Opinions of Craigslist

[oogieboogieman]

I'm looking for opinions for selling items on Craigslist. After much debate it's time to sell off some camera equipment.

First, let me say that my wife does not want any part of Craigslist, she has heard about too many things that have gone bad. I'm scared that I may be overlooking something and I don't want to hear the phrase, " I told you so." She perfers me to sell these items to a company like KEH, but you only get approx. half of what they will sell it for. I don't mind taking a loss, just not that much.

So every transaction I make will be cash and carry from a public place and no shipping to brother-in-law in Nigeria.

I've thought about my pricing by searching local adds and photo forums so my pricing is fair.

What am I overlooking? Any advise?

 

[ssanders79]

I would agree that meeting in a public place is a great idea especially when selling bigger ticket items. Parking lots are ok during the day as long as you are comfortable with the area. Mall food courts are good too, lots of people and if worse comes to worse there are security cameras.

 

[C&B Young]

Prepare to be frustrated by tons of lowball offers. From my experience buyers on Craigslist or Kijiji are looking for sellers to give things away. Set a fair price and don't be afraid to stick to it.

 

[Frantasmic]

Use email, perhaps a new one specifically for selling on craigslist.

If you use a telephone number, use your cell or work number. If you use a cell, learn how to block your number from being displayed on their end.

Be very specific and take pictures if you can in your ad. People are picky and the ones who know what they want, especially in used-camera gear, will appreciate your level of detail.

Attempt to deal in cash only. If they do ask about a check, get a money order or a cashiers check from them.

Expressly state that it is as is. If you have a camera store, I'd suggest meeting there, so they could have someone look at your gear if they want.

 

[C&B Young]

Use email, perhaps a new one specifically for selling on craigslist.

If you use a telephone number, use your cell or work number. If you use a cell, learn how to block your number from being displayed on their end.

Absolutely these. I'd take it even one step further and sign up for a Google Voice phone number, then sellers won't even have your actual home/cell #.

 

[We-Luv-Disney]

I tried selling a camera on craigslist last spring, it was not to great of an experience. Like mentioned before there were several very low offers. There were a few people that asked me to donate the camera to different entities, like a church or charity. Then one person wanted to send me a check for $5000 and told me to cash it and send back the difference..lol So I had lots of fun with that. I never did sell the camera on there, I ended up keeping it. But I did recently sell a lot of canon gear on ebay. It does cost extra but I was able to get what I wanted for my item. good luck with everything.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

I sell on FM Forums (http://www.FredMiranda.com) and ebay. I like Craigslist for something like a utility trailer, but I wouldn't buy electronics off it.

 

[oogieboogieman]

Thanks for the comments. I'm prepared for this to be a long process because not many folks have love for Olympus gear.

 

[WDWFigment]

I sell on Craigslist all the time and have never had an issue. Indicate in the listing that you won't respond to lowball offers, nor will you respond to scammers. I never use a telephone number, but then again, I hate talking on the phone. Create a listing with html--the photos on CL suck.

CL is generally a seller's market despite the lowball offers. People buy off CL because they're afraid to buy on eBay, so you get customers who would otherwise pay retail or buy from pawn shops. Much like a pawn shop or resale shop, it's not a true market economy, so you can get higher prices than you would on eBay.

 

[Groucho]

The nice thing about selling on CL is... it's free! So why not give it a shot?

I've not had great luck actually selling things but it's probably because they're either been things that have not been in high demand or that I haven't been willing to price low enough. I'm probably going to try putting my K100D on there soon.

I have bought a bunch of photo stuff off CL and never had a problem. Most sellers have just been regular folks, usually they don't know much about what they're selling (I'm mainly looking at older gear.) I'd probably be counted as a bargain hunter, but I generally don't email sellers and make lowball offers unless they're got something that I really want. I was even been able to return something with no problems once.

I got serious about CL after being too slow to buy the steal of the century: someone offered up a Pentax 1.7x teleconverter which autofocuses manual focus lenses. It's worth ~$350 and someone listed one for $15! After that, I worked on some systems to automatically alert me anything with a specific keyboard is put up for sale.

At the end of the day, I'd love if I could sell everything on CL. It's great for the seller - there's no eBay/PayPal fees, you get cash in your pocket, and you don't need to pack up and send your stuff anywhere - just sit back and wait for them to come to you!

 

[saturndb]

I've sold and bought many things on craigslist. I agrre with the others and it you do your homework in preparing for the sale and setting it up right, it should be fine.

 

[Frantasmic]

Another suggestion is to use Google voice, a fake phone number that you can assign to ring on your phone. You give out the fake one and never have to show your phone numbers to others.

 

[WDWFigment]

Another tip if selling your item isn't urgent is to first set the price substantially above market, and then negotiate down. Relist it slightly above market value, and then come down sligthly below market value if necessary (since below market value is still a better price since you don't pay fees).

Market value can be determined, for popular products, by averaging completed listing prices on eBay for comparable items over the last 2-3 weeks. I would want a sample of at least 10 for a good average.

It's crazy to see how ridiculous some people set prices on eBay. I've recently seen used D40s listed for $650 with only the kit lens. Do people think these things have increased in value?! They set their prices based on what they think it's worth given what they spent. "Over $300 worth of accessories!" (Accessories people undoubtedly paid $50 each for at Best Buy that they could get online for a couple bucks each). It's always funny watching these people relist over, and over, and over again, though!

 

[Experiment_626]

Market value can be determined, for popular products, by averaging completed listing prices on eBay for comparable items over the last 2-3 weeks. I would want a sample of at least 10 for a good average.

Agreed. Just make sure you're averaging completed items that actually sold. The prices of those are listed in green.

Scott

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I haven't sold anything, but I've bought a lot of my gear via Craigslist. (BTW, what are you selling? ) Never a problem whatsoever.

 

[oogieboogieman]

Thanks for all of the tips. Past couple of days have been kinda busy and only starting to mess with CL and ran into tech issues. Hoping to resolve them soon.

 

[oogieboogieman]

I haven't sold anything, but I've bought a lot of my gear via Craigslist. (BTW, what are you selling? ) Never a problem whatsoever.

I'm jumping ship!!! I will send you a PM, with my reasons.