Trolling a Craigslist Reseller

[Jmustang1968]

So, a little thing I had going on today, with some help from Hobie. I have no issues with selling games, I of course do it myself. We all get dupes and upgrades and undesirables we get rid of while keeping the stuff we want. If not, I would own 20 NES consoles or more by now. But I do think there is a subtle line were you cross into obnoxiousness, especially when purposefully deceving.
So today, I found this ad on craiglist:
http://houston.craigslist.org/vgd/5460786148.html

With this post right next to it:
http://houston.craigslist.org/vgm/5451986722.html

I decided I was going to mess with and troll this person, because that ad was just terrible. He says he isnt a reseller, yet has an ad right next to it pricing that nes bundle high.

So I pretended to be a person selling some games, I emailed him and he sent me his number and asked me to text him pics. I sent him these:

Some fairly rough pictures of my collection enough to give him a sense of scale and you can identify many games.

here is our text convo:

So I pretended I am a father who lost his son and am trying to liquidate his belongings

http://imageshack.com/a/img922/6673/1IdN6G.jpg[/img]

He is definitely interested, and then, the generous non-reseller offer! He is also only interested in Nintendo stuff it seems

Ahh he is now a bit more interested in everything. And the non Nintendo stuff get me a whopping $300! Plus, all games are worth about the same right?

A bit of google-fu by Hobie, and we discover this guy owns this place:
http://www.lillysfindsresale.com/
So not only does he resale after saying he doesn't, he actually owns a resale shop with the word resale in the name! Just doesn't get any better.

Well I told him I will think about it. Now, how should I proceed? The actual trolling is just to begin.

[Tanooki]

Kind of depends if you want to drag it out. You could say that you were suspicious offering so much then jumping it as much as double just from the images so you started typing stuff into google. Follow about demanding why he lied to you to take advantage of you and your dead kids possessions like some vulture.

You could use the shop angle too, angry that you were seeing that started using google to backtrack from his ads to see he's lying about reselling in the post next to it and also lying and has that website for a business that just buys low and sells high and maybe you should come pay him a visit or better yet call the local media reporter(whatever station) that sniffs out frauds and crooks who take advantage of the weak and distressed to embarrass his crooked ass on the 6 o clock evening news. (All the years I lived out west there's this dude on KUSI out of San Diego called Turko (Turko Files) who pleasures in wrecking con men, predators, and douchebags taking advantage of people, maybe you have one in your area there. That would maybe have him sweat it out fearing a camera rolling up versus the hah-trolled you moment.

[flojocabron]

If the bastard has online store and shop. Then threaten him or her by giving a bad yelp review or something.

Wait, yelp is for restaurants right? Anyway find sites that do peer reviews and tear down their online repuation.

Not many outside of gaming circles would know about the true prices of games.

But average internet joe's/jane's do like scandalous stories of how evil people can be. And how to take them down a notch.

But be careful how you tread, someone's internet/IRL business is about to get ruined.

F*CK it! Do it anyways

[Michi]

I'd wait a day or so, then text back with a picture of a bunch of the NES carts, telling him that while you were going through your 'son's' house, you decided to toss the boxes since they didn't add much to the value. If you've got a couple slightly beat-up boxes, see if you can arrange them in some sort of garbage can or trash pile, in a way that won't destroy them -obviously- and send him a picture.

Then I'd tell him you're thinking about donating all of non-Nintendo related wares to various church/non-profit resale shops in the area *add photo of a few choice, and sorted "giveaways"*, including something you found called a *insert one of your most expensive items here (be sure to include nice, shiny pictures)*.

If he sends you some sort of counter-offer, wait til at least the next day to reply, then apologize and inform him that, sorry, you already donated them. Supply him a list of a dozen or so random thrift/resale shops spread out around town.

Sit back in smile in satisfaction, knowing that the crumby liar is probably going to waste his whole day driving around town, trying to track your non-existent donations down.

[sevin0seven]

I'd go with Michi's opinion, hehe.

[SegaDreamscape]

How do you know he isn't a collector and just has a couple of extra systems he can afford to be without?. I've got to be honest you sound like the jerk in this scenario.

[mas]

I would do the same thing as michi was saying lol. He will spend his whole day waiting and driving around for that stuff to come in.

[samsonlonghair]

Michi's suggestion was brilliant.

[Jmustang1968]

How do you know he isn't a collector and just has a couple of extra systems he can afford to be without?. I've got to be honest you sound like the jerk in this scenario.

Did you see his ad post? Did you read his response and his offer on the games and how much says they are worth?

[ejamer]

I'd take the "average 5-10 dollars" quote to negotiate a better price before saying that you can't part with them - after all, it's one of the only memories you have of your departed son. Then waffle on that decision, then run with Michi's excellent suggestion.

That said, don't count on the reseller running around town. It might happen... but that's what phones are for, right? Very possible he/she just places some calls with a sob story trying to recover any lot of games that were dropped off "accidentally". I mean, it's not like this person has problems with telling stories.

How do you know he isn't a collector and just has a couple of extra systems he can afford to be without?. I've got to be honest you sound like the jerk in this scenario.

This view is possible. I'm not a reseller but do occasionally shed old games and consoles that aren't getting used, and while "Nintendo only" might be a value play it also could be true for a collector. But I'd be more sympathetic if the response via text message weren't totally asinine.

$1000 tops for that whole collection? I agree that any sale would require seeing what's at stake or a full inventory to provide reasonable value, and that buying as a lot always means pricing will be lower than picking through the high points... but that offer is as good as saying (pardon my language) fuck right off. Especially when the same person has active ads for $100 per console with just a couple games.

If the person is a reseller then they are a blatant liar.
If the person is a collector then they know that the offer is a huge lowball.

In either case, I find it extremely hard to paint Jmustang1968 as the bad guy in this particular event.