Red Flag

Right now, I'm in the middle of doing something I've never done before - selling a car. I've only ever owned three cars, and I still have all of them, and one of them needs to go. I've decided on the one that's the oldest. There's somewhat of a collector's market out there for it.

At least I thought there was. It seems that there is a much larger market of scam artists than there is of people who like old cars. I suppose I should have expected this, but keep in mind that I've never sold a car before, so I'll claim that my naivete is excusable.

The first scammer to contact me was within just a few minutes of the craigslist post going live. There were so many red flags that it was hilarious. "oh, I live offshore (red flag), and I'm buying the car for my son (red flag), and I really want your car even though I've never seen it (red flag), and I can only pay through PayPal (red flag), and then I'll have my shipper (red flag) come pick up the car from you," was basically the gist of it. I texted back and said, "yeah, that doesn't sound suspicious at all...".

Another scammer texted me on Sunday. Reproduced here for your amusement is their message: "Hi, aboout ur ardvertizmennt onnlinne. Pls meessagee at (email address) to cconffirrm ppriicce and aavailaabilitii of the Auu2moobil." Because that sounds legit. And real.

On the bright side, I got my first real text from an actual human person who was interested in the car last night. He wanted to trade me for a Buick Roadmaster, which would be awesome, except that it's in rough shape, and lowered and customized like crazy. So that's a no-go, but he wants to trade for something else, since he "loves" the car. We'll see. Anyway, it can only get better from here.

Anyone know somebody who would like a 4WD station wagon from the 80's? If not, I might end up selling my other car instead.