Craigslist ... a packrat's best friend!

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cy

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Craigslist ... a packrat's best friend!

Confirmed packrat and garage sale junkie here... got tools and other goodies running out of my ears.

Sold a load of smaller stuff on ebay last year. but freight for heavier items most times exceeds cost of goods.

Recently discovered Craigslist for Tulsa (local) FREE postings. http://tulsa.craigslist.org/ (click link to your city) register your email for trouble free postings.

meet face to face for quick trouble free deals.

a few rules... never invite anyone over to your house. meet local buyer at a well known location mid-way, like a Macdonald's or gas station. tell buyer to bring cash for a smooth exchange.

Soooo who else is using Craigslist?
 
cy said:
Craigslist ... a packrat's best friend!


a few rules... never invite anyone over to your house. meet local buyer at a well known location mid-way, like a Macdonald's or gas station. tell buyer to bring cash for a smooth exchange.
Click to expand...

Do you want to share?
Is it because you're stuck at your house waiting for a no-show?
 
SHHHHH......you're giving away our secrets! :) Another packrat since the very beginning, before craigslist became nationwide.

The thing about meeting at a public location is more for safety, I assume. You don't really want to invite complete strangers over to your house, especially if it's for selling something valuable. I've gone to many people's houses to pick stuff up, but I almost never give out my address. Most of the time we'll meet at a public location or I'll offer to drop it off. Of course, most of the time that's because I'm alway the one buying the stuff, not selling, hence the reason why I'm a packrat.

There's also crazedlist.org, which allows you to surf multiple locations at once. I don't really like it though, I prefer google search. This goes against the whole philosophy of craigslist, which is to keep the transactions local and face to face. When you start shipping, the possiblity of scams goes way, way up.
 
nope.... I always state in my craiglist postings:
"serious buyers only please" then I vet the buyer by asking.. if item is exactly as represented, are you ready to buy?

tell buyer you never do business from home and would like to meet at a well known location. always pick a location convenient to you, not buyer. this puts the onus of travel on buyer, not you. since you have to load up item for sale and has the most time invested in meeting. even it up by having buyer travel closer to you.

Scott Packard said:
Do you want to share?
Is it because you're stuck at your house waiting for a no-show?
Click to expand...
 
I've sold a ton of stuff on CL, and had numerous people pick it up at my home. If you get their phone number first and talk to them, you can tell if they're legit or not. I wasn't selling any gold or diamonds so I wasn't worried about security.
 
Oh indeed! Check out "Freecycle" as well...(It's a Yahoo group.):

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,117 groups with 3,887,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on "Browse Groups" above the search box."
 
Happening to me couple times, the seller called back to stop the sale after drove half way there cause someone offering him more money even though I'm the first one to contact him.
 
Lightmeup said:
I've sold a ton of stuff on CL, and had numerous people pick it up at my home. If you get their phone number first and talk to them, you can tell if they're legit or not. I wasn't selling any gold or diamonds so I wasn't worried about security.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I've sold lots of stuff, met at my house, and never had a problem. A couple times I've said "I'm sorry, I don't think we can come to equitable terms" and hung up the phone on potential problems, but that's twice in several years and dozens of sales. Once or twice the buyer wouldn't shake my hand or look me in the eye or I just got a bad vibe, and I'd ask them to pay me before we load the item(usually large and/or awkward) into their vehicle. They seemed to understand and didn't mind. I'm scrupulously honest with all my ads and make sure all interested buyers know that the first person to get cash into my hand gets the item. I've possibly missed out on some $$$ because I told a buyer I'd accept a certain price and then had another buyer offer more, but my original policy stood. Whoever got the cash into my hand first got the item. If that was the first buyer with the lower offer that I'd already accepted, then I accept the loss. My integrity is worth more than a few dollars.

I have told one small fib a couple times(Ironic that I mentioned integrity, eh?). When speaking with a potential buyer that isn't quite sure if they're interested, sometimes I'll casually mention that someone else is interested and will be coming in the next day or two to look at the item. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Tips for those getting started: Make sure your ads have pictures and are scrupulously honest and meticulous. I've never had someone come look at an item I was selling and decline due to it being other than I advertised. If you're accepting email correspondence, then PLEASE remember to check that account often. If multiple people are interested in your item and it sells when you know others are interested in coming to take a look, contact them and tell them that the item is NLA. Save them some hassle. Lastly, when an item sells, delete the ad. Don't edit to say that it's sold, just delete it.

:buddies:
 
Like anything else in life you just have to trust your gut. Talking to the person on the phone first is better than communicating through e-mail, although a lot of people don't like to give out their phone number either. Some sellers don't want to give out their personal info to protect themselves, others don't want to give it out because they're selling stolen products and don't want traceability.

When the new playstations first came out and they were selling for outrageous prices, there were some problems with people being held up at gunpoint during the transactions. This was at a public location too. Also, there was another incident when a family was selling puppies, the prospective buyer came to the house with a gun, held the family hostage, and took the whole litter. So no matter what you do, you still have to be cautious when meeting up with strangers and use common sense. I've never had a problem so far, most everyone I've dealt with has been honest, except for few sellers who were very shady.

There are a few scams you do need to watch out for. Anybody requesting money orders should be avoided. I heard the gift cards to major retail stores were scams, but dont' remember how or why. I think either they were stolen, or involved returning stolen property for credit. I'm pretty sure there are more than a few people are get rid of stolen property on craigslist too. Quite a lot of other scams, but that can happen when using any site. Face to face transactions in cash are usually pretty safe though.
 
Last edited:
I love the Craig's List - only downside is my "local" site isn't local to me, and it's not very large or well-developed. And it's frequently full of spam..
 
I've been buying and selling on CL for a few years. Everything I've bought was at someone's house, everything I've sold was at my house. The only problems I've ever had are with buyers not showing up. Happened a few times.

Most of the things I've been selling need to be demonstrated under power, or they're too heavy/awkward to transport to a neutral location. No one wants to buy a set of $400 speakers without hearing them. Same thing with metalworking machines, electronic components, etc.
 
Helped my friend pick up an original $600 (I checked) treadmill, lightly used and two years old for $175 from a Craig's list ad. There are some good deals so if I was buying common exercise equipment for my home I would at least take a look there first.
 
I've tried selling several things on Craigslist, but I'm about sick of it. Seems like mostly tire kickers who waste my time with phone calls, emails, and promises to come get the item, then never show. I'm about to go back to selling on Ebay.
 
DieselTech said:
I've tried selling several things on Craigslist, but I'm about sick of it. Seems like mostly tire kickers who waste my time with phone calls, emails, and promises to come get the item, then never show. I'm about to go back to selling on Ebay.
Click to expand...

I once sold a serious clunker of a truck for a half-step above nothing. Just blew my mind what people would complain about in a $350 truck. I thought it'd sell fast, but alas I had a lot to learn. Never doing that again, wasn't worth my time.

It's also been my experience that giving stuff away for free doesn't work very well. If it's free then everyone will wonder what's wrong with it, why you're giving it away. Charge something and suddenly it's a good item, it's worth having. I once had a fiberglass canopy for a truck listed for free for almost a month with no leads at all. Perfectly good canopy, good paint, good glass, with pictures. I just wanted it gone. I decided to charge $50 and it sold in two days. Same for a washer, free for two weeks and nothing. $50 and sold in three days. I don't list anything for free anymore.

:buddies:
 
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