Son bought mower off CL. Most likely hot. Sigh,,,,

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docmirror

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Well, he's been looking for a new mower cause the old one was having multiple issues. Basically falling apart. I recommended he check CL for something that was fairly new.

So, he did and he found a deal on a like-new Craftsman with rear bag, self-propelled, one lever height adj, 6.5HP, all the bells and whistles. It was only on CL for a few hours. He went to a rather sketchy part of town, and met a guy in a pickup in a Valero station who sold it for $75(talked down from $125). After he got home and called me about it, I looked up the mower and it's at least $350 new. It's less than 2 years old and in perfect condition. Almost full tank of gas too.

I said it's prolly stolen, and he needs to check with the local PD for that area about it and he did but so far nothing reported like that. A few mowers stolen but not this specific brand and features, just a Poulan, and a Yard Machine.

Nothing we can do but counsel him on stuff like this, and be more careful in the future. Part of growing up and learning. If we get a report of a stolen mower like this one from the local PD, he'll have to take it in.
 
If no one buys stolen goods ,there's no reason to steal. Hopefully the thief doesn't know your sons location,so he can steal it back,and resell it.
 
No way to tell if it is stolen or not. I wouldn't base that just off the selling price. Used push mowers around here go for between 50 and 75 dollars if in really good shape. Less if not.

Keith
 
frfly172 said:
If no one buys stolen goods ,there's no reason to steal. Hopefully the thief doesn't know your sons location,so he can steal it back,and resell it.
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They met in a Valero gas station 20-ish miles from his home. Don't think that's a likely scenario. In case it didn't come through properly, my son never considered it stolen until he contacted me. He feels pretty bad about and did contact the PD to question them about that model, so maybe GTF off my back?
 
I just repaired a Craftsman self-propelled 6.75HP that looks brand new. Was owned by a friend who tossed it on our flatbed trailer as junk because it wouldn't start after having sat in the weather for a year. I changed the plug and the completely soaked/plugged air filter and she fired right up. I added a new belt and she's good as new. I plan on selling it on CL for $75-80, but never though about it being perceived as "hot". I'm not saying your son's mower isn't the product of ill-gotten gains, but don't jump to conclusions.
 
The whole deal reeks of stolen. If it's not and he just got a good deal on a new mower that's fine with me. He said the guy looked like he was about to shake apart while standing there in the station.

I've gotten good deals before too, and wondered if they were hot, but this almost pegged my stolen goods meter.
 
It does sound kinda fishy.

But my neighbor seems to go through a new mower every other year. I think he just gets a new one instead of putting fresh gas in the old one. So it's possible that it's legit.

Maybe he should volunteer to mow lawns for a couple of older folks in the neighborhood as some kind of penance. If it is stolen, at least it's doing some good and if it isn't, then, well, he might get a good deal on a low mileage Cadillac some day.
 
Why borrow trouble? You checked - cops said no reports- move on.
 
He teaches music at public HS, and gives free music lessons in the city twice a month so I think he's doing ok on the community service front. We'll wait to hear from the PD, they said they would check with neighboring dept and thanked him for getting in touch. Maybe it's just one of those great deals we run across...
 
I wouldn't vote it was stolen.

It seems like the price was $125, about what you think it was worth, but your son was the one that negotiated the price down to $75.

Lots of people need money for lots of reasons, and who knows the motive of the Seller, that day.
 
Yeah, not much else you can do except walk away from any deal that's questionable. It might not be a bad idea to have your phone peaking in on the deal and making a video record of it.

If you bought it from a Traveller, it probably wasn't stolen anywhere in the region. It's an excellent scam that pays them extra relocating. These are Irish gypsies, mostly based in North Carolina, and their entire community is based on bunko and theft.

