Do you have good luck selling on Craigslist?

[usnuzuloose]

I have never sold on there. But I do buy a lot of stuff off of their. I have picked up stuff and go back to the same people for things that I look for. I have always met in public. And I have never ran across any issues. I have even bought stuff from people from another state.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Interesting. A former co-worker has lot of success with Craig's List but his rule is price nothing over $20. He says stuff over $20 just doesn't sell for him. All his items are things he bought at garage sales, and his other rule, never pay more than $5. He ships 30 items in a typical week.
And the Police here actually have a designated Craigslist area in their parking lot, with cameras and a license plate reader.

Most of the stuff I get is well over a hundred dollars most of the time. I picked up a piece recently that I really like and paid a hefty price.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Have never sold on craigslist and only once bought an outdoor table on CL from a nice elderly couple. If I have anything I want to get rid of, I post it on a local facebook yard sale page. There are a ton of those - different areas, specialties, etc. But be prepared to have to haggle. For the one thing we tried to sell for a larger sum (older generation iPad with larger memory for about $200) we got many offers to barter or accept trades. So it's a giant hassle and may not be worth your time for smaller ticket items. So now if we want to get rid of things, we donate them or offer them up for free on those facebook yard sale sites. People come out of the woodwork for free stuff.

What about selling on Ebay if the items are smaller and can be shipped?

 

[Albort]

Craigslist seems to be fading... i was using it for awhile with finding roommates... I heard its facebook groups are the new popular thing to sell stuff on now... i used to use pennysaverusa but thats also not good anymore either...

 

[prprincess]

I haven't had any luck. Like a previous poster mentioned, everyone wanted to barter or when they showed up to view the items, they'd try to cut my price in half. I gave up.

 

[Poohlove]

Well, for every 10 ads, there's one that's legit too.

1 out of 20 if looking at vehicles

 

[Christine]

Well, you get what you pay for when you advertise a job on Craigslist. I've never counted it as a trustworthy employment service, careerbuilder and monster are there for a reason, lol. I imagine that the response you mentioned is one of the nicer ones you received, lol.

My son got his part-time job through Craigslist. My old physical therapy business used to advertise for their front desk/admin positions help on Craigslist. They did tell me that, for businesses, it is not free to advertise.

 

[mnrose]

1 out of 20 if looking at vehicles

No kidding. We were recently in the market for a solid used car (to give to my kids). I narrowed it down to specific makes, models, years and prices. You'd get a TON of hits. So, I narrowed further and said "only clean title" and "owner" (no dealer) sales only. I then bought a subscription to one of those thing that allows you to trace the VIN or license number to get the history on the car. The vast majority of the cars listed were NOT "clean" title (salvage and rebuilds were being "sold" as clean), and were from so-called "curbstone" dealers (look it up if you don't know what that is). It was obnoxious. Despite looking every day, there were only a small handful (as in 2 or 3) over the course of a month that were legit by owner vehicles and those, of course, sold in about 2 seconds. Most people just lied through their teeth about the cars. We eventually gave up that route and bought from a real dealer. Sigh.

 

[SMD]

Well, you get what you pay for when you advertise a job on Craigslist. I've never counted it as a trustworthy employment service, careerbuilder and monster are there for a reason, lol. I imagine that the response you mentioned is one of the nicer ones you received, lol.

I get so much spam on Monster. Mostly it's people trying to recruit me for MLMs. I can have a job for a low down payment of $29.99. A lot of jobs on Craigslist are listed elsewhere. It's been awhile, but I've found positions on there and then applied through the company website. I like to look at job and apartment listings every so often, because you tend to see the same ones over and over again. If I see one of those listings, even on another site when I am looking, I'll be glad to know that they're either constantly recruiting but not necessarily filling or they have really high turnover.

 

[RedAngie]

No, I never bought or sold on Craigslist. A few times I sold some items on a local "yard sale" website. My mother had a few never used or used-once small appliances, like a bread maker or hot air popcorn maker, still in their boxes.

In general, I don't have the inclination to do business that way.

