Just a few suggestions from an experienced Craigslister (both buying and selling):
1. Make sure the word "diesel" is somewhere in the ad. That way anybody keyword searching for a diesel will find it. I know the title says "powerstroke" but, again, think about someone who might be searching for any diesel, not just a Ford.
2. No need to apologize for it not being show quality or having a few dents and dings. Stained driver's armrest and seat? Unless it's a really awful, stinky stain, just omit that. Nobody expeces a 9 year old truck to be pristine. Ditto for the old shell and the tires. Just leave it out (now, if it has
NEW tires, you definitely want to feature that. But if it has old tires, so what? No reasonable person expects you to put new tires on a vehicle you intend to sell.)
3. Accentuate the positive. Put all the good stuff first, and note the negatives underneath.
Finally, the overall tone is negative, angry and defensive. All of the following would be red flags for me as a buyer:
"if that's what you want stop reading and look elsewhere"
"No tire kickers or joy riders. Only test drives for serious buyers."
"Will not negotiate period."
"don't ask questions that are answered here please."
When you write things like that, what you're doing is sending a very clear message to any potential buyer that "I am a difficult person to work with."
Why would you do that? Do you want to sell the truck or not?
What you have to keep in mind is that
you may think your truck is the greatest one out there, and it may be.
But from
my perspective as a buyer, yours is just one of a
hundred out there, and when I pull up that list of a hundred vehicles, the first thing I'm going to do is to look for reasons to eliminate some of them from the list.
So the most important thing to do when writing an ad is:
Don't give people a reason to cut you from the list.
No picture/crappy picture? Cut.
Incomplete description (no year, no miles, no listing of what engine/tranny it has)? Cut.
Won't negotiate? Cut.
Bad attitude? Cut.
As the old saying goes, you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. You may be a cranky, irascible old fart, but it's always better to let the buyer find that out in person