My experience on Craigslist free (or near free) stuff ...

[NW-Bound]

I just put the stuff in front at our other house on a busy road. If it contains various items of questionable quality, the sign reads - Free Must Take All. This strategy hasn't failed yet...

One time, walking around the neighborhood, I saw a similar sign posted on a CRT TV, with a bottle of wine on top of the TV as a bribe.

Next day, the bottle was gone, but the TV remained.

 

[athena53]

My favorite way of getting rid of stuff I no longer need, if it's too bulky or not valuable enough to sell on-line, is Free Stuff on Craigslist. I live alone so I don't want people knocking on the door, and I don't need the money. I DO answer e-mails asking if the item is gone yet. I live on a cul-de-sac so ordinarily not much traffic. Lessons learned:

1. Do not hold items aside for someone with a good story- most don't show up. Once I did put an item out early on request and when someone else snatched it up first, the requestor sent ME a nasty e-mail. (The item was a slightly used cane.)


2. Put it out and then list it. I used to say, "item will be at the end of the driveway before 9 AM tomorrow morning..." and people would show up early. One guy showed up at my door shortly after I listed a bunch of vinyl LPs I was planning on putting out the next morning.


3. Generally the first person to show up grabs everything even though they may be totally disparate items from 6 listings. I've made this work to my advantage by including things too trivial to list separately with the rest of the stuff. Someday I gotta go to some local flea markets and see if I recognize anything!

 

[Bill55AZ]

Not much action on CL in rural areas, but I do live on a busy street so I use a FREE sign for good/useable items. If that doesn't work, I put a high price on it and it gets stolen...

 

[powerplay]

I recently joined my local Buy Nothing group on FB and have offered a few things on it. Seems to work well and is very local. Next Door is also pretty good and local. Some things it's just easiest to put them by the street with a FREE sign and I love how they disappear so quickly. Other things I donate to GW or my favorite animal charity. It's a bigger hassle to try to sell things or have a garage sale so I don't.

 

[robnplunder]

Most free stuff I've seen are CRT TVs and no one seems to take them. Some even offer money to take it away. Most of those TVs work fine. With TV price dropping over the years and the advent of 4k TVs, I now see free LCD/LED tvs on free list. They are gone almost immediately.

One I am tempted to convince DW to get it free is a piano. There are some good ones but I can't pull the trigger as it goes against our effort to downsize.

I've just got whole bunch of electronic stuff for my cave (half of the garage). They were offered free but I pay some money anyway. They happily took it. Everyone was happy with the "deal."

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We received a big screen for free from Nextdoor that works fine. Over 6 months to a year, I think if I needed to I could actually furnish a house with just the free items on our Nextdoor group, including working appliances. People give away all sorts of pretty nice furniture, household items and sometimes working appliances daily on there.

Some of the more boutique like thrift shops in our area are very good for bargains, too. The other week I bought a couple of signed prints in nice frames with mats for $2.50 each. They still had the gallery tags on the back with a $80 price tag each from years ago, so with inflation a gallery might price them even more today.

 

[zinger1457]

I just remodeled my bathroom, replaced the double vanity (marble top) and big mirror sitting over it. Twenty years old but still in decent shape, listed it on CL for $150 hoping for a quick sell, just wanted to get rid of it. Someone picked it up the next day. I've had pretty good luck with CL the few times I've listed stuff for sell.

 

[6miths]

We live on a pretty busy road so putting things out front works very well.

 

[NW-Bound]

... There are definitely good deals to be had, much better than you can get stuff from EBay. E.g, I've bought a quad core PC for $25, a decent receiver for $15, etc.. Most people I've dealt with are nice but be cautious nontheless...

That stirs up my interest, so I went surfing the local Craigslist listing to see what's out there.

Nothing that good here. Saw a listing for a side panel of some unknown desktop case for $10. Really? Saw a front panel for some Dell or HP desktop for $15. Hah!

Do people really fix up their desktop case, like car body shops buying car body parts? Strange...

