I've had a kijiji ad for a while now and I frequently check the website to hopefully snag a good deal some day. I finally found a good deal today. Guess what, I should of known though; someone else offered higher AFTER the seller had confirmed it was sold to me for X price for X items. Now, I have to wait and see if he'll reply to tell me how much "this other guy" offered and see if I can outbid him ... even though it was considered "sold" UGH. I should of known.
Sorry to hear you got "back doored" (that's the term people commonly use for this time of scenario). Sadly, this seems to be common place with classifieds, whether that be local or even on eBay. Usually it comes down to how honest the seller is. Meaning, IMO, an honest seller would have told the other person that the items have already been sold. Unfortunately, like a lot of things in life, money talks.
I'm in agreement with Mojoe, and that having prices or "bounties" listed in your want ad can improve your chances of people replying to it. I'm also in agreement that Kijiji is now filled with re-sellers and over-saturated with "want ads". It used to be a good resource for finding older games, even a year ago, but seemingly this hobby has exploded in the past year or two, and prices are now reflecting that. It's rare I even bother looking too closely at classifieds anymore, which is a change from last year where I'd browse almost daily. Plus, in this day and age, with all the people with smart phones, people set it up so that they're instantly notified if ads are posted, so that too makes things even more difficult!
The only way you're going to get a deal these days is being in the right place at the right time, or simply get lucky. I'd recommend some of the message boards online too. NintendoAge is a good site to check out. Lots of good people on there, and many are selling stuff at fair prices. If you don't mind paying for shipping (which has gone up in the past year as well in Canada), then it can be a good resource for games.
Good luck.
