In my area people are pretty honest about the items they are selling, or maybe I just don't look at items where the seller is pushing too hard, either way I've had pretty good luck.
For selling my stuff I take good pictures and plenty of them, then list what it is and anything I know to be wrong with it. I stay away from talking it up. I figure if they want it they'll sell themselves on it. I also sell cash only and as is.
When buying I stay away from trash talking. Sometimes I'll make an offer, but not always, kind of get a feel for if they priced it with room for offers or not. Most of the ads around here say a price and then OBO or make offers or something like that.
A machine I bought I drove two hours to look at it, his ad said OBO, he was asking $3200 and I offered $3000. He said sure and then took me to lunch after we got loaded. We were both happy with the deal and walked away friends, that to me is a good transaction.
One used machine I was buying from a lady and it broke down as I was loading it, threw a rod. She offered me my money back. I told her "No, I bought it as is and knew there was a bad knock in the motor, I don't consider you responsible for this."
), I don't make an offer on anything normally unless I'm walking away(like in the previous sentence) and they insist I make an offer. That usually goes something like, well aren't you even going to make an offer, it's not what I was coming to look at, well can't you use it, yes but I'm not into pricing other peoples things and you already told me what you wanted for it. If they still insist and don't give me a price I will sometimes make an offer, normally by then they say a lower price, but I still walk. If you mislead me in how you advertise I don't take it lightly, you just wasted my time as well as many others time.
