Craigslist - good or bad in your experience?

[Teacher Terry]

I use CL, Nextdoor, OfferUp and letgo. I always have the items outside on my patio and I let them in the side gate. I don’t want people in my house. Some want to meet in a public place and I say no because of the people that don’t show up.I list higher than what I want so I can come down.

[Big_Hitter]

I don't think I've had a bad experience on CL

[Tom52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry I use CL, Nextdoor, OfferUp and letgo. I always have the items outside on my patio and I let them in the side gate. I don’t want people in my house. Some want to meet in a public place and I say no because of the people that don’t show up.I list higher than what I want so I can come down.

I have heard of the above referenced sites, I wonder what the audience is for these sites compared to craigslist. I live in a rural Midwest location and have not run across anyone that mentioned they bought or sold via these methods.

[Teacher Terry]

I have sold a lot of things on OfferUp but we live in a city. These are definitely not everywhere.

[HI Bill]

I use CL frequently. I post photos, a generic cross-street location, and condition details. I tend to go back-and-forth with potential buyers in email or text a few times before we meet up. Generally, I have them come to my neighborhood and meet them at a nearby shopping center, but on occasion, I've dropped things off when already on the way to somewhere. I also have folks stop by the street in front of my office for smaller things. Most buyers (especially those who don't lowball the price on inexpensive items) are reliable. But I'm mostly selling like-new items, in good condition, and lots of electronics.

Overall good, with few no-shows, although a few run late by a few minutes...

[Walt34]

I've both bought and sold on CL with all good results so far. I sold a folding boat and outboard motor, a motorcycle, and bought a Nikon strobe light and a slightly used snowblower. I always meet at a public place, preferably a police station if there is one nearby, figuring no scammer is going to want to meet there. It also makes the other party more comfortable.


That said I am a bit wary of it because of all the poor results I've read about and having recently joined the nextdoor forum near here I'll be more open to buying/selling there than CL.

[Hamlet]

We’ve had mostly decent experiences, with the occasional no-show as the biggest negative.

I did make the mistake once of posting some aquariums with decent value for free because I wanted them out of my house quickly. I had about six aquariums and some stands with the accessories. I’m guessing that they would have probably sold for say $200, but it might have taken a week or so. I posted them for free with the caveat that they had to take everything.

I got like 40 responses in the hour I had it up. The guy who responded first came over and I helped him get everything loaded into his truck. He wasn’t into aquariums, he was just a guy with no job that scoured the ads for free stuff that he could hopefully sell. More power to him, but when he started talking about aliens and the Illuminati I got a little uncomfortable . On the plus side, he waited until we were done loading to bring that stuff up.

In the future, I’ll at least charge a nominal amount for things of value weed out a few people.

[BeachOrCity]

Craigslist sucks because eBay bought the service and basically does zero to make it better because it competes with eBay.

Some basic improvements to it could make it awesome and largely reduce all the fraud etc. never going to happen.

It’s a textbook example of how big tech kills awesome startups who have a competing offering that consumers might prefer.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeachOrCity Craigslist sucks because eBay bought the service and basically does zero to make it better because it competes with eBay. Some basic improvements to it could make it awesome and largely reduce all the fraud etc. never going to happen. It’s a textbook example of how big tech kills awesome startups who have a competing offering that consumers might prefer.

Ironically, Craigslist did much to kill off newspapers which made a lot of their money off classified advertising. And when newspapers die, government accountability dies, especially in rural areas..........

[GNXGuy]

Most "in the Know" don't use Craigslist anymore. Most use Facebook marketplace.

[misshathaway]

I had a Craigslist bad experience lately with the free section. I had heavy pipe fittings from a furnace replacement out front. I should have just let the night scavengers take them. Instead I posted them on Craigslist free and somebody responded immediately. Gave the guy the address and a truck came 30 minutes later. Turned out the people in the truck were day scavengers that just happened upon the stuff. I thought they were the Craigslist guy. Then an hour later the Craigslist guy showed up and he was MAD! He stood on my front stair for a few minutes ranting through my apologies. It was scary. You really don't know who you are inviting to your house with Craigslist.

[brucethebroker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinger1457 My most annoying experience when selling on craigslist is the one you mentioned about buyers saying they are coming over and never showing up and don't have the courtesy to let you know they are not coming, seems to happen frequently.

