Classifieds
I’ve been using the Gumtree classifieds website a lot recently and have noticed some odd behaviour from people advertising their goods.
No photo
What’s the deal with so many ads not having a single photo of the item being advertised!? Isn’t it just common sense that an ad with a photo will be far more likely to get views than one without? Are these people really so lazy that they couldn’t be bothered to take a photo and upload it with their ad? Everyone has a mobile phone these days with a camera, and Gumtree has a mobile app which makes it very easy to upload photos…so there really is no excuse. I’m pretty confident if people had to pay for their advert, they might be inclined to make that little bit of extra effort.
Dodgy photos
OK, so the seller has made the effort to take a photo and upload it. Why in hell did they take the photo at night, with the item stuffed in a corner where it’s hardly visible?
Sob story
The number of ads I’ve seen where the seller tells some rambling story about their personal circumstances, why they’re forced to sell due to hard times, what they’re going to do with the money, and any number of other totally irrelevant details. Seriously, cut the crap and just give me the facts about the item already!
Little relevant detail
Some ads might have a fantastic photo, but barely any relevant details about the item. For example, I’ve seen many motor vehicles ads where the seller hasn’t bothered to list the essentials: make, model, year of manufacture, mileage
Swaps
Swaps, swaps, swaps! It seems like every second ad wants to swap their thing for some other thing. Often times, what they want to swap for is a completely different category/class of significantly different value….what are these people smoking?
No time wasters, No scammers (please)
So many ads telling time-wasters, tire kickers, scammers to stop doing….what they do. Time for a reality check - if you sell anything in a public Internet forum you will, at some point, encounter non-genuine buyers. Sellers who whinge about it in their ad are just turning off the honest buyers (at least that’s the effect it has on me).