argh I hate Craigslist

If you live in any major city craigslist is the way to go. Ive never had any issues selling an item. I live in an apartment complex so I always meet the person outside of the building...or ill meet them outside of my work office. Always have the person come to you. It took one no show at a coffee shop for me to stop that.

If you're going to give out your phone number get a google voice number and link it to your cell. I would never give out my "real" number.

As far as negotiations...any negotiating takes place over email. Ive never negotiated in person and always reach an agreed upon price over email. Sometimes people try to negotiate in person but ill offer to pull my phone out and show them the price they agreed to.

No record of the sale, cash in hand, not having to deal with shipping item and having it break in transit.

And for those who think its a big hassle...its a simple email back and forth. If you feel like the person is stalling or wasting your time simply end communication. If I have someone lowball me ill simply reply "sorry we couldnt make a deal." End of discussion but ive also had those same people email back and accept the price I posted.
 
travelover said:
Everybody wants a price cut on Craigslist. I automatically list for 25% more than I want, then just give them 25% off. They are happy, I'm happy and some suckers pay the full price. :D
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I do the opposite... I put a low but fair price because I want to get rid of the item and generate interest. Then when they try to lowball me I just calmly state that I've done my homework and that the price is fair but if they can find a better price then go for it... they usually then get real and make me a reasonable offer.

In most cases I don;t care whether the items sells and am more interested in getting rid of it than maximizing my proceeds so it works out well.
 
kijiji is Canada's version of craigslist. I've found plenty of deals on musical instruments on kijiji...it's where broke people sell their guitars. :)

But, what has always surprised me is that virtually everyone lets me in their house to try out the instrument, and seemingly has no worries about me checking out their music room full of gear. I'm always wary about strangers checking out my stuff and don't list online as I have a lot of instruments as well as the gear from the 2 bands that rehearse in my basement. Luckily, I've been able to avoid listing items because I know enough people that it can be sold by word of mouth.
 
pb4uski said:
I do the opposite... I put a low but fair price because I want to get rid of the item and generate interest. ........
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I started with this approach and it didn't work out for me. Maybe it is the local culture. If I was selling dollar bills for 50 cents, they'd offer me a quarter apiece.
 
travelover said:
Everybody wants a price cut on Craigslist. I automatically list for 25% more than I want, then just give them 25% off. They are happy, I'm happy and some suckers pay the full price. :D
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Unless its in demand concert tickets. sheesh, i listed an extra set after friends backed out and people are offering 2-3x what I paid.
 
I'm on the opposite side from many of the posters in this thread. For used stuff I'm a firm believer in "buy low, sell low". I've sold quite a bit of stuff on CL (mostly auto and camera gear) and always ask a price well below the competition (other craigslist ads and specialty online forums). I typically sell within a day or two and don't have to worry about lowballers.

By the same token I don't have much sympathy for sellers imagining their old stuff is gold plated. I offer a fair swap meet / garage sale price and see what happens. I rarely need the items I'm looking for and a seller who wants top dollar is free to hold onto their stuff forever.
 
stepford said:
By the same token I don't have much sympathy for sellers imagining their old stuff is gold plated.
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This is a brand new Roku, so I know what Amazon is selling it for.
And it isn't worth it to go out in this freezing weather to sell it so he can buy it 1/2 off especially not with my bum knee at the moment.
 
I'm sure your selling for less than Amazon right? Amazon includes warranty, 5% discount with prime store card, and free delivery. I agree it should be more than 50% but not by much.
 
RetireAge50 said:
I'm sure your selling for less than Amazon right? Amazon includes warranty, 5% discount with prime store card, and free delivery. I agree it should be more than 50% but not by much.
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Uh yeah.

I doubt the lowballer has the Prime credit card or Prime.

Even so, doing the math a $30 item after the 5% discount + NJ state tax since Amazon has warehouses in NJ = $30.46.

If he wants the free delivery he is welcome to pay the $99/year for Prime and pay the $30.46 to Amazon.
 
My rule of thumb is that anything used is automatically worth 50% of what it would cost new. There are exceptions, but that's a good starting point.

I ignore sellers who think the old, beat-up crap they've had for years, and are trying to get rid of, is worth almost what they paid for it. This is not new to Craig's List. Back when I was going to garage sales, I'd run into quite a few of these sellers. I'd walk away after seeing the first price tag.

A classic example is exercise equipment. Everyone spends a fortune on the overpriced, name-brand stuff, with high hopes of working out daily. After a few years collecting dust in the basement, they finally decide it's not happening. But they think it's still worth that premium price. In reality, there are always plenty of used exercise machines on the market.

Craig's List is getting more fast-paced these days. I missed out on two sales recently because I didn't check my e-mail quickly enough. Even though I'd included my phone number so they could text me. I guess the assumption is everyone gets their e-mail in real time via smart phone nowadays, and if you don't reply in minutes, they move on. I'm old-fashioned in that I only check my e-mail a few times a day.
 
RetireAge50 said:
I'm sure your selling for less than Amazon right? Amazon includes warranty, 5% discount with prime store card, and free delivery. I agree it should be more than 50% but not by much.
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Yup. I would say about a 40% discount from Amazon is probably about right.