They often run as roofing and siding contractors and follow the storms around picking up insurance money and leaving town with projects fully paid for and just finished with the demolition phase. Not only that, when they load up their stuff from your house, they take your lawnmower and whatever else they can steal as well. I used to run into them all the time on CAT work. We were instructed at each storm to make sure to warn the insureds, tell them to look for a local license and give them the number the state provides to verify and all that. Even so, they still always manage to get hired.
 
I have found that what you think an item is worth does not dictate the final price of the transaction.

I've tried to sell things on Craigslist before and sometimes they don't garner interest until the price is marked down to "free, you just come get it!"

I tried to sell a 1200 lb safe for computer media when we shut down one of our offices. Had to go the "free" route and even then, it took some work to finally get it out of there. Even a safe company that deals in used safes was not interested. Looked it up online, and it should have been worth $2000 (new it was $6000).
 
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I buy on Craigslist often and it's very common for someone to want to meet you at a gas station and it's very common to be able to negotiate it down significantly.

They've wasted a lot of their time loading it up and driving to the gas station plus they just wanted money in the first place. Does not mean it is stolen.

I usually get stuff for 50% of whatever they asked for on Craigslist. Some people get upset with my haggling but I don't care. Welcome to Craigslist :)
 
dans2992 said:
I have found that what you think an item is worth does not dictate the final price of the transaction.

I've tried to sell things on Craigslist before and sometimes they don't garner interest until the price is marked down to "free, you just come get it!"
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I have seen piano ads where they were advertising to pay $200 to come get it.
 
jesse said:
I buy on Craigslist often and it's very common for someone to want to meet you at a gas station and it's very common to be able to negotiate it down significantly.

They've wasted a lot of their time loading it up and driving to the gas station plus they just wanted money in the first place. Does not mean it is stolen.

I usually get stuff for 50% of whatever they asked for on Craigslist. Some people get upset with my haggling but I don't care. Welcome to Craigslist :)
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Agree. Sad but buying or selling we don't want folks coming to the house.
 
I don't think it's stolen. For something like that, I'd say it's a pretty fair price. Think about it, who is going to pay more than $150 for 2 year old used push mower? I wouldn't.
 
Rough, no bag, no self-prop, no single lever height, flathead engine. http://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/grd/4907733562.html

Nicer. http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/grd/4899319403.html

Flathead, no features, older. http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/grd/4915611874.html

Entry level, not even a bag. This guy is a sm engine repair, he should know. http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/pts/4879284816.html

Flathead, no bag. http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/grd/4913632857.html

Maybe he got the deal of the century on it. Doubt it, but anything is possible these days. It started right up and the blade looks perfect according to him.
 
I pay for a lot of things on craigslist. Usually I end up meeting the person at some public location. Usually just some seedy motel in between us.
 
I bought some nice chairs off CL yesterday. Chatted with a nice young woman, and arranged to pick up. She gave me her address, and when I got there after 9PM and rang the bell she just shouted 'come on in!' We looked over the chairs and I paid, we loaded them up and on my way.

Folks are different in the country I guess.
 
docmirror said:
Well, he's been looking for a new mower cause the old one was having multiple issues. Basically falling apart. I recommended he check CL for something that was fairly new.

So, he did and he found a deal on a like-new Craftsman with rear bag, self-propelled, one lever height adj, 6.5HP, all the bells and whistles. It was only on CL for a few hours. He went to a rather sketchy part of town, and met a guy in a pickup in a Valero station who sold it for $75(talked down from $125). After he got home and called me about it, I looked up the mower and it's at least $350 new. It's less than 2 years old and in perfect condition. Almost full tank of gas too.

I said it's prolly stolen, and he needs to check with the local PD for that area about it and he did but so far nothing reported like that. A few mowers stolen but not this specific brand and features, just a Poulan, and a Yard Machine.