 

[Poohlove]

No kidding. We were recently in the market for a solid used car (to give to my kids). I narrowed it down to specific makes, models, years and prices. You'd get a TON of hits. So, I narrowed further and said "only clean title" and "owner" (no dealer) sales only. I then bought a subscription to one of those thing that allows you to trace the VIN or license number to get the history on the car. The vast majority of the cars listed were NOT "clean" title (salvage and rebuilds were being "sold" as clean), and were from so-called "curbstone" dealers (look it up if you don't know what that is). It was obnoxious. Despite looking every day, there were only a small handful (as in 2 or 3) over the course of a month that were legit by owner vehicles and those, of course, sold in about 2 seconds. Most people just lied through their teeth about the cars. We eventually gave up that route and bought from a real dealer. Sigh.

We looked for months, not just on CL, for a car for my son. I couldn't believe the bottom feeders. There were dealers representing themselves as private owners, I would go to look at the vehicle and it's at a buy here pay here place or a "family members" dealership. I had two people harassing me after I told them I wasn't interested in the car. One guy was calling me all kinds of names, I got a lesson that weekend. I could understand if I were screwing them around but all I did was ask a couple of questions about things like mileage and motors and it opened Pandora'S box.

We did finally find someone on CL who we bought from and we ended up talking to him for about an hour comparing CL horror stories.

 

[ZuZugal]

I have bought and sold MANY items on Craigslist. Over the past 2 years I have sold 3 cars and those were some of the easiest sales because I took many pictures and posted in detail.

Lots of good info already on this thread; here is my 2 cents:

• Take GOOD pictures for your post. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you are taking a picture of a couch, do not have Fido on the couch, or your toddler with a sippy cup. Just not good sense. People who do not post picutres at all do not get many replies, and bad pictures don't help either.

• Price it right. Check other listings for similar items. Be specific in your post whether or not your asking price is "firm". I always list "no trades" as well. Be prepared for people to offer you less money when they show up; know your bottom dollar.

• Give as much information about the item that you can. If you don't give measurements someone will ask you for that info. If you have 2 like items in the photo is your price for one or both? How old is it?

• Do not reply to vague/off topic/spam type emails. You will be able to pick them out right away.

• Small items, meet somewhere in public. Police stations are great. Large items; move them to your garage or driveway and try to have someone else at home with you when showing something. Do not let anyone in your house for any reason.

I personally don't list anything that isn't worth at least $50. It seems the lower priced items take too long to sell and people have the "garage sale" mentality and want it for half of your listing price.

Good luck!!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We have bought and sold pretty much everything on CL, except for a house. However we also bought and sold via Auto Trader and the newspaper before the computer ever existed. So it is not anything "new" to us.

I would say there is an art to it. Haggling is key.

 

[dreiwhit]

I sold my wife's old car on Craigslist back in 2007. It sold in less than 1 week.

 

[Patch'sD]

When we moved had a yard sale. Most folks wanted to pay next to nothing for everything. Anything I didn't sell, I posted on CL and sold everything. Treadmill, AB Cruncher, Water Cooker, Drill Press. All went, Clark shoes and coach bags did not.

 

[mom2rtk]

I've sold a couple camera lenses on Craigs List. If I'm firm on my price, I put that in the listing. If I won't barter, I put that in the listing as well. Worked out great. I got a little more than the going rate on Ebay and didn't have to pay their crazy high fees.

 

[pixiemomma]

I've sold two big items, a car and a stacked washer/dryer. There were a few spammers (think Nigerian spoof emails) but I had legitimate, nice buyers within 5 days. Maybe I got lucky.

 

[klmall]

I wanted to agree with earlier posters and CL job listings. The last place I worked for had a federal contract clause that required advertizing for our temporary jobs in places such as CL.

When I headed the Hiring phase of the contract one year we hated to field calls from CL people. They didn't read the ad; didn't follow instructions to apply; assumed the temp job would lead to permanent positions and so on. Not that applicants from other sources were always different but....

The company always did applicant and hiring analysis and very rarely did someone recruited through CL get hired and get acceptable evaluations.

My favorite CL applicant was a plumber in Detroit who spent 35 minutes trying to convince me that he could administer national exams to public school students in grades 4, 8 and 12. I could barely understand his speech and he insisted that students would gladly listen to his stories during exam breaks!