Saturday, March 29, 2008

You Might be a Cod-Bag

You might be a COD-BAG if...
  • You've waited until a seller filed an unpaid item dispute before telling them you have a problem with your paypal account
  • You've ever asked someone to deliver a Craigslist item that is selling for under $100
  • You ping sellers for positive feedback because you feel entitled after leaving it for them
  • You've asked a technical question about an eBay item that you could/should have Googled for yourself.
  • You think "Cash Today" is somehow worth a 50% discount.
  • You've ever claimed you accidentally bid on an eBay item... Really? You accidently clicked "Place Bid", then accidentally typed in a dollar amount, clicked Continue, and finally, accidentally clicked the CONFIRM BID button which is conspicuously placed under the phrase "By clicking on the button below, you commit to buy this item from the seller if you're the winning bidder."... Really?
  • You e-mail three word questions to craigslist sellers that will take them an hour to research and respond to and then you never follow-up.
  • You think that your bogus garage business qualifies you as a commercial address for trucking companies, then get pissed when a 53-foot tractor trailer crushes your petunias.

52 comments:

uncle_kaka said...

If, for entertainment, you constantly send out lowball offers on Craigslist that you never intend to follow up on, just to see if the seller will take the deal. Build boats in a bottle if you need entertainment, douche. Some people are trying to keep the wheels of this struggling economy turning.

GavsDad said...

You might be a Cod-Bag if you take three weeks to send payment, then start bumping for a tracking number. - Here's my solution for these douches: "Your item will be shipped based upon the following equation. y*3, where 'y' is the number of business days it takes for your payment to post to our account."

Instant Payment through PayPal? Great! Three Days! You want to take two weeks to send a personal check? No problem. We'll ship you item within 30 business days.

And by the way, this goes for the "you've received an e-check" crowd as well. Would it kill you to keep $30 in your PayPal account?

GavsDad said...

You're definitely a COD-BAG if you scour Craigslist looking for stuff to take to the recycler.

We periodically get copper wire, or pipe, or aluminum stuff and try to sell it on craigslist. Without fail, some Jack-ass will e-mail us asking "how much does it weigh?"

Hey Cod-Bag! How F'ing stupid do you think we are? Too stupid to take it to the recycler ourselves? Go fuel your meth habit some other way. We're trying to run a business here.

COD-BAG!

Chris Poole MBA said...

This just in! You might be a CodBag if you email someone on Craigslist to hold a $5 item until next week when you get paid.

If you dont have $5 you probably don't need the item. Go buy some groceries!

GavsDad said...

Too right Chris! Or we get this one periodically: "Um Hi, Can you hold that big screen TV for me? I'm a single mom and I just want to do something nice for my kids, but I don't get paid until next week. Oh yeah, and are you firm on the price?"
Lady! Do something nice for your kids like feed them, clothe them and instill them with proper values. An eight year old should not care about what size the family TV is. and I am sorry you are raising your kids on your own, but that doesn't affect how much my TV is worth.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

I just don't get it, what part of deal locally don't people get? I mean really, Codbag quote " I live 150 miles from you, I meet half way, give you ten bucks for gas". I don't know about you but how far would ten bucks in gas get you? :) Also when you put pick up only and they still ask will you deliver or bring the item half way..... :(

GavsDad said...

Yeah Kamikaze- We get that one too, or the other version of it... "I live way the hell out in the boondocks, can you lower your price since I have to drive so far?"
My typical response: "How the hell does your choice to live in the woods affect what my item is worth? Do you ask Ikea to drop the price of their Bjork Dork Table because you had to drive three counties to get there? I don't think so."
-Good comment Kamikaze. Thanks for participating.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

Another thing I hate, is when I'm selling a large item, they have to come pick it up, we agree on a price, and they get there saying, oh I didn't bring enough cash or, would you be willing to take this much instead? Oh I hate that, it's hard enough tyring to sell your stuff at times but it makes it so much worse when someone aka a CODBAG comes out with no intentions of giving you the price agreed upon before they came. My response, "well you know how you got here, you know how to get lost".

Sam Kinnison said...

Love this forum! Hey has anyone figured out how to stop ghost flaggers on craigslist. I have a fan who may not like my low prices. What a Codbag! Keep up the good work.

GavsDad said...

There isn't a way to fight flaggers because, as the attached website says "Craig Loves Flags."

http://www.stopabusivecraigslistflaggers.com/What_Users_Can_Do.html

These guys are waging an e-mail campaign to encourage craigslist to fix the problem. Take a look. Its informative if nothing else.

Unknown said...