Nothing we can do but counsel him on stuff like this, and be more careful in the future. Part of growing up and learning. If we get a report of a stolen mower like this one from the local PD, he'll have to take it in.
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Was it new in box? If so, it's possible its an inside deal from an employee at a big box store. Things like mowers are expensive to ship back to the manufacturer so often times stores will dispose of them. It's not unheard of for employees to get their hands on (sometimes legitimately, sometimes not) them, fix and sell them. I know my local Lowes will occassionally sell non-functioning power equipment for a fraction of the new cost. Most lawnmower fixes don't cost more that $20, so the dude could make money even at $75.
 
docmirror said:
He teaches music at public HS, and gives free music lessons in the city twice a month so I think he's doing ok on the community service front. We'll wait to hear from the PD, they said they would check with neighboring dept and thanked him for getting in touch. Maybe it's just one of those great deals we run across...
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Well, then, he's all right.

He's done his part, and didn't go looking to buy stolen merchandise. I think he can sleep OK.
 
I imagine he just got a good deal.

I trade on craigslist a lot, buying and selling. Unless I'm getting a lot of interest in an item I have for sale, if someone shows up with cash in hand and makes an offer $25-50 less then I think it's really worth I'm gonna take it. If you consider how much time you waste either waiting at home or at some random parking lot to meet someone it's better to just cut losses and sell than repeat the process over again. At least in my view.

CL transactions are pretty formulaic for people who do it a lot...
Deals are always in cash(no chance of fraud this way)
You always negotiate 10-20% off the asking price(I've tried listing stuff at the real price and saying "firm".. people still expect a discount so I just inflate my price and drop it to the real one when they ask)
All sales are final
No, I won't hold it if someone else shows up with cash.
You pick up, I just help load.

The meeting at a gas station/wal-mart parking lot thing is normal. I usually just have people come to my house... I'm well armed in case of trouble but I've never had any. The main reason is every single time... without fail.. I've arranged to meet someone they manage to be an hour late and I have to sit and wait for them.
 
docmirror said:
I bought some nice chairs off CL yesterday. Chatted with a nice young woman, and arranged to pick up. She gave me her address, and when I got there after 9PM and rang the bell she just shouted 'come on in!' We looked over the chairs and I paid, we loaded them up and on my way.

Folks are different in the country I guess.
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Mostly, but not necessarily. Last time I bought an outboard off CL the dude wanted to meet me at the gas station down the street, I said, "Hell, if you're gonna load it up and drive that far, how about you drive anothe 5 blocks and drop it here?" So he did. Haven't been robbed by him yet.:dunno:
 
cowman said:
I imagine he just got a good deal.

I trade on craigslist a lot, buying and selling. Unless I'm getting a lot of interest in an item I have for sale, if someone shows up with cash in hand and makes an offer $25-50 less then I think it's really worth I'm gonna take it. If you consider how much time you waste either waiting at home or at some random parking lot to meet someone it's better to just cut losses and sell than repeat the process over again. At least in my view.

CL transactions are pretty formulaic for people who do it a lot...
Deals are always in cash(no chance of fraud this way)
You always negotiate 10-20% off the asking price(I've tried listing stuff at the real price and saying "firm".. people still expect a discount so I just inflate my price and drop it to the real one when they ask)
All sales are final
No, I won't hold it if someone else shows up with cash.
You pick up, I just help load.

The meeting at a gas station/wal-mart parking lot thing is normal. I usually just have people come to my house... I'm well armed in case of trouble but I've never had any. The main reason is every single time... without fail.. I've arranged to meet someone they manage to be an hour late and I have to sit and wait for them.
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Yeah, I do the same. Never had any trouble. I met a woman once at a park and ride who wanted to buy a Focus from me. What a hassle. Finally I just refused to sell her the car and went home.

I'm pretty conversant with CL transactions and this one rang my bell. The part of town they were in was the giveaway to me, and I won't name it but you don't want to host your next Bar-Mitzvah around there.
 
I'm confused, why do you think the mower might be stolen? Because the seller was willing to sell it for less than you think it is worth? In that case, the seller should have sold it to you!

