Craigslist buyers - no shows and backouts

Spoke with a lady a few days ago who saw an ad of mine on Craigslist. She was so excited and couldn't wait to come come get the items. We scheduled a time to meet and then a few days later she has her husband call to cancel. Well, it could have been worse. At least I got a phone call and I didn't have to wait around for her.

Anyone else have a problem with Craigslist buyers backing out of deals or not showing up at all?

all the freaking time

There's a reason they call them "craigslist flakes"! 

But, I have over 100 ads on right now for a couple of my businesses and another business I list for.  Name any other advertising you can get for the price that brings you that kind of business!  You just learn to weed out the flakes over time and ignore them. 

Something that helps is never give them your address or meeting place ahead of time.  Tell them when they are ready to leave, call you and you will give them your address or a place you can meet.  If they do that, they are usually on the way, and if they don't call back to set up the appointment, then you aren't stuck sitting around waiting for them.  Following those rules, you won't have that many "no shows". 

teacher, i was curious do you list all 100 listings manually or do you have a software that does them? if you have software you mind sharing? ive been looking for a multiposting multi city software for a while now but they are very expensive and there's really no gurantee craigslist wont shut it down a day after you buy it

Constantly!   

I set a time and place but tell them three things.
1). If I don't hear from you by email/text/call the night before....deal is off.  Cause I'm making other plans.  (I do try and contact,  not totally on them)

2). I'll call/text in the morning.  If I don't hear back in a reasonable time, deals off.

3). I'll wait 15 minutes past set meet time.   If your lost, traffic, whatever.....you better call BEFORE the set time.   You call me ten minutes after set time and say your lost, I'm gone.


Tho.....all those rules can be thrown out the window depending on how long I've had the item and the profit margin.