LOWBALLERS!!! }:O\
You see a price list of...say, $6,000, but you offer $3,000, because that's what YOU think it's worth or that's all YOU have!
If I was willing to take $3,000 I would've listed my item for $3,500!! Why would I list for $6,000???

Unknown said...

I get so many calls and emails from people who want me to build them a custom computer. On my listing I said specifically that the gaming computers start around 495$, yet every weekend I get a codbag who asks what kind of gaming computer than can get for 300$.
Don't get me started on the Codbags from Nigeria!

Kamikaze Wolf said...

If you e-mail someone about their item, tell them that you have one too, in better condition, that you could sell for less then finish it off with a rude or pointless 2nd grade level comment..., you are a codbag... no might be about it... you are.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

Oh you'll love this one... I was selling about a ton of steel beams on C.L. a short time back. I didn't use an e-mail I just used a phone number in hopes of weeding out the scam e-mails and the cod-bags. But wouldn't you know it eh' I get a call from the great blue yonder. This is the message I get on my phone. " Hi this is ( john doe ) I was callin' about your ad eh' about the steel, yeah I was wondering if you could hold it for me till I get back to the states..., I'm in Canada on my yacht and won't be back for a month.... ( at this point I was about to just erase the message but I was curious as to what he'd say next ) (he calls over his shoulder to someone), " hey honey whats the number to the yacht.... yeah the one we're on". ( obviously he wanted me to know he was on a yacht..., in Canada ) ( he gives me the international yacht number ) "okay give me a call if you get this, I'll be on my yacht". I wonder how many hundreds of people he calls while he's in the bath tub playing with his little toy boats and tries to pretend he's out on a yacht.

If you call and ask someone to hold something till your done with your vacation that costs more than they make in a year and make absolutely sure they know it... you might be an international cod-bag eh'....

Unknown said...

I posted some institutional style food trays on Craigslist for free a while back. There were a lot of them, enough to fill a pick-up truck. One guy contacted me, said he didn't have any transportation and asked if I could deliver them to him.
A woman emailed me about the same listing and said I lived too far away for her to come and get them. She included her mailing address and asked me to send her some of each type because her daughter liked to fix them breakfast. Not a hint of offering to for pay postage or my time to box and mail them.
What the hell is wrong with some of these people?

Kamikaze Wolf said...

To Biscayne 54: I've gotten that one as well... here's what I do in that case...., I send them a bill for delivery charges and the requirements. Here's an example I am currently using on one of my ads when I get that e-mail.

For those who can not come pick these up, or don't have any transportation here is a solution for you. I will deliver said items ( in this case about 1500lbs of steel support legs ) I will only charge $200.00 + $1.00 a mile to deliver these to you anywhere in Washington State so add up the miles before you call, but first you must send a bank notarized document with your signature stating you will pay the above cost of the item, plus shipping in cash upon delivery before the beams are off loaded by you. Or you can come get them.



I'd love to get someone to bite on this one. :)

Unknown said...

You purchase an item, no payment, I ask whats up, and after a few days of no response, state "no deal"

uncle_kaka said...

Kamikaze,

I like your idea on the shipping quote and I've actually done that before. It can be a polite way of letting people know that not everything is free.

Unknown said...

I do a lot of selling in ebay and
C.G. And any more, even after
specifying cash in person only.
I still get offers of trade for
the item. And most generally an
item I can't sell anyway. And the
item doesn't help pay the bills.
Also, I still get the scan e-mails
from overseas.
I think that they can't either read
or they don't have a comprehension
level.
Too bad I can't do bold.
And forget doing repairs. People
just don't have the funds to pay.
They think that it's ultra cheap.
Go pay your doctor instead.

Unknown said...

By definition, a seller can't be a cod-bag. That's a shame, because one of my CL pet peeves are sellers who don't return calls or emails. If you're trying to sell something, why the hell would you not reply to someone who replied to your ad? This has happened to me more times than I can recall.

Here's an example: I responded to an ad for a car last year. Left a phone message and sent an email. No reply to email, no returned phone call. Called again, left another message. The third time I called, he finally answers his phone. He's at Home Depot, but will call me when he gets home to arrange a time to meet.

You guessed it, no call. I was pretty ticked off, but I was really interested in the car and left yet another phone message and sent another email. No response. I called one last time, and he answers. I identify myself and ask when I can see the car. "It sold yesterday" he said. No apology. Douchebag. Later that evening I notice that his post is still active. It stays up until the listing expires.

If you've sold your item, how about removing your post? Or sending a TIMELY email that simply says "I'm sorry, but the item has been sold". How hard is that? It costs nothing and takes ten seconds. It's just common courtesy for cryin' out loud.

