Craigslist - WOW

[DwarfMaster]

I am trying to get rid of an Oak Breakfast Nook - a friend suggested Craigslist. I've never used or visited Craigslist before, but last night @ appx 11pm I placed an ad to sell my nook. This morning @ 6am, I have 2 seperate emails from people wanting to buy it Is this site for real? WOW, I'd never heard of it but apparently people watch it pretty closely.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

It's real! We have sold many, many things on craigslist.

There are some people out there who will try to rip you off though. One in particular to watch out for is someone who contacts you from far away, like another state or continent and says they will send you a money order for a lot more than you're selling the item for. they say deposit the money order, pay to ship the item then wire transfer the rest of the money to them. Well by the time you've done that their check has bounced and you are out the money you sent them, the item and whatever it cost to ship the item.

I have only seen this on items that are up for several hundred dollars though.

 

[Dashzap]

My neighbor sold two of her cars on craigslist.

Craigslist warns you to only deal locally, and be wary of people who want you to ship stuff to timbuktu.

 

[DwarfMaster]

I'm usually a pretty smart cookie

I'll take cash $$ only
Deal with locals

With furniture though, I really don't have the option of meeting in a public place - they'll have to come to my house to pick it up. So I'll just make sure it's daylight & I have someone there with me. (Just in case.....I don't want to invite any serial murders to my house.)

Anything else?

 

[OhMari]

My sons 20 & 26 use it all the time. They sell and buy usually local things. I think it is the young generations "rummage sale".

 

[cats mom]

Well, you might get a few flakes who set up appointments and then never show, or those who do show up with cash in hand... but not quite enough to pay your asking price.


Overall I've done well with Craig's List though. When we were moving we had a few things we decided not to take with us at the last minute. I priced them low and put them up on Craig's List. Everything was paid for, picked up, and gone within 24 hours of listing.

 

[kelleigh1]

I'm usually a pretty smart cookie

I'll take cash $$ only
Deal with locals

With furniture though, I really don't have the option of meeting in a public place - they'll have to come to my house to pick it up. So I'll just make sure it's daylight & I have someone there with me. (Just in case.....I don't want to invite any serial murders to my house.)

Anything else?

Very smart!

I had a friend/co-worker who was trying to sell her wedding dress and she almost got caught up in a scam, but she caught on pretty quick. It was someone a few states away who "accidently" sent way too much $$ on the money order (sick father, my mind was elsewhere, blah, blah, blah) and wanted my friend to cash it and send off the difference. Friend contacted the attorney general's office and let them deal with it.

I then instructed her to indicated "local buyers only" and cash only in her ad she wouldn't have to deal with the scammers again. Once she changed the ad, she stopped getting responses from out of state.

 

[happily single]

Very smart!

I had a friend/co-worker who was trying to sell her wedding dress and she almost got caught up in a scam, but she caught on pretty quick. It was someone a few states away who "accidently" sent way too much $$ on the money order (sick father, my mind was elsewhere, blah, blah, blah) and wanted my friend to cash it and send off the difference. Friend contacted the attorney general's office and let them deal with it.

The same thing happened to my co-worker, who was trying to sell some exercise equiptment. I couldn't understand why someone from Canada would want to pay MORE than the thing cost in a store. Sure enough he sent a Money Order for more than even the price he agreed to. But if you looked carefully at the Money Order the amount ($340.00) and the words $3,400.00) obviously didn't match. The Money Order was from Texas (I think), mailed from Florida, but the seller claimed he was from Canada. He immediately e-mailed friend asking her to refund the difference. She informed him of the disperancies and never heard from him again

 

[kelleigh1]

Yep, same thing. The words and the amount differed slightly. We actually called the bank that issued the original money order and found out that the one the buyer sent was missing a number too.

 

[kwhite1022]

We tried to sell my hubbies classic car for over a year on ebay (on and off when they had deal on the fee) decided to put it on Craiglist and just let it ride....it sold in a month! I was shocked, as we were sure that in this economy no one would be buying!!

