Key is -- if your selling price is right then you have really no concern it will sell.
And when you have no concern that you're going to sell it, you open up the door to treat each person right, because -- you know someone's gonna buy it -- you priced it right. No need to be fearful "if I don't sell it to the 1st person it may not sell."
When I sold a 500 a while back I posted the ad on CL and got tons of emails (I always sell a bit below market since if you have decided to sell it then sell it why mess around).
Do I put a phone # in the ad? No way. But since I look around at a lot of different areas on CL to get to know the market, I get lots of emails back as the price is reasonable.
Go down the list of emails in order, only fair.
You say to yourself "I'll let the 1st guy make an appt, then make another appt. at a different time for the 2nd guy" and I know I'm gonna sell it to someone on the list of responders, I set the price at a reasonable level.
So if the 1st guy doesn't show up or doesn't buy it I already have the next guy scheduled who made an appt. and so on down the list. I always tell that 2nd guy "you're 2nd in line, it might sell, do you still want an appointment?"
Heck I know I'm gonna sell it I set the price right.
I just do 2 things to make it easy on me:
1) reasonable price to attract lots of interest
2) set appointments one at a time at least 45 minutes apart
3) if someone doesn't show they are done no 2nd chance
In the past 3 months I sold 2 bikes and both times sold to the 1st person who showed up.
Other thing I do is: "Please call me when you initially get on the road to head over to my place." If they're distant I tell them "and call me when you're about 20 minutes away."
So at least I know if they're on the way.
If you put your phone # in your ad, and you already told a guy to show up after he gets off work at 6pm that day, then a guy calls at 1pm that same day (because your phone # is in the ad and he just saw your ad) and he lives 5 minutes away and says "I have cash", then.......temptation.
So I never put my phone # in the ad. So I can't be tempted to tell person A "I'll see you at 6pm" then have to tell him "You see what happened is a guy beat you to it, he called right out of the blue at 1 o'clock today, see. Sorry."
A lot of these guys who screw you when they sell either know their price is too high so they have to sell to the 1st person, who knows if they can find another sucker -- or they are just outright don't care about folks and will screw anyone.
So do I leave myself open to no-shows? Sure. But I learned "don't worry about others, keep your own side of the street clean" as a way to deal with that. I know it will sell, I set the price reasonable, if people want to do a no-show, that's on them -- and besides, if they don't call me liked I told them to call, when they get on the road to come to my place -- I know in advance that I can move up the appointment of party #2.
And just to add, if you live in a not-too populated area, things are probably different since not so many people. The above may not work for you. I live on the west coast, tons of bikers here.