As a buyer, I have no obligation to ensure that the seller gets a "fair" deal, doesn't sell below cost, doesn't go out of business because of the transaction, etc. When I'm negotiating as a buyer, I'm not running the seller's side of the business. Whatever price the seller agrees to is the fair deal. If I suspect it might be stolen, I walk away. Price alone generally isn't enough to warrant that suspicion.

With that being said, I don't like doing ANY deal with folks who seem, shall we say, "questionable." Yes, how you present yourself does count. I've sold (never bought) on Craigslist, and have never had an issue, but I can usually separate the wheat from the chaff though an email conversation. I won't generally meet at gas stations, but I've used upscale malls, bookstores, etc. with good success.


JKG
 
The mower's not stolen. Likely, the mower was bought off someone who needed cash in a hurry and either had another mower or didn't need one at all anymore.

I bought my "like-new" mower from an old dude last year for like $75 after haggling down the price from $130. If anything, I'd say you son didn't get the price low enough. Craigslist is the place to go to haggle price down to near nothing.

No one is dumb enough to sell a stolen mower at a gas station - it would have been done somewhere out in the country where no one was around just to make sure he wasn't caught. 99% of the transactions I do on Craigslist occur at a gas station or a parking lot somewhere.

Repeat: Not stolen, just done the "Craigslist Way."
 
One of the biggest new business' on Craigslist is selling HD and Lowe's returns. You have a lot of low life POS that buy something like a mower use it for the season and then return it just within the timeframe they can. They also buy tools, use them for a project, and then return them. Those companies pallet the returned goods up and sell them at auction in a warehouse. Sometimes by the truck load. If you search Craigslist you will see lots of newish Milwaukee cordless tools being sold at very low prices. That's how they are getting them and it is 100% legit.

The part that bothers me is these low lifes that abuse the return policy so they don't have to pay a rental fee. They are going to ruin it for all of us. The local HD manager said the problem is so rampant that there is a weekly discussion with management about changing the return policy.
 
One way to weed out (some of the) illegitimate sales from CL is to tell them "I'll meet you at the police station."
 
SkyHog said:
The mower's not stolen. Likely, the mower was bought off someone who needed cash in a hurry and either had another mower or didn't need one at all anymore.

I bought my "like-new" mower from an old dude last year for like $75 after haggling down the price from $130. If anything, I'd say you son didn't get the price low enough. Craigslist is the place to go to haggle price down to near nothing.

No one is dumb enough to sell a stolen mower at a gas station - it would have been done somewhere out in the country where no one was around just to make sure he wasn't caught. 99% of the transactions I do on Craigslist occur at a gas station or a parking lot somewhere.

Repeat: Not stolen, just done the "Craigslist Way."
Click to expand...

Why is a city guy gonna drive 25 miles out to sell a lawn mower in the country then 25 miles back, taking maybe 1.5 hours for a few bucks? Apparently, this guy was dumb enough to sell it from a gas station. Not sure how that relates to being stolen or not.
 
Alexb2000 said:
One of the biggest new business' on Craigslist is selling HD and Lowe's returns. You have a lot of low life POS that buy something like a mower use it for the season and then return it just within the timeframe they can. They also buy tools, use them for a project, and then return them. Those companies pallet the returned goods up and sell them at auction in a warehouse. Sometimes by the truck load. If you search Craigslist you will see lots of newish Milwaukee cordless tools being sold at very low prices. That's how they are getting them and it is 100% legit.
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You might be on to something. It was pretty clean all around, like it might have been returned merch, then sold on the pallet and then flipped for a few bucks.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/tls/4908485742.html

Looks almost new.
 
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Alexb2000 said:
One of the biggest new business' on Craigslist is selling HD and Lowe's returns. You have a lot of low life POS that buy something like a mower use it for the season and then return it just within the timeframe they can. They also buy tools, use them for a project, and then return them. Those companies pallet the returned goods up and sell them at auction in a warehouse. Sometimes by the truck load. If you search Craigslist you will see lots of newish Milwaukee cordless tools being sold at very low prices. That's how they are getting them and it is 100% legit.