 

[TheLittleRoo]

Good for you! Just make sure you don't show the set when you're home alone. I always tell people my husband is in law enforcement (he is) and is adamant about not letting strangers in the house, and ask them to come by in the evening when we're all home. If you don't feel comfortable saying that, you can always ask them to come by after work hours in the evening (implying you aren't around during the day).

The worst I've seen using CL is no shows, people who say they're coming by your house at a set time and just never show up. But, I've found a way to prevent even that 95% of the time! I always meet the buyers in front of a mall anchor (JC Penney) or a Marshall's and bring the item with me (then again, I'm not selling furniture!!) It seems like people feel worse about standing you up if they know you are going out of your way to meet them, than if they just rationalize that you were just sitting home waiting on them anyway...

 

[starwood]

I had a large tv unit that we managed to get in the garage. We tried to get rid of it at 2 garage sales but you needed a big truck and several strong people to move it. DH said he would put it out for garbage if we could get it to the curb. I put it up on craigslist for $10 and within an hour I had someone e-mail me. They came that evening with a small pick-up truck and took it away.

 

[HayGan]

I've had great luck with craigslist. I have sold furniture, household goods, Southwest credits and a bunch of other stuff. Most of the stuf I have sold locally but some I have shipped or sent via email (SW credits.) I even sold a few things this weekend and made another $150 for our August trip.

 

[8 Ears]

Over the weekend I put 2 items up on Craig's List for the first time. I put cash only and no returns. Was the no returns a mistake or is it a given?

Thanks for answering my newbie question


We have many more items I would like to put up but testing the waters so to speak right now.

 

[Floridagal23]

1. Make sure you specify who is responsible for delivery or pick up of the item
2. Watch out for the crazies. People will try to take advantage of you big time with requesting you meet them at crazy times or places and do not show up. Meet them outside of your home or in a public place if the item is transportable enough. And CASH ONLY!

I have had loooots of crazies trying to sell some stuff. The worst is when people e-mail you "I WANT THIS ASAP" and do not show up, return calls, etc. I am having an issue with someone who emails me for all of my advertisements (for designer stuff) and says "call me asap" - I call, no answer, no return...for 4 different advertisements now. I am trying to block their email.

 

[DMickey28]

I am a new Craigslist convert as well. We had a 36' Sony Wega TV from 2001 that we could not pay anyone to take. It weighs over 300lbs and we were so tired of moving it. Dh 'says' he listed it on Craigslist like 6+ months ago and didn't get any responses.

We were going to take it to the dump this past weekend because it takes up too much space and we don't have use for it. I decided to list it myself just to try and get something for it. I listed it for $200 and had over 5 people responding within the first 30 minutes. I sold it two days later to one of those first guys for $175. I was so proud of myself.

I am currently looking for furniture on craigslist. There is a lot of stuff all over the place. There are two really great looking couches, well couch and loveseat for $500 on there. I don't have the cash right now so I am waiting on doing that but last week I missed out on a year old microfiber couch and chaise lounge for $200.

 

[lurkernj]

We purchased a dining room set about 8 years ago at a garage sale for $175 (not very good quality, seemed like that pressed wood stuff). We recently put it out at a garage sale at my brother in laws house two weeks ago for $150 (would've taken less if someone asked), and no one even looked at it. My brother in law took pictures and put it on Craigslist that same night, the next day he came over with $160, a young couple furnishing their first home bought it! Couldn't believe it! We got to use it for 8 years for $15 !

 

[OnourwaytoWDW]

I have bought some furniture on it, sold an old van, bought a nice fish tank (with 3 fish!). I do think it's a good thing.
I was addicted for a while hunting things down, but now that I have found most I have been looking for, I just lurk here and there.

 

[DwarfMaster]

Do people usually try to negotiate the price with you when they come? Just wondering what to expect.

Honestly, I'm happy to get rid of it & would take less than what I was asking. When the new dining set arrives, this one would've been on the side of the road for anyone to take.

 

[KJF]

So far, we have used it to sell DH's old car. My neighbor buys all her kids stuff off of there.

One thing I would recommend - set up a free e-mail acct (hotmail, yahoo, etc) that will be used just for craigslist. We did get a lot of responses, so it was easier to have them all in one account, not mixed in w/ our regular messages.