Thanks for letting me vent. I feel better now. :)

Anonymous said...

What I love on CL is the people that think if they do a partial trade on an item they can take more than their item is worth off the price. For a lot of my items I am willing to do a trade plus cash. I had a brand new gas cut off saw that brand new is $900. I have it listed for $600. The guy wants to trade me a small transom mount trolling motor that brand new is $130 and his is used with a broken piece on the mount. So he wants to only give me $400 plus the crappy trolling motor. And I said I'd take $530 cash plus the trolling motor cause its only worth about $70. And he tries telling me that if I do his deal, I won't have to spend money on a trolling motor. Hey, COD-BAG, If I wanted a trolling motor that bad I would just go buy a brand new one instead of losing 130 bucks on a deal. Morons from AL I tell ya.

uncle_kaka said...

doug555666, you're a braver man than I taking partial trades but I guess you could get some cool stuff. Around here, doing business like that means dealing with meth-heads and stolen merchandise. A sad state of affairs.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

to Uncle_kaka on partial trades: that is dead on truth, I've met a few crazy people in my time over trades like that and I'm pretty sure I've gotton some hot merchandise before..., usually I just want to get the heck out of there..., not wanting to be seen in the Walmart parking lot with them so I make a quick trade/sale to avoid causing a scene, I chock it up to a loss and let Goodwill or a local junk store deal with the stuff..... I'm not saying you can't end up in the same situation with strait across trades, but so far most of those have gone pretty smooth.

GraeMatterz said...

How about this: You reply to a U-cut Christmas Tree Farm ad and come out to select your tree. You cut the tree then offer half of the posted price for the tree! When told "No," then say you have to go back to town and get more money with no intention of returning, leaving the tree farmer with a cut tree that he likely won't sell.

Actually happened to a friend of mine. He was stung with it once but he has a solution. "I do not accept checks but I will accept a check for the tree for double the amount (with matching ID). You leave the tree here and return with the full cash price and I'll give you your check back. Don't have a check? I'll take down your driver's license information, the vehicle license and registration, AND I will take a timestamped digital photo of you. If you choose not to return with the full payment, I will give all three pieces of information to the Sheriff's Department. Petty Theft carries a damages claim payable to the plaintiff of $250 plus another $250 fine on your record. You can either pay the posted price and have a really nice tree, or pay $500 for a tree you didn't get to take home. Choice is yours.

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget about the elderly cod-bag, every time I post an ad on CL it never fails that I hear from at least one of these time-wasting old farts.

This cod-bag somehow has figured out how to use craigslist, but for some reason can't figure out how to use mapquest. Then after making you spend 20 minutes giving intricate directions only to say, "Could you give me that all over again? I need to write that down, let me get a pen from the bureau..." (what the hell is a bureau? lol), asking questions that could have easily been answered by reading the ad, making you repeat yourself at least 3 times, listening to their general incoherent rambling for 20+ minutes and making you wait around 2-3 hours after saying "I'm on my way", they don't even show up! And if the old codger does happen to show, he spends an hour talking, giving you a complete history lesson on the item being sold only to not buy it anyways, knowing within the first 5 minutes of seeing it he had no plans of purchasing the item in the first place. What a cod-bag!

Dealt with a few of these this weekend, just needed to vent...lol

uncle_kaka said...

btrevsmon2,

I feel your pain. We have a store where we deal with that stuff every day. When anyone calls for directions you know you're on the phone for at least the next 10 minutes and a series of around 5 follow up calls afterward because they are lost.

We also get the talkers every single day. The people that just start talking about every building project they ever thought of, planned, heard about, read about, dreamed up, etc, etc. It's actually a pretty large annual overhead expense in our shop when you consider that we have to pay our employees to sit there and talk to lonely people.

Unknown said...

How about the codbags that always post something about how some sellers of cars and trucks are "ripping people off" because "Kelly Blue Book price is lower"? I don't care what Kelly says. He/she has never laid eyes on my vehicles!
It's mine and I can sell it for whatever price I want!

Unknown said...

"Do you still have the widget for sale?" Yes Codbag! You sent this irritating, ignorant, time wasting email from a live ad on CL didn't you!!! So if you think a seller that doesn't answer every email is a codbag now you know why I don't. I will not answer the above question ever!