 

[robnplunder]

Do people really fix up their desktop case, like car body shops buying car body parts? Strange...

If you wait long enough, good stuff will show up. So, be patient, grasshopper.


I did fix few PCs for fun. For example, I exchanged 3 old disks from my dead PCs with a quad core PC with a bad power supply fan noise. The noise was not acceptable and I replaced it one of the dead PC ones. Now, I have a pretty good PC that only cost me 3 dead drives.

 

[audreyh1]

There have been a few times when we have tried giving things away-to no avail. A working fridge, then an older upright freezer, and a good piano.

In all three cases we decided to list for a price. I think we sold the fridge and the freezer for $80. each. Both sold immediately. Our goal was just get shut of them and not have pay to have them removed.

The piano took a little longer but it sold. We thought that we had successfully given it away three times. Always fell through. Put it up over Chrismas. Got one phone call, a viewing, and voila it was gone the next day.

I suspect that some people think that a give away means useless junk. That is why DW suggesting we put a price on these items. Not for the money but rather to avoid the expense and bother of disposing of them. Worked like a charm all three times.

Yes, I think that’s true. We’ve done the same.

 

[audreyh1]

When we moved cross country, we gave away a lot of furniture. It was very frustrating - people would show up by themselves and expect me to carry heavy stuff down a flight of stairs - in spite of being told ahead of time that they'd have to move it. They'd show up with tiny cars for big pieces of furniture. They'd come with not even a piece of rope or a blanket to secure / protect things while moving.


For day-to-day getting rid of junk, I found listing the item for a dollar beats listing it in the free section. That way, people really want the item as opposed to simply claiming it because it is free. Also, fewer people claimed it, but then failed to show up requiring me to relist it. Living rural, I can't just put things on the side of the road.

We had Salvation Army come by and pick up some of the simpler stuff - nice bookshelves, kitchen shelving,..... I think we called and gave them a description.

The nicer furniture we worked with a local used furniture store that worked on consignment. When they came to pick it up, they made us an offer. We took it.

 

[John Galt III]

I've had 95% good experiences with Craigslist. Sold a lot of my parents' stuff. It's true some stuff doesn't sell at all, though. And yes, folks say they will come and get something for free, then never show up.

 

[SumDay]

If I am giving something away I put it outside with a sign and put it on CL but I certainly don’t respond to questions.

Ditto, I just turn the email function off. I've had people ask me to deliver it (really, it's free?) or want me to move the item back into my garage until they get off work, or take more pictures, etc.

Either they want it, or they don't.

It's far less hassle to take it to Good Will or Salvation Army, unless it just too unwieldy for us to get in the truck.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Sum, people have a lot of nerve.

 

[Breedlove]

Love Craigslist for selling and buying ! also free stuff is great.

 

[Bill55AZ]

I've had 95% good experiences with Craigslist. Sold a lot of my parents' stuff. It's true some stuff doesn't sell at all, though. And yes, folks say they will come and get something for free, then never show up.

I helped the widow next door dispose of a shed by offering it for free and several people wanted us to hold it for them, and then didn't show. So we made prospective "buyers" pay a refundable deposit. Made $50....

 

[NW-Bound]

That stirs up my interest, so I went surfing the local Craigslist listing to see what's out there.

Nothing that good here. Saw a listing for a side panel of some unknown desktop case for $10. Really? Saw a front panel for some Dell or HP desktop for $15. Hah!

Do people really fix up their desktop case, like car body shops buying car body parts? Strange...

If you wait long enough, good stuff will show up. So, be patient, grasshopper.

I did fix few PCs for fun. For example, I exchanged 3 old disks from my dead PCs with a quad core PC with a bad power supply fan noise. The noise was not acceptable and I replaced it one of the dead PC ones. Now, I have a pretty good PC that only cost me 3 dead drives.

I still have a bit less than 1 dozen PC desktop cases, and lots of HDD's, power supplies, keyboards, etc...