Sure it happens. I figure if they are driving to my home, what is the big deal? I am not standing around waiting for them. (Last night I waited 25 min. for a contractor to show up at my rental house-I anticipate that, and bring a book to read. Those things happen-Why get upset?)

I personally have had good experiences selling on Craigs-40-50 items over last dozen years. I know of nothing else bringing better prices with less cash out of your pocket (for ebay, advertising, flea market, or other sales places). If I get stood up a couple of times to save that kind of money, I can handle the trade off.

[brucethebroker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GNXGuy Most "in the Know" don't use Craigslist anymore. Most use Facebook marketplace.

But you have to be on facebook...........

[brucethebroker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Ironically, Craigslist did much to kill off newspapers which made a lot of their money off classified advertising. And when newspapers die, government accountability dies, especially in rural areas..........

Have not had a paid newspaper in 15 years. I read all locals online-free. I see no dying off of the press-just a new business model.

I guess I am reading too much into your comment-are you saying Craigslist is killing the newspaper business and that kills govt. accountability? Did priceline kill the travel business? I would argue no, it just changed the business mode.

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brucethebroker ... I know of nothing else bringing better prices with less cash out of your pocket (for ebay, advertising, flea market, or other sales places). If I get stood up a couple of times to save that kind of money, I can handle the trade off.

Agreed. When I'm selling or buying camera equipment I use a couple of free or nearly-free camera forums. eBay is absolutely my last choice. Arrogant, expensive, and they seem to think that they are doing a favor for the sellers that pay the bills. On the buy side, I often buy cheap Chinese junk (cables, camera batteries, etc.) on eBay; that seems to be their specialty these days anyway. I have 700+ feedback and have been on there for like 15 years but I have long since stopped selling there.

[SmallCityDave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GNXGuy Most "in the Know" don't use Craigslist anymore. Most use Facebook marketplace.

FB can certainly produce results quickly but I like having a level of anonymity.

[SmallCityDave]

These days selling just about anything people can really be odd, they generally don't like to talk (for the most part it's not a bad thing) but before you come to my house we will have a short conversation just to make sure you aren't crazy and no I'm not wasting my time driving around town and selling you that thing for $100.


Most of the time when they get to the house they will text or FB message me "here", what I might do one of these days is not talk to them at all just text them when they are standing next to me.

[harllee]

When I sell on Craigslist ( I use CL as a last resort) I ask to meet at the local police dept parking lot, they have an area set aside for Craigslist sales. Several times when I am talking to a potential buyer and mention meeting the the Police Dept, the potential buyer just hangs up. I figure if they are not willing to meet at the police dept, they are up to no good. I think Craigslist is scary.

[mountainsoft]

I have bought and sold many things on Craigslist and have never had a situation that made me uncomfortable.

I do hate all the no-shows when selling something. I go to the trouble of scheduling a time to meet and waiting around, then they never show without so much as a "sorry, changed my mind".

I also hate the haggling process. I have to post things at higher prices than I'm hoping to get, knowing they will try to talk me down to what I really want. It's all a stupid game. That's what I like about Ebay, I can post an ad with the price I want and that's what I get, no haggling.

I don't mind helping people load big items, but many times people don't think things through. I sold a dining table to a young gal last year. She drove over an hour to come see it and showed up in a compact car to pick it up. Uh, that's not gonna fit. I was able to dismantle the table and squeeze the pieces into her car. Hopefully she figured out how to put it all back together. Another guy showed up in a small compact SUV to buy a large armoire. Obviously it wouldn't fit, so he didn't buy it after making the long drive. I always post dimensions, but no one takes the time to measure.

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeachOrCity Craigslist sucks because eBay bought the service and basically does zero to make it better because it competes with eBay. Some basic improvements to it could make it awesome and largely reduce all the fraud etc. never going to happen. It’s a textbook example of how big tech kills awesome startups who have a competing offering that consumers might prefer.

Sorry. Fake News. eBay never had more than a minority stake and that stake is long since gone.

From Forbes, June 19, 2015: "On Friday, eBay said it sold its 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist back to the San Francisco-based online classifieds company.

"The company also noted in a blog post that the deal also came with the agreement that all litigation between the companies will be dismissed.

"Craigslist repurchasing of EBay's stake ends a rocky relationship between two of the Web's largest online marketplaces. In 2008, eBay sued Craigslist for diluting its stake in the company in a move that caused the online auction firm to lose its board seat. Craigslist later restored eBay's full stake, but an eBay representative was not reappointed to the board."