Saving $$ on Craigslist

[Aiming_4_55]

Recently, I've been using Craigslist more and more. Depending on your location, YMMV. Remember to be safe. I've seen others post good deals that they've pick-up while "shopping" off the site. I've been using it to get rid of stuff.

Here's my little story....

I've been in the clean up mode at my rentals and primary residence. I've saved a few things over the years as I didn't feel I had to address it yet, but I've accumulated a bunch of stuff, so I posted on Craigslist and got rid of lots of stuff...fast and free. Each of the old items would of resulted in a $25 - 30 charge per item on my normal trash bill. A quick picture from the cell phone and post, then I'm usually done.

Free Section works great to move things fast -
- 4 used hot water heaters from rental apt bldg - listed as scrap, responses within 15 minutes, picked-up within 2 hours, just left them outside.

- old tires - listed as free in fair condition, picked up in 2 days, just left them outside.

- old non-working lawn mower from rental unit - picked - up within 30 minutes, just left outside.

- old interior and exterior doors that were replaced - gone in 2 days

- sold some kids clothes (by the bag) and infant toys - just made a few bucks but started teaching my daughter the idea of recycling and free market - within a few days, I had a bunch of emails.

- I bought a newer stove, dishwasher, washer & dryer from someone that was going into foreclosre. All tested and functioning for $250. Off season special - 8hp snow blower for $100. They will serve as back-up for a rental turn over or malfunction.

Something to consider if you are relocating, downsizing, or just need to clean out the garage.

Always be safe... day time hours and I usually get their name, number, email and have it on the side so if something happens, DW knows who I'm dealing with. Never use it for high value items, potential to be robbed carrying cash.

YMMV but has worked for me.

 

[travelover]

I'm a fan, but have had mixed results giving away free stuff. Latest was a TV that someone picked up and I later found in the woods off the side of the road. i guess they decided that they didn't really want it.

 

[donheff]

I have used it to give stuff away and to sell stuff. I sold a couple of old windsurfing boards on Craigslist. Maybe a decent way to get rid of unwanted stuff is to include it as a package takeaway deal with something popular (i.e. get them to carry the extra stuff to the dump).

 

[Backpacker]

Love it - I recently bought a 24' aluminum extension ladder for 95 bucks retails for 215. also bought stove and fridge in nearly new condition for 400 bucks, best guess retail is over 1000 for the pair.

i've also sold an old beatup riding mower for decent money

 

[Major Tom]

Big fan here. Have given away lots of free stuff, as well as sold some specialty items that I wasn't expecting to, such as a ham radio transceiver. I also sold $2K worth of professional photographic lighting gear to an Australian who was visiting the Bay Area and searched our local Craigslist ahead of time to see if he could buy any gear while he was here.

 

[omni550]

Another site to give (& get) stuff away free is freecycle.org

From their site:

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,955 groups with 8,546,072 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and 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 local volunteers (them's good people). Membership is free. Have fun"!

omni

 

[Major Tom]

Another site to give (& get) stuff away free is freecycle.org

From their site:

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,955 groups with 8,546,072 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and 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 local volunteers (them's good people). Membership is free. Have fun"!

omni

Freecycle must be really popular, as the last two things I tried to get were already gone - and I replied to the ads swiftly

 

[travelover]

Freecycle must be really popular, as the last two things I tried to get were already gone - and I replied to the ads swiftly

Free stuff gets claimed quickly on FreeCycle and CL, but frequently they don't follow through. If you really want something, write a polite email with a quick pickup promise and you may get the item even if you are not first responder, or may be chosen as a backup if the initial claimer doesn't show up.

I give stuff away frequently and this is the pattern I see.

 

[omni550]

Freecycle must be really popular, as the last two things I tried to get were already gone - and I replied to the ads swiftly

OMG, you cannot believe how popular it is. I've given away some nice things (and posted pictures thereof -- which really increases the interest level).

