No advice? Should I just offer to bring it to their house? Wouldn't that be weird?

Do you have a garage? I have never sold anything on CL before but a friend has and that is what he did. He put the item in the garage so no one had to come in the house to see it.

That is just very strange -- oh, yes, would you like to buy any of the rest of my furniture? and I'll just keep this rug that I PUT FOR SALE on CL.

Seriously, I would not (do not) let strangers in my house. You never know why they are really coming over and it's not worth it. I agree about using the garage, or bring it outside to show them when they arrive.

Probably because the study rug is such a stunner and the colors so gorgeous, that they rethink what they really want.

You know how much I love it and I've found myself being drawn to the colors even though they wouldn't work at all in my spaces. :( I've wasted untold hours looking at them.

That's a pretty good idea about bringing the rug to them. If the buyers are like me, they'd have to take it if someone went to all that trouble. I just couldn't say no.

Or just put it in the garage.

The only "con" to selling out of the garage, if you are selling something new is that people then wonder if it is clean so I can see why you would show it in the home. I agree it's safer to sell out of the garage (what I do 98% of then time). However, if you have something staged near your entry and leave the door open that can also work. I'm a bit surprised strangers would go into your study as I'm also wary when I go to pick something up on CL.

Perhaps what you could do when you set up an appt. is to lay the Ashara over your LR rug so they can view the whole thing with the lighting etc. at the same time masking the LR rug.

If you do move to the garage, plan to bring it out in the sunlight for them to view (another option).

The garage is a good idea, but ours is old and not very clean. Plus, as Val pointed out, they will want to see the rug unrolled. Val, great idea to unroll it beforehand over the LR rug. I have somebody coming to look at it today. I seriously lowered the price. But that's okay because I still come out ahead, in terms of what I bought my other rugs for. :)

Thanks for the feedback, everybody.

I think it is probably harmless, many people who shop CL are looking for bargains on wonderful things and not just junk. It never hurts to ask if something catches your eye if it is for sale too, many times people have multiple ads and it isnt always evident.
I think Val is correct and its a good idea to show it unrolled.

We had a similar problem back when we were trying to sell a dining room set, and we had our "new" antique set in the same room. We lived in an apartment so had no choice but to have both sets in the same room, so we used a sheet to cover the set we were keeping. That solved the problem pretty quickly.

I agree with the others who have suggested covering your rug with the one that you're selling. But don't forget that the buyers will probably flip up the rug to look at the back. Be prepared for more questions about your beautiful rug. Good luck!

That's the solution right there, Meg! OS, cover your LR rug with a sheet or two. Lay rug to be sold on top of the sheet(s), viola! Buyer never sees LR rug.