I’ve had a few. The worst was a guy who said he was on his way. Called again to get the address again. Called again to say he was in an Uber. Called back to say he thinks he went to the wrong place. Called again from an uber…then called again…I hung up and drove away
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Somebody beat me to it I’m afraid.
Just heard extreme panic as one of the girl’s dad has turned up in a similar mood to me.
It"s cheered me right up!
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Excellent, time for a celebratory NOS balloon now the parks clear
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Are you sure there isn’t an old guy there rocking the party with a sampler and drum machine, he’d be about 100 now 
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No music… JUST FUCKING BAD SINGING! Anyhoo, hopefully they’ll all be grounded now.
I’ll put a overly dramatic note through the door on Monday to drop little Tarquin or Taloola right in it with Ma & Pa.
That’ll larn’em to waste my sleeping time!
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funny thread. the whole enterprise is pretty terrifying. im guilty of messaging people about things i probably dont have the intention of buying right there and then, even though i want it. but you might be canvassing a few different things at the time and wind up with something else. i try to avoid having people over for a sell and prefer to meet them at a cafe or something. but the tone of some people comes across super weird sometimes. you just cant tell their temperament.
something ive learn’t over the years, peoples typing often doesnt match their speaking, or their temperament. and some people are bang on, the way they type is the way they talk. so sometimes if someone is typing weird i figure they maybe dont have that 1:1 coordination im talking about. then they turn up and they’re super sweet.
i still find it weird to have dudes in your bedroom or studio, but you can often be caught off guard and they’re ‘just around the corner’ so it all just happens that way. but in person and with cash has the added benefit of not being ripped off by ebay or paypal reversals and that kindve thing. likewise with a buy, paying by bank transfer is a bit scary. but usually you can tell from a cursory profile check whether or not the person is a bonafide musician with social sensibilities, if i cop any kind of weird vibes i tend to just keep away.
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Have definitely found this, I used to be pretty bad for judging people prematurely because of their poor spelling or whatever. Most times they’re super nice irl. I actually prefer in-person sales just because it’s fun to shoot the breeze with another musician and you get cash without having to deal with some third-party website.
I’ve had my share of timewasters though for sure. The most infuriating one got in touch about my Grandmother, asking tons of questions that could easily be answered with the manual, asking me to test some pretty niche use cases. Being eager to sell, I obliged. He finally came round and was aggressive and standoffish, tested it for ages… tons more questions, an hour of demoing, making me install the newest firmware from the website, asking for a discount, and eventually deciding to leave it because he didn’t trust that the warranty would be valid without a receipt (9 months of warranty left from Moog via the serial number). As he left I told him it was quite rude to use me as a demo for research and not end up taking the synth. he did not take this well and the door ended up getting slammed. sold the synth at full price a week later.
Stark contrast with every interaction I’ve had with other elektronauts, which have all been beyond smooth. 
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Had a few. One of the greats came back twice! He even gave me the cash on the second visit, but changed his mind before leaving, then called me to ask if he could come back the next day. He said there was just one more thing he wanted to listen to. I thought it’d be quick but it turned out to be every single patch on the Nord Lead 4.Finally he says, “I think I want to try a real analog instead”. And off he went. It was after midnight.
Eventually sold it to a no-nonsense guy who paid in advance.
The only time I told someone to f^#k off, was a guy who turned up with a greasy chicken kebab dribbling down to his elbow. Asked him to wash his hands before touching my guitar, so he calls me a pussy and says it’s his guitar now. No mate, f^#k off.
Also, Gumtree is evil.
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I was moving at the time and put a 70’s fender bassman combo up on craigslist for a great price, like $400 since I was in a rush to sell. This dude came and jammed on the amp for an hour, then offered me $200 for it. I was so furious but took the offer because I was moving the next day, just spent an hour of my life listening to his busted blues riffs and was a broke 20 year old. I let him know what he was doing was wrong but he really didn’t seem to care.
On his way down the three flights of stairs in my apartment building the amps handle broke and sent the amp tumbling down the stairs, breaking all the tubes and really roughing the amp up. This man had the audacity to knock on my door and try to get his money back! I slammed the door in his face and saw the same amp on craigslist for $600 two days later.
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I reckon this thread was sponsored by the entire industry to drive down the Used market
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Had a guy try to buy a server from me but demanded i teach him how to use it. Some questions indicate that you know the product well, but a spree of questions beforehand along with demands for the original box and i’m going to assume flake.
I also had a guy keep calling me back after i bought a part from him to try to sell me things i didn’t want.
My vast transactions are great! The only bad experiences are when i sell something without testing every single thing and something is futzy and i need to make the deal right.
Some 17 years ago, my co-worker at the time met up with a guy from Columbus Ohio, nearly half way, in Richmond IN.
My coworker, aka the buyer, drove an hour to Richmond for the meet up. The seller drove 90 minutes.
The guy from Columbus was selling a set of Technics SL-1200MK2 with a mixer, on Craigslist.
Listed as “minty fresh”.
