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Comment by ytNumbers | Hacker News Reader

This article has persuaded me to never sell anything on Craigslist. Okay, the odds of running into a troll are tiny, but for a few bucks, it's just not worth the risk. Maybe Craigslist and similar sites need to start offering some kind of free insurance policy against trolls.

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You should also never walk on a sidewalk, for fear of bumping into someone who trips and falls and sues you for personal negligence. You may be safe if you insure for this, though. Ask your Attorney.

wonder if a general liability policy would cover this sort of thing although they would probably just settle. of course they might show up with an army of lawyers.

An umbrella policy for general liability seems like it could be really useful. They typically cover rather large sums of money, in excess of one million dollars, and they aren't terribly expensive.

I can imagine someone suing over a misunderstanding because of an X/Y problem. Person A asks a really obtuse programming question, Person B answers it literally, and then Person A goes on to use Person B's answer to build a nuclear reactor controlled by a raspi. Person B then gets sued by Person A when it melts down.

Obviously that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it isn't hard to imagine a point in the future where programmers will be held to the same standards as certified professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and engineers. While it's really unlikely any particular programmer will be sued over advice they gave online, it would really horrible to be the person that someone chose to make an example of.

Navigating into off-topic waters: Where would one go about obtaining such an "umbrella" policy? Just call up the same company that you buy your car insurance from? How do they price this? Do they probe your life to see how risky you are ("ooh, you have a tile floor which is easier to slip and fall on, that'll be $X extra per month!)

Most insurance companies offer them. You will have to raise the liability limits on your car insurance to the maximums if you have a car. I don't think they do any sort of risk assessment specifically for the umbrella policy.

Most personal umbrella policies exclude professional, business property, or business liability. At least mine does.

In this case it would not help. He got sued and did not cooperate with court, insurance would not cover that.

Just use a burner email and never give them your name. Meet in a public place and there's no tracing the item back to you. I imagine if you responded with mycraigslistemail@gmail.com and asked to meet in a public place, if you did happen to come upon a troll, they would stop the deal.

I've always done my Craigslist sales that way, sold a number of cellphones at the corner station. Then tried to sell an AppleTV but they wanted to come to my house to make sure it worked.

No random Craigslist clown is coming into the house where my wife sleeps, even if I escorted them in with a gun to their head because they could scope it out and come back later. I said I'd record a video of it working and send that over. No more replies. :)

I admire your cautiousness. You certainly are a strong male and will surely be rewarded with offspring for being such a gallant mate.

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This is easy with smaller items, but what if you wanted to sell a couch or a treadmill? In the past I thought it would be nice if there was a sort of consignment style store where people could park their Craigslist goods for people to come look at. I think this might go against Craigslists terms of service though... I am very apprehensive to have strangers over to my house, but I also don't know of a better way to sell these types of items without owning a large truck.

That's an interesting thought. I'm not sure how I'd handle that either. Like you said the pickup truck is the default answer. I will say in lieu of a truck, I have a hitch on one of my cars and a small flatbed trailer[0]. :/ Mine has boards on the sides and bottom of it so I can haul rock and dirt. But the thought of wheeling a treadmill around is for some reason kind of hilarious. I'd take it to the gas station though to meet someone and use a video to demonstrate it prior.

Worst case, I would probably have it in the garage and they can look at it there. Probably a risk you have to take to have someone cart off a big old treadmill.

One thing I would definitely do is probably sell it fairly cheap. Just to make sure it moves with the 1st person who is interested. Rather than get a bunch of time online and gazers coming over. People are also less likely to complain about something if they get a deal on it too so it's a win/win. Well other than the cash lost but I'd make that deal.

[0]http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/carry-on-trailer-me...

Yeah... I'd hate to haul a treadmill around for tire kickers... That thing is like 350lb's!

One other thought is to use a more localized service like Nextdoor where you are only selling to people in your subdivision/neighborhood. I would think this would cut down on the riff raff, but also cuts down on potential buyers.

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