this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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Comic Strips

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Selling Stuff (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be fair, this one is common on Facebook because it's the stupid top auto reply thing that is way too easy to fat finger when browsing listings

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That doesn't explain why people have done it on Craigslist since before Facebook existed, where they have to open an email client, type it out, and send it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because they assume that the seller is not The Perfect Human and remembers removing the ad once they’ve sold the thing?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Sure, sometimes people leave ads open after the item is no longer available. But only asking if it's available is still an obnoxious waste of time. The first message from a potential buyer should have something useful in it. Further contact info, meetup availability, clarifying questions, an offer if the price isn't firm, etc.

Maybe lead with, "If this is still available, blah blah blah" if it makes the buyer feel better. The buyer probably has all that in mind when they decide to contact the seller anyway, so they can take 30 seconds to include it in the first message and actually get the process moving instead of holding it up for a one-word reply from the seller.

If you buy enough items that stale ads are actually taking up a meaningful amount of your time, then copy-paste as needed.