Business ethics: The issue of craigslist

I think classifieds are very important as they bring buyers and sellers together without all the additional charges of advertising and commissions and what not. Its simple and easy... Just a phone call and you've suddenly bought yourself something nice for a pretty good price.

Nevermind the market for lemons, I personally think with e-commerce and the access to the worldwide market, everything is well priced and well worth what one is willing to pay. As opposed to previous times of where the only way to find a quote for the price of something would be to call and find out while your ability to get a good price might simply be dependant on the number of phone calls you make. I suppose you can say the same thing with the internet but mind you, I purchased a Minolta 700si film camera for $50 off of ebay while Simon's, a camera store in Montreal, still sells the the Maxxum 5 (A camera more inferior) for $200. These are simply people who haven't seen how the market has evolved. With todays market, we know with certainty the rounded off true value of our camera (perhaps right to one or two standard deviations).

The first time I learned about the market for lemons (Market for lemons), I thought it was the greatest concept since airplanes but much has evolved and the market for lemons is out-dated or very restricted to some low info market. With today's prices, I think its fair to say that we've hit a point of perfect competition for certain kinds of goods, especially in the second hand market. As we learn that non-lemon cameras and what not make it into the market, we find ourselves trusted sellers that offer us tons of warranty while successfully managing to undercut everyone else in their price offer. Ebay works. It lets people decide the price they are willing to pay, and as auctions go for goods in high demand, some auctions push buyers to spend somewhat more than they were planning to spend. Its a pride thing. Especially among photographers hunting for much needed gear.

Ok, so this isn't quite a lesson on economics, but is instead a light on what I've been through in trying to sell my precious Sony Alpha A300. Given how much I've learned from photography with this angelic piece of electronic, I never thought selling it would be such a hassle and to some extent, a learning process.

First assuming it to be an easy task, I threw in some posts in craigslist and kijiji. Kijiji being limited to Canada and relatively unknown to the United States (and most Canadians) is probably the most legit in business transactions and therefore much more trustable to either sell your stuff or not... Craigslist on the other hand is full of scammers from Nigeria (or some freakazoid seated in California pretending to be from Nigeria). So far craigslist's legitimacy rate states at around 20%. That means 8 out of 10 people ask me to ship them the item. Some will cleverly sound legit to establish contact and then come out of their hiding.

I have several problems with these low life ass-holes. For one, they do a terrible job at sounding convincing, especially given the amount of information that is available to identify a scam, and secondly, there's so many of them sending the same emails that you're bound to assume something is wrong. There are some clever ones though, but not by much. They soon show their true colours in some form or another.

I got an email from a Reverand John Campbell. Thank God I'm not a dogmatic believer who shreaks at the word Reverand, perhaps even going further on to give him as discount so that he can buy his daughter a nice birthday present. I'm sure he's had some success in the past. Still he was stupid enough to not see my craigslist post 'titled' MONTREAL BUYERS ONLY! and when I informed his of it, he mentioned that his company will wire me the money. #*^!ing Reverand...

So all in all, I've had a horrible experience with online classified ads. I've learned that the vast majority of offers are just completely ridiculous in this sort. There are so many scammers that they even compete with one-another to a level where people make offers for bicycles and pianos. Its one of those take what you can get industries. In fact, there's such an abundance that this brings interesting economics research prospects. Perhaps something in Micro-economics or criminal economy or more specific in Micro, game theory.

So my camera is still unsold. Business ethics are still on holiday and the economy is still in a recession. I'd like to go on to talk about the AIG bonus payouts but I've already ventured far away into a land that would have been completely disconnected to photography had it not been for the fact that it is my camera, a Sony A300 that I am trying to sell. If you click the link you will see the beautiful pictures taken by various photographers and yes you're right, I'm totally trying to sell my camera... Because I need to pay rent for next month!!! :(


Nevermind, back to the topic. If you are to post anything on craigslist:
a) EXPECT these weirdos to mail you and expect A LOT of emails.
b) Don't trust any of them. You could play with a few if you want and continue to play catch and ball until they give up (always thought of this one)
c) ALWAYS DEAL LOCAL!!! Don't even think about taking seriously any kind of shipment deal. If such is the case, do it over ebay so that ebay and paypall will cover you as the seller.
d) Try to state it clear in your email that you will simply ignore any non-local emails. Don't say you'll swear at them as curiousity will get them to email you anyway.

I am still waiting for my Holga. Will post again when I get it and hopefully I'll shoot my first roll with PanF Plus, my favourite film! Can't wait...