How does Craigslist work?

I've got a couple of things here to sell that are too big to ship, so ebay is probably not a good idea. I've never used Craigslist, but I see that we have it here (Milwaukee).

What's the procedure with it? Do I need to set up an account? Do I have to pay to sell there? How do most buyers pay? Cash? Money order? PayPal?

Hope these are not dumb questions, but I really don't know very much about it.

You just make a post, it is a free site. You can create an account if you want, but not needed. When making the first post you enter your e-mail in and when someone is interested they click on a craigslist address which is then mapped to your actual e-mail so unless you reply to someone, they'll never know your e-mail.

I've only sold one thing on it and I asked for cash or a cashiers check. It's completely up to you as to what payment you accept. You set the terms for pick up/delivery as well.

Think of it kind of like an online garage sale.

It's just a free classified site.

You write up a listing and submit it for free. It's almost always a local pickup kinda thing.

There's no seller's fee, no costs involved at all. It is simply a way to put out your listing, not a middleman like eBay.

There's been some issues around here with people responding to, or placing ads being mugged. So I usually set up a meeting at a public place for most items. Unless it's something like a large appliance.

Click on "post to classifieds," then "personal/romance," then "sex with no strings attached (NSA)," then....







Oh. Nevermind.

LOL... You have practice at that bird?

Well you post an Item you want to sell or buy and receive 27 emails in 45 min.

7 will be Guys asking if you want to suck them off
9 will be people too stupid to be on the internet
3 will be people who have no intention of doing anything
8 will try to screw you when they show up with 45% less money than agreed.

Craigslist works like this you post an ad for free and people e-mail you if they are interested. Don't put your phone number on the site. As you will get calls from all kinds of weird people looking for a deal, or with a sob story about how they want you to donate whatever it is yoru selling because their cat needed surgery and they are broke etc.

It helps if you are selling something that a lot of people will be interested in to say the following. "I only accept cash and won't be holding this item, the first person to arrive at my door with X dollars gets to take it home with them, I do not deliver."

Mike Flynn is correct a lot of the people you get e-mail from are flakes, and need to be screened accordingly. My first sale on craigslist involved a guy saying he was coming to buy brewing stuff for about 2 weeks before I told him to just forget it.

Also if I am selling something at a decent price and have a lot of interest and someone low balls me once they arrive I tell them they are no longer allowed to buy what I am selling and that they just wasted their time driving over. I then move on to the next person on the list and see when they can show up.

In a large city like Boston there are so many people willing to buy your useless junk that you don't have to worry about not selling it, I don't know how many people use the service up in your area.

Also don't fall for the extra large cashier check in the mail and wire back the extra via monegram or western union scam that they have going.

i used it for my kid's old funiture (dressing table, crib etc) and for our bedroom set. You will get some flaky people, but I INSIST on cash and they pick up. I figure that if they can get cashiers check, then they can pay cash.

I've had great experiences with craigslist. Always setting up meetings in public places or at my house. I've never had someone try to pay in something other than cash, and cash is all I'd take anyway.

People around here at least try to get you to take less cash in the preliminary emails instead of showing up with less cash. If they did that I'd probably tell them to go home. If they asked nicely if I could drop my price I may do so depending on if I listed the item above what I wanted or not.

I've had good luck selling and buying things on craigslist, but also pitfalls. Most people flake out either for buying OR selling. Or they try the "sorry I only brought 80% of the money you asked for" I've been burned like that a few times. Never again. Don't ever hold anything for anyone, it's first come first serve.

There was only one time I went to a place, then flaked out at the last minute. I called a guy to buy a keg, and he sounded like he was muttering to someone else in the background when I got his address. I had trouble finding the place, and so I called while I was on the road to verify his address. He talked to someone off the phone, then said "it's xxxx st, wait and we'll be right there". I drove by the actual address he gave me and it was obviously an abandoned house. I just went home without stopping.

But that's only one time in many many years of using craigslist to buy stuff. I loooove browsing the free section. You can get all kinds of cool crap that way.

EvilTOJ said:

I loooove browsing the free section. You can get all kinds of cool crap that way.

Click to expand...

Slightly off topic, but I wanted to throw this out there.
Freecycle.org is a series of locally operated sites that people offer and ask for free stuff. Just recently I got a bunch of empty bottles and some kids board books... Check it out if you want.

don't let them paypal you. I had a friend sell a laptop on CL.
The buyer paypal'ed her, came and picked up the laptop, then went home and filed a claim with paypal. Since my friend couldn't produce a shipping invoice/email of pickup, she lost both the laptop and the cash.

B

I have been shopping for a used 4x4 atv on craigslist. Half of the ones I have responded to are scams. The owner just happens to be in Iraq fighting a war or in Africa feeding the hungry and. All I have to do is send them X,XXX US dollars and I can get a great deal. It used to be you could spot them because the deal was too good. Now they seem to be asking a normal price.

People on craigslist are huge flakes. I've exchanged 20 or so emails with a single person and then they never showed up. Strange. And they're retarded. I've had 2 people email me about my fish tank asking questions (about stuff in my tank, not wanting to buy it), and one person email me asking if I was willing to trade writing or editing work for it. (!?)

Unless it's something that I cannot fit in my car, I ALWAYS meet people at the grocery store down the street. I don't need someone coming in, casing my home and breaking in later. If it's something that I can't fit in the car, I have it next to the door, and HWMBO is ALWAYS home, with his gun at the ready. Can't be too careful with the freaks that browse craigslist. That said, almost anything can be sold there, and I love doing searches for "lovely," "beautiful," "vintage," and "unique." Some of the ugliest products known to man reside under those titles. Ask me, I've listed them too!