With the popularity of smartphones and the like, these days people have access to your posting within seemingly seconds.

It may just be a quirk of mine, but the immediate responses I received that had a "sent from my iPhone" or "sent from my Blackberry" tagline at the bottom did not garner a lot of attention from me as potential recipients.

omni

 

[JOHNNIE36]

We will only deal in more expensive stuff, hoping to keep traffic to a minimum and to weed out the undesirables. We were looking for a dining room server or buffet as they used to call them. Shopped all the furniture stores and couldn't find anything decent for under $600. Were willing to spend this but the pieces didn't look like they were worth the price. Went to craigslist and found just what we wanted. If you know furniture, it was Bernhardt. Two years old cherry dining set. They wouldn't sell the server alone, so we bought the whole dining room suite for $850, kept the server and sold the table and chairs for $650 on craigslist a week later. Ended up getting this beautiful server for $200. Being Bernhardt, it would have gone for $1000 new.

 

[Telly]

I am interested in hearing from those of you who gave away stuff for free via Craigslist.

How did you do it? Did you list your address, put the stuff outside, and cancel the listing after it was picked up?
Or did you handle it by having people who were interested respond to your listing, sort through them, email back to set up a time, and hope they showed up rather than wasting your time?
Or other methods?

 

[TromboneAl]

I am interested in hearing from those of you who gave away stuff for free via Craigslist.

How did you do it? Did you list your address, put the stuff outside, and cancel the listing after it was picked up?
Or did you handle it by having people who were interested respond to your listing, sort through them, email back to set up a time, and hope they showed up rather than wasting your time?
Or other methods?

If you just say "Free stuff at xx Main Street..." then you'll have people wasting their time coming to get something that is already gone. This is a problem for me if someone says "Free firewood at xx Elm St." and I drive 20 miles to find that it's already gone.

I recommend describing the item and waiting for a reply by email. Then leave it outside, give the respondent the address, and remove the ad. Make it clear that if they don't show up, you'll give it to someone else. When he/she flakes out and doesn't show, go back to step one.

That has worked pretty well for me.

 

[youbet]

We use Craig's List but don't find the results all that impressive.

Listing items I want to get rid of in the "free" section usually works with few complications if the items are actually going to be of use to someone. I agree with T Al's method. We do feel better than had we simply dumped them in the trash.

We've sold a few things with reasonable results.

Here in the Chicago area, we find items listed for sale on Craig's List are frequently not bargains and the competition for reasonably priced popular stuff is fierce. Therefore we don't spend much time looking for things there.

 

[gromit]

I haven't bought or sold on Craigslist, but I'm looking at the bicycle ads there. Caution is always advised - We just had a news story about someone selling MAC computers through Craigslist. They would let the buyer look at a real MAC, but end up selling one still sealed in the box. Much to the buyers' later surprise, the sealed boxes actually contained 12 inch floor tiles.

 

[calmloki]

The gal made us go out in the dark and spend $100 on a set of Denby "fire/chili" dishware down south. Got it home and found that instead of six pasta bowls there were only five. Eight of everything else. Pretty nice dishes, but now she is buying replacements and additions and those few cost more than the set did. Darn Craigslist!

 

[Sue J]

Our city now prohibits yard sale signs at corners, you can only put a yard sale sign in your own yard. So we put an ad on Craigslist and also in our local paper. Many people said they came because of the Craigslist ad. Somebody told me they liked the way I listed specific interesting items.

We sold an old car in 2009 and recently an incomplete French road bike from 1973. With both of these I uploaded 4 pics to the Craigslist ad and then linked additional larger pics for more detail. I started at a price and then edited the ad to lower the price until it hit the point where someone was interested.

We're replacing a sliding glass door in a few weeks, I'm wondering if the old one would be something someone would take for free.