Anonymous said...

l.comThis entire stream seems a bit one sided. All of your complaints could easily apply to certain sellers as well. The are countless examples of flakey sellers on Craigs list and I would venture a guess the the ratio of flakey sellers to flakey buyers is about equal. What I've learned from Craigslist is the "Flake Factor" runs about 75% and knowing that I've learned to spot them and avoid at all costs. The fact that the listings are free invites an inevitable amount of insincere and irresponsible buyers and sellers. It's just a fact of life.

GavsDad said...

I'm hurt that you would consider our commentary one-sided or biased. I try to be as objective as possible in my lambasting of morons. In fact I take great pride in harpooning cod-bags of all creeds and credentials. However, by definition, a cod-bag is a buyer or pseudo-buyer.
Sellers are con-men, swindlers or general shit-birds. You can rant about them at shitbird.com. Best of luck.

wirednoodle said...

"Yes the auction started at .99. Yes you won, yes the shipping was clearly stated. Of course it is fantastic you won all four items at .99 each. Combine shipping? I didn't say anything about combining shipping, but not to be a douche, I will go ahead and cut S&H down 75%. Oh sorry... you want all four items shipped at a single item shipping cost. Thank you codbag for making my beginning ebay experience such a pleasant and instructional experience!"

dancingbear said...

(sorry I posted this in the wrong spot... my apologies)

I had a classic CBagger today on my Ebay Jeep ad.

Q (unedited): if your interested in recieving a reasonable price for the jeep pleace contact me.

And my answer:
A: If you are suggesting a figure less than the initial bid price, then the seriousness of your question is wholly consistent with your grammatical prowess.

I giggled like my daughter as I wrote it.

dancingbear said...

Oh my, I just had another one...

Q (unedited): What is your best $$$ today! Thank you Richard

A: This is a NO RESERVE deal. Bid and win

Q: Still waiting for a better price from you! Richard Houston...how close can you get to $5000. cash, today!

And the best answer of all:
More info at: http://codbag.blogspot.com/2008/03/you-might-be-cod-bag.html

How can these people be so clueless? If you throw a lowball offer and the seller calmly tells you to stick it, GO AWAY.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the sellers selling cars above KBB price. First of all, KBB is for amateurs. NADA is the real price guide for cars. And I use NADA when looking at a car, especially a newer one. If you are going to sell your car for higher than book value, it had better have some damn good upgrades to it. But, I think CL needs to seperate the dealers from the private owners. Personally, I won't buy another used car from a dealer. So, why should I have to weed through hundreds of dealer ads with their over-priced, high-mileage junk just to find a few good cars being sold by private owners?
Oh, and let's not leave out the buyers who send you an email asking you questions that could have easily been answered by reading the post completely. Had one of these the other day on my boat. Asked me for pictures, so I sent pictures, then asked me about the floor and the seats, which was already answered in the post, but I told him anyways. Then he tells me it sounds like too much work, so I thanked him for completely wasting my time. Then he calls me a jerk, so I spit one back at him and told him that I wasn't lowering the price of my boat because "you're too dumb or lazy to read the entire post. You could have easily determined you didn't want it by doing so."
I have never sold something for more than it's value, and most of the time I don't even get anything near what it's value is.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

To Robert:

C.L. does in fact separate the dealers from the individual sellers. They have for quite sometime now, years in fact. Just a simple task of selecting from the dropdown list if you wish to see cars by dealer or by owner.

It's a big world out there filled with dumb questions ( and statements )...., when the answer is right in front of their faces... funny huh?

Anonymous said...

I know this topic has been covered more than once on here, but I'll go ahead and post this under a slightly different context. You might be a codbag if you go around answering CL ads shooting low ball offers accompanied by a smart ass comment such as the folling:

" Re: Craftsman Riding mower - $100 ($100 OBO)

That is about 20 years old....parts are very hard to find for that thing.

I might give $20.00 Good luck !"

Note that this was the first response I got 20 minutes after posting the ad, lol.

Hey codbag, I know exactly how old it is and know for a fact that the parts aren't hard to find at all being that I buy, sell and work on these all the time. If you want to be a douche that tries to low ball an already low price, that's fine. But no one wants your smart ass commentary on my item! Just don't buy it, codbag!

Anonymous said...

I sent a deposit on PayPal and spent $800 on a one way ticket across the country to buy a motor coach that the seller then sold to someone else before i got there... because she heard of someone getting "ripped off" with PayPal... so i had to buy a $850 one way ticket to get back home. $1,650 to the airlines + $50 to avis + $100 to holiday inn + 2 missed days at work.. i was about to come unglued on someone...

Anonymous said...

firefly, if you put a deposit down you should have sued! You're out $1800 plus lost wages from work, you should have sued her into oblivion for that!

Superstarr said...