They meet in a Rax (old defunct restaurant, RIP) parking lot and he opens up the trunk.
The buyer asks if he can take one of the turntables out of the case. The guy says sure.
He lifts it up and starts smelling it, and shaking his head in disappointment.
Puts it back into the case and says, no thanks man, “these are not minty fresh”.
The seller says “I’ve only used them once, they’re practically new!”
The buyer says “these smell nothing like mint. Not spearmint, or peppermint. Not minty fresh at all. Your ad said minty fresh.”
The seller says “I meant mint condition, not actual mint flavored!”
The buyer says “well, if you meant mint condition, you should have said mint condition. Unfortunately, that’s not what I’m after” and got in his car and drove off.
Turns out my co-worker, the buyer, had some real issues with people not understanding what “mint condition” actually means (he used to collect and trade coins in the early days of eBay in the 90s), and liked messing with sellers who used the phrase “minty fresh”.
It also helped that his girlfriend was going to college in Richmond, and he was headed there for the weekend, anyway.
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Dick move by your coworker tbh
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In Real Estate you see time wasters all the time. They are just nosey people. Check out other peoples lives and is a kinda hobby or day out. It only costs them a bit of petrol and is something to talk about later. People do it because human beings are inquisitive. They even prepare an Exit strategy in advance. Prepare sentences etc etc. They have no intention of buying from the get-go. About 10 percent are time wasters. Law of averages say you will get one or two come your way eventually.
about two weeks ago or so I bought a Doepfer LMK2+ for incredible low 50€ + 5€ for this guy to drive me home, shortly before visiting his place I found an old ad stating his “broken” Doepfer for about 40€ and I told him: hey let’s find a new price because in the past you’ve posted it for less…he was so pissed about the fact that I knew about it that he’s literally about to not sell it to me, and talked to me really angry.
I grabbed it for 50€ but hadn’t told him that I’ve accidentally changed a jumper on the electronics which brought it back to life, this took me about 30seconds in a time where I was alone with the Doepfer as he was talking to another buyer of his stuff.
back at home and 4h later I had a “minty fresh” Doepfer LMK2+ which works like a charm for 50€.
as he asked if I could tell him what’s wrong with the Doepfer, i took some pictures of the repair process and told him what I’ve done to make it work again, he never responded. 
…one time I was giving away my washing machine for free, the guys came up two days late and the first things they asked in an aangry manner was to pay THEM out for grabbing a free washing machine, for a second I thought: Ok this is a situation where you get robbed and I made clear to get the fuck out of my home as fast as possible with this machine. my knees where shaking afterwards 
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Have to say this was a more of a survival instinct than me being grumpy. I didn’t go into much detail above but the guy made me feel instantly threatened. I tried to stay calm and deal with it as best I could but in the end I had to get him out of my house ASAP.
Not gear related but one day last summer I was in a Pub garden with my Wife and Son. We were standing by an open gate looking out onto the road and this guy walks up to me, camera in hand filming me, and he gets right upto my face and threatens to stab me. He was all sweaty, twitchy and giggly. It was horrible, but I grabbed his phone and repeatedly shouted “get the f**k away from me”. He looked terrified and sprinted off. I chucked his phone down the road.
Thing is I don’t go looking for fights and I’m not particularly brave. But if threatened then instincts do kick in.
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I sold more than 200 items over the past 3 years ( yeah eurorack counts for a good part). I always post good hi res pictures, always sold with original boxes, cables,manuals and try to add freebies whenever possible. All my items except those « 2nd, 3rd …hand are mint. » Prices are always on the lower side. Shipping costs, fees are mentionned.
I can tell within the first contact if it will be a buy or not. And basically, I never conclude a sell with anyone asking questions after questions and sending you tons of messages.
When a personne is genuinely interested and since I try to make my items attractive, they want to conclude fast. 
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Actually only one of my sales went weird.
I sold an ebook reader few years ago. Perfect condition, but I wasn’t really using it and we needed the money for smt I don’t remember. So…a guy and his girlfriend showed up, they checked it and left.
Next evening my wife got a call from him. He had updated the ebook reader at home and the update process actually bricked it.
I felt sorry for the guy and started to search the internet and there really was a problem with updates over wifi, the manufacturer already knew about it etc. - then we got bombarded with messages, the telephone didn’t stop ringing, this went on for a while, but since our cat didn’t show up at home, we already prepared to go searching for the little guy and I didn’t care much about the crazy guy.
(Out cat was spending most of the day outside at that time, now he’s an older cat spending most of the days and nights at home doing cat things.)
By the time we went through the door, the guy already parked his car in front of the house and he and his gf got out.
I explained (politely), that we have to go look for our cat and that I found out that the update process resulted in some bricked devices etc. and that I would message him tomorrow.
He then started threatening me, demanding his money back and when I just told him again, that I have no time to deal with this and that I would not give the money back, he threatened to call the cops.
This made me laugh a little and he got really furious, I pushed him aside (gently) and went to look for my cat.
Never heard from him again.
That’s basically terrorism.
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