 

[haha]

[We sold]recently an incomplete French road bike from 1973. With both of these I uploaded 4 pics to the Craigslist ad and then linked additional larger pics for more detail. I started at a price and then edited the ad to lower the price until it hit the point where someone was interested.

Were these Peugeots? I have a couple nice ones of that vintage that I would like to sell.

What did you get for them?

Ha

 

[Sue J]

The bike was a Mercier with Reynolds 531 tubing and Campagnolo hubs. It had sat in our basement for 30 years and my DH had cannibalized it for parts so I was selling it with no chain, no rear derailleur, missing cables and a tire that didn't hold air. DH had cut off the rear derailleur hangar for a failed modification and never went back to it. It was in sorry shape. DH didn't want to deal with it, it was kind of a sore subject so he said if I sold it the money was mine.
http://tinypic.com/r/2i23kgo/7

I sold it for $90 to a young man opening a bike shop and bike co-op in a nearby college town. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crooked-River-Recyclery/199363396775234 He knows French bikes and likes to find Reynolds 531 frames. He's also been to a bike building school and was not bothered by the missing hangar, he knows how to braze a new one.

I was glad to get any cash out of something sitting in my basement for decades but mostly I was thrilled that the bike was getting a better life with someone who would appreciate it.

Maybe $90 wasn't much for one of these. I wasn't going to put any money into it to make it more attractive. Honestly, if this buyer had hesitated I would have given it to him for free just to get the space back in my basement.

 

[calmloki]

.... DH didn't want to deal with it, it was kind of a sore subject so he said if I sold it the money was mine.
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

....

Is that you in the next tinypic holding up your trophy bucks after the sale?

 

[kcowan]

When I cleared out my parent's house, I had free stuff on the lawn during the 2 day estate sale, then I made appointments for people with new unfurnished cottages/apartments and they knew exactly what was available for free.

After Sallyann, 1-800-GOTJUNK got the remainder.

 

[SomedaySoon]

Down at my son's apartment in NYC it is much easier. Just go out to the sidewalk and put whatever you want down, and then look in the opposite direction for a minute or two. Presto Chango and POOF! its gone....

 

[flyfishnevada]

I have trouble where I live. I'm way out in the sticks and lot's of people just ignore my ads knowing how far away it is. I sell stuff, but it takes a while.

In Oregon, however, when we were selling my FIL's truck after he went into assisted living I posted and ad. I had 10 calls within half an hour, the first was within minutes of my posting the ad. Within two hours it sold. the guy who bought it told me he checked Craigslist every ten minutes all day long.

 

[Sue J]

Is that you in the next tinypic holding up your trophy bucks after the sale?

No!! How random that that is the next pic!

My cash is in my cash stash, waiting for a deserving reason to be spent on something special.

 

[freebird5825]

Down at my son's apartment in NYC it is much easier. Just go out to the sidewalk and put whatever you want down, and then look in the opposite direction for a minute or two. Presto Chango and POOF! its gone....

I use the upstate NY version of that. Put it out by the mailbox, and within 2 hours, or perhaps as long as 2 days, it is gone.
There are a lot of metal reclaimer types in the area, and people who need used things for their hunting camps, so nothing gets wasted.

As far as Craiglist goes, I sold a snowmobile last winter. It was a big ticket item and only serious buyers answered the ad.
I'm still not comfy with the idea of having complete strangers come to the door or inside for smaller cost items, so I give these items away through donation or as freebies by the side of the road.

 

[Buckeye]

Down at my son's apartment in NYC it is much easier. Just go out to the sidewalk and put whatever you want down, and then look in the opposite direction for a minute or two. Presto Chango and POOF! its gone....

Items placed by the dumpsters disappear very quickly in my 55+ complex. I guess it's on the "gleaner's" hot list because lots of good stuff gets put out by people moving into smaller assisted living apts, nursing care, or moving in with family. I picked up a 2-drawer filing cabinet recently and my neighbor picked up a 3-drawer storage unit as we were heading out to do errands this morning!