist related really, however. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary, it was a deal I doubt hardly anyone would have questioned. I wanted to buy something of him that he had put for sale, I knew it, I knew the history of it, I had been out in it with him numerous times, so I paid him and was going to pick it up later. Haven't heard from him and no one we know has seen or heard from him since. He picked up and left.
But undoubtedly some good advice, I have to admit that in my multiple craigslist transactions some of these things just seem to defeat the main benefit of craigslist, convenience. So I have to admit that I have gone way out into no where, by myself, carrying cash, to make craigslist transactions. Things have worked out alright for me but I do take certain precautions. Tell someone where you are going or leave a note of all the details at least. When I pull up and step out of my truck, you better believe the cash is not in my back pocket, rather somewhere it would take them a couple hours to find in my truck. I carry full coverage insurance on the truck with state farm and full coverage life insurance through smith and wesson. If I don't have anyone to go with me, or meeting in the middle is still two hours away from a populated area, then those are some minimum precautions I take.
Even though I have a CCDW in situations like going alone into nowhere to buy something off craigslist I think the sight of me stepping out of the truck wearing my .40 in a holster is better protection than anything else. I'd rather scare them out of pulling their gun if they had one and were even thinking about it than actually having to discharge my weapon. I know some people may hold issue with this, but personally, I would rather do cash business with a pistol on my hip with with another guy with a pistol on his hip than do business with another guy not knowing if he had a weapon or not, who didn't know if I had a weapon or not.
If you don't want to look at it from the wild west perspective, look at it from the same perspective modern political theory looks at nukes, and why we haven't obliterated the Earth yet. Basically all the major power players in world politics are nuclear now, and thus everyone knows that if they try and destroy someone the probability that they will set off a chain reaction destroying themselves and the rest of the earth is high. Of course we have fears that a rogue will get a hold of it and set off the reaction no matter what. It is the same thing really, and choosing to not have a nuke out of your own ideals still won't prevent a rogue from trying to get ahold of one, and using it once he has it in his hands. No matter how you analyze it your better off having one than not.
Maybe not the best way, but it is certainly one way. Just how I think about it, but then again I don't even own a camera so my pistol will have to work for now! :lol: Even if I did have one I guess I'd rather leave behind a video of a sweet gunfight than a video of me just getting shot :beer: