argh I hate Craigslist

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gauss Sounds like CL can be more of a "seller's game". -gauss

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.

[COcheesehead]

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.

[Lakedog]

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.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry 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.

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.

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.

[iloveyoga]

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.

[tinlizzy]

The value of an item is exactly what someone is willing to pay for it - no more, no less.

[OverThinkMuch]

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.

[travelover]

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.

[Marita40]

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.

[ghsebldr]

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.

[HillCountry]

I would say eBay offers a layer of protection for buyer.

And CL is for items to be sold locally. I sold 2 car via CL, both around 6k. Both went through smoothly.