If I see a motherboard with a quad-core CPU for a few bucks, my hoarding tendency may be tempted. A case side panel for $10? Hah!

 

[Sunset]

We put a large storage container (like Rubbermaid) with a bunch of wire hangers out with a free sign. A lady stopped to pick it up, and just dumped the hangers on our lawn. Unfortunately for her, I happened to be in the garage when she did it, and I told her in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t have the container if she didn’t take the hangers too. ‘How would you like it if someone dumped things in your front yard?’ She was embarrassed and took them, (my) mission accomplished.

My neighbor just tried to give away a Rubbermaid container of stuff. I seriously thought about taking it, throwing the contents into my garbage and keeping the container.
I don't know why he didn't use a box.
Instead the garbage collection came along and garbaged it all.

 

[John Galt III]

My neighbor just tried to give away a Rubbermaid container of stuff. I seriously thought about taking it, throwing the contents into my garbage and keeping the container.
I don't know why he didn't use a box.
Instead the garbage collection came along and garbaged it all.

When my parents were moving, the garbage men would take some of the stuff and put it inside the front cab of the garbage truck, to keep. We were their favorite stop, maybe!

 

[travelover]

When my parents were moving, the garbage men would take some of the stuff and put it inside the front cab of the garbage truck, to keep. We were their favorite stop, maybe!

I heard second hand about a garbage collector that died and they found his entire garage packed to the roof with "free stuff". I can see it happening.

 

[aja8888]

You have a daily ROMEO meeting? Wow...

Yes, and that's not unusual these days.

Our group meetup is daily at a local Burger King and there could be up to a dozen folks who show up. This group has been meeting together for about 10 years. Attendees come and go as would be expected, but there is a core group of guys who have been there since this meetup started.

Our members include (all retired) oil company executives, insurance sales business owners, a postman, IT professional, a construction company owner, me, and a few others who were professionals in other areas. The local BK owner attends and he has six operating stores. We spend about two hours there daily. On occasion, we set a lunch get together at a new eating venue in town when one shows up. Some of the current members are lifelong friends living in the area since the 1960's.

The nice thing about a daily meetup is it gets me (and us guys) out of the house around 7:30 AM and gives our DW's the 2+ hours they need to "get ready" for the day.

BTW, none of the guys in the group are introverts, or at least they don't exhibit that trait. If they were, they wouldn't last long.

Warning: Daily ROMEO meetups are not for everybody!

 

[Sue J]

In 2011 our elderly neighbors moved and gifted us their snowblower. We parked it in the garage where it took up a lot of space. DH used it maybe twice in the last 7 years. It worked but DH found it easier to just shovel.

So last week we put it out with the trash, knowing that the pickers will be browsing for stuff before pickup. Within 10 minutes a man in a nice minivan stopped to look at it. His vehicle was already close to full with other pickings so he folded the handle down and lifted this thing into his front seat!

I gave him a nice wave before he left.

 

[Breedlove]

MY DW has worked her entire life for a Mega Garbage company . In the old days a customer would call her company for a heavy haul . A heavy haul could be furniture , appliances or just something that could not be picked up by a regular route truck . They would post it on a bulletin board in her company and some of us would go out and pick stuff up . Some people buy their loved ones new stuff just because . We furnished a house with this stuff . And much of the stuff from the wealthy neighborhoods were better then we could ever afford.

 

[Clone]

We furnished a house with this stuff . And much of the stuff from the wealthy neighborhoods were better then we could ever afford.

I knew a carpenter who was building a house for himself. He would work remodeling jobs and often would salvage materials to use himself. There are a lot of remodels where good cabinets, doors, and fixtures would just be thrown out. A lot of these were in very good condition, and he would repurpose them.


I also had a co-worker who relocated back to the town where I worked my whole career. He said that it was a shame that the folks that were selling the house that he bought put in new carpeting, because his wife was going to tear it all out for a different color scheme. It was not the cheap stuff either.