You might be a Cod-Bag if you take the free stuff posted on craiglist just to re-sell the items on craigslist.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

(Superstarr said...

You might be a Cod-Bag if you take the free stuff posted on craiglist just to re-sell the items on craigslist)

No Offense there Superstarr but if someone posted something for free on craig's list and the person actually came and got it when they said they would I don't see why they would be labeled a Cod Bag. For one if it's a damaged item that can be repaired the sold I see nothing wrong with it. In today's economy where someone can save someone a trip to the dump by burning their own fuel to pick something up then spend their own time repairing or fixing something to resell I see nothing wrong with that at all. I about a year ago picked up some scrap model kit junk and put together some nice kits and lots reselling them and people were happy with the deals they got. Before I moved I gave away a German 1800's solid brass bed frame that was all there because I could not deal with it myself. Did they sell it, did they scrap it ( I didn't care as long as it was gone ) I mean are the people at Goodwill Cod Bags, the local thrift stores?

So....., there it is. I don't agree with you there..., just sayin'


Kamikaze Wolf

Mis pensamientos said...

If you make someone drive an hour and you never show up, don't call the, email them, or text them...

doogie812 said...

My favorite CodBags are the one that don’t read the ads completely. I sell restored vintage electronics and repaired white goods on eBay and CraigsList. I provide as much detail as possible in the ad as to not waist their time or mine.

I attempt not to alienate a potential customer by answering stupid questions. Sometimes I just want to respond with; Can’t you F**KING read? Or; What part of shipping to US and Canada only do you NOT UNDERSTAND?

The real problem with stupid people is they are allowed to bread.

doogie812

Anonymous said...

"The real problem with stupid people is they are allowed to bread."

doogie812 - I believe the word you were going for is "breed". But then again, maybe bread has something to do with it. Who knows? Lol...

GavsDad said...

I believe breeding with bread causes yeast infections.

mech1 said...

I am a mechanic, I buy cars @ the auctions & on Craigslist that need mechanical repairs, fix them and re-sale them. I take pride in my work, leave them running like new! If they need body work/paint I pay to get that done, & anything else the vehicle might need. In other words I would never sell a crappy vehicle to ANYONE! But I always get offers from people for the vehicles "WITHOUT THE REPAIRS". NOW WHY WOULD WAKE UP @ 7 IN THE MORNING TO MAKE IT TO THE AUCTIONS, BE THE HIGHEST BIDDER, PAY TO GET THE VEHICLE TOWED, ALL OF THAT JUST COME SELL IT TO YOU, THAT PROBABLY SLEPT IN THIS MORNING SO YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING!?! U LAZY COD BAG!

GetATatKit said...

Our "favorite" Cod-Bags go through our artfully arranged tattoo kits at the flea market, destroying the effect of being able to see everything at a glance... then hold up the tattoo machine after fiddling around with it and getting it out of tune and ask "What's this?"

emerzdad said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kevin Casler said...

how about this when someone is selling or giving something away they try to tell you what you can or can not do with it. like they have rights to say what happens to it when it no longer belongs to them.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

I posted a barter ad wanting to trade a laptop, game system and a list of other junk for a working or repairable vehicle....

The first response I got is as follows.


"I have an old queen mattress and boxspring set I want to trade for your car. I need your car...."


Needless to say I had so many ideas on how to respond to this but I decided not to since they probably would not have understood :(

Unknown said...

IT SEEMS TO ME..THAT. THE MAJORITY OF YOU ARE THE TRUE "CODBAGS"YOUVE RUINED CRAIGSLIST FOR BUYERS&SELLERS..WHO DO YOU PEOPLE THINK YOU ARE??MIDDLE. AGED LOSERS WHO SELL. JUNK PART TIME &THINK THEY. UNDERSTAND BUSINESS. BECAUSE THEY WATCH THE APPRENTICE...SO SAD..

GavsDad said...

Someone call Craig... His list is ruined. Waaaah.
In fact, Mr Codleone, craigslist is responsible for their own migration to commercial advertising. Their success has made print classifieds obsolete. In fact, CL has had a lot to do with the slow demise of print media in general.
So you will forgive us simple businessmen, with our public school diplomas, for utilizing the only viable way of reaching a certain demographic.
We don't use CL because it is free, we use it because it works. I would gladly pay for the service, in fact a listing fee might keep some of my competitors away.
So thanks for your asinine opinion, rooted in myopia and fear of change. I'll just file it here under 'C' for Codbag.

Kamikaze Wolf said...

@Corleone; just because someone flagged down your "wanted free viagra" ad doesn't mean it was any of us.