The part that bothers me is these low lifes that abuse the return policy so they don't have to pay a rental fee. They are going to ruin it for all of us. The local HD manager said the problem is so rampant that there is a weekly discussion with management about changing the return policy.
Click to expand...

This is actually to an extent an accepted practice in other tool purveyor venues. When I take on a big project, I will call the Snap On man and the local welding supplier to tool up with the understanding that I will be returning all the tools at the end, and we come to basic terms. It really works out well for everyone. If I have say a 200' boat build project I am going to go through a whole lot of welding/industrial supplies, so often I can get use of the machines to consume all those supplies through for free, then they get the machines back to sell used, or put into rental after they have paid for themselves many times over in materials sales.

The Snap On man buys back the tools with typically a 10% cost to me for the whole program duration, and he can exchange them back for new.
 
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Dang, you guys sure are trusting/giving the benefit of the doubt. It's craigslist!

My theory is that "buy a push mower" is code language. When the boy showed up to actually buy a device that cuts grass, and not perform a newly invented sex act, the seller, who just happened to have an actual mower onhand, sold it off to extract himself from the embarassment of miscommunication, and of having to explain the deed he came to transact.

The mower will never be reported stolen. Possibly the seller was a local congresscritter trying to get his chang-chang wet in an unusual, exotic, illegal, or immoral way, due to his proclivities requiring increasingly advanced forms of stimulation.

In fact, to make this a perfectly modern transaction, I hope your son snapped a pic, slapped it on instagram with a hashtag and a blurred face, and will blackmail the seller for rich stacks of loot. With the proceeds, he can not only buy an awesome zero-turn mower with numerous comfort and convenience settings, he can also hire a Gump to drive it around for many years to come.

:D
 
gkainz said:
One way to weed out (some of the) illegitimate sales from CL is to tell them "I'll meet you at the police station."
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+1.......

Great idea..... If the deal is sketchy at all.. they won't agree to it...:yes:
 
I'll never forget when I was a kid my father...who was a straight laced play by the rules US Federal Agent decided for some reason to but a VCR from a guy out of the back of his car at a gas station. Made the deal and then found out that it was a brick in a box after the guy was long gone! We all laughed..well except my dad!

Ended up bring a valuable lesson...I have been watching out for scams since I was 7 years old!

Craigslist can be great...but if it seem too good to be true...
 
Henning said:
This is actually to an extent an accepted practice in other tool purveyor venues. When I take on a big project, I will call the Snap On man and the local welding supplier to tool up with the understanding that I will be returning all the tools at the end, and we come to basic terms. It really works out well for everyone. If I have say a 200' boat build project I am going to go through a whole lot of welding/industrial supplies, so often I can get use of the machines to consume all those supplies through for free, then they get the machines back to sell used, or put into rental after they have paid for themselves many times over in materials sales.

The Snap On man buys back the tools with typically a 10% cost to me for the whole program duration, and he can exchange them back for new.
Click to expand...

What! How can Snap-On let you use tools for 10% of what they cost? Why would they do that? I am really good friends with my Snap-On dealer I'll ask him if he is aware of anyone doing that.

BTW- That is a common misperception about the return policy. Snap-On corporate is very strict on what tools they warranty, they do not just send new tools out. Many times they deny the dealers returns because they deem the tool abused, like a chrome socket with impact marks on it. Consumers don't see this because a lot of dealers just eat it as part of customer service. They also don't warranty tools because they have been used and someone wants a new one.
 
Henning said:
I have seen piano ads where they were advertising to pay $200 to come get it.
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Pianos, particularly older, smaller ones are notoriously hard to dispose of. They're heavy and hard to move, and most of the old spinets are not worth having.
 
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