There is less risk of problems when buying on Amazon like there is when buying from a private party. I remember buying a "brand new" Rosetta Stone CD set on Ebay years ago. It looked 100% perfect but turned out was a Chinese knock off. Ebay refunded so no issue but my point is unless the "new" item is a fair amount cheaper I'd rather buy on Amazon, Ebay or elsewhere rather than private party. There is "risk" however low that risk is.

For things like a Roku I always check Ebay sold auctions to help me determine a fair price. The key is SOLD auctions and not current asking prices. With a popular item you can very quickly determine what the market price is today for that private party "new" item.
 
HillCountry said:
Agreed with eBay, too. I have tens of thousands of sale, and never a problem. Ship after payment and no refund.
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+1 To ebay. I have bought and sold many items over a decade or so without a bad experience.

On the other hand, my first, and only Craig's list transaction resulted in me purchasing a new sealed 30 lb container of R-22 refrigerant for $200 cash and receiving what appeared to actually be "snake oil".

The pressure-temperature relationship for R22 did not match that eventually measured in the jug of "snake oil".

-gauss
 
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I have had really good luck with CL. I ask a little more then what I want and then go down when they ask. I have them come to my home but I go outside with the item. I never let them in. If it's a big item for example I sold my dryer I have my husband put it outside in our side yard. I sold a old car in about 4 hours.
 
Sounds like CL can be more of a "seller's game".

-gauss
 
The car I priced under average BB by about $400. It was a 14 yo Saturn with alot of miles that had nothing wrong with it but I figured whoever bought it would not have much $ and I didn't want to feel bad if it died soon after sale.
 
gauss said:
Sounds like CL can be more of a "seller's game".

-gauss
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With eBay, you have a lot more potential buyers, especially for a special interest item. So, if it is shippable, I sell there. Something like a dryer, goes on Craigslist.
 
CL requires more work, but it is sometimes the only way to sell something. We sold extra pavers from a patio project, sofas, firepits, ski's. Anything smaller goes on eBay.

We are closing in on the $100,000 mark of items sold on eBay. Took about 15 years, but that still is a lot of extra cash from just selling stuff we no longer use.
 
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Craigslist has been great for me but have never used ebay to buy or sell. High value items and some hard to find items get fairly wide attention on Craigslist -- living in the southeast, sold a 4WD RV for $85K to a guy from Alaska and a kevlar kayak to someone in CA.

I have never really had a bad experience selling items on Craigslist (RVs, boats, kayaks, bikes, furniture, autos, sports equip., etc.) and have typically let buyers come to my home unless more convenient to meet someplace. Usually just ignore the occasional low-baller but have rarely encountered that.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I have had really good luck with CL. I ask a little more then what I want and then go down when they ask. I have them come to my home but I go outside with the item. I never let them in. If it's a big item for example I sold my dryer I have my husband put it outside in our side yard. I sold a old car in about 4 hours.
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Same here.
I sold a snowblower that worked , fellow came by, I showed him it started, let him drive it. He paid me MORE than I was asking, said it was worth it. :dance:

I always meet them outside the house with door to the house locked. If it was a small thing I might do the McD meeting thing, but so far everything has been big. Selling a car made me the most nervous, as the money involved was $1,200 and I went with the guy as he test drove it. But he was fine. :)

I guess if you are going to steal a car, steal a new one from a dealership with fake licence. :cool:
 
I agree with the eBay comments. I have done a lot of eBay since I retired, with great results. You clean out your closets, and get some good spending money.
 
The value of an item is exactly what someone is willing to pay for it - no more, no less.
 
99% of my eBay experience as buyer and seller went smoothly with no complaints.

At one point I got into "bitcoin" and the buyers turned out to be 100% fraud. Some of them requested refunds immediately, some tried to make more orders to request refunds later. Bitcoin can't be shipped back, but PayPal seemed reasonable after some wrangling. I forget if I ate some of the cost just to stop arguing over tiny amounts with PayPal.

Overall I'd say eBay has been great as both buyer and seller of hundreds of items. Just keep far away from the wilderness known as virtual currency.
 
I got burned once on eBay when a buyer forgot to change his address. I sent the item to his address of record and the post office agreed that it had been delivered. Buyer cried to eBay that I had not delivered and I ended up eating it to keep my 100% record.
 
I've sold and bought quite a bit on Craigslist. However, to sell something these days I turn first to the neighborhood group Nextdoor. Household items in particular sell very fast there. It is a great resource.
 
I manufacture and sell greenhouses. Having used craigslist almost exclusively for 14 years now I would never go any other way. I have learned to use my phone number only to avoid the " is your item still for sale" scammers. If they can't email you they can't be bothered.
The greenhouses range in price from $450 to a bit over $5000 and I get maybe two in ten that ask for a discount. I figure that by the time they get around to calling me they are hooked. I do sometimes allow $20 off for their gas to come pick up their ghse but rarely anything beyond that. I don't think that refusing a discount has ever cost me a sale.
I do also deliver a quite a few greenhouses to Northern California and Southern Oregon as that is where our new customer base is (about 300 miles one way) but always get a deposit by cc or paypal before accepting an order. I then meet up with multiple customers one day a week at our storage unit and exchange greenhouses for cash. The cash part is mentioned and agreed to several times in advance of the sale.
All in all I'd say for the price craigslist is the only way for us to go. I have just recently started having to pay $3 per listing per month as a "for sale by dealer" ad but that $3 keeps our ads from being deleted by trolls.
 
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