Please school me on selling on CL

R Q

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Charlotte
I need to sell a couple things and don't want spammers and crap forever. Whats the best way to list an item on Craigslist?
Thanks
 
Post pics and phone number, no email. When someone calls you can tell if they are legit or kicking tires. Sometimes old school is better.
 
Be careful when meeting up to sell your item. I've been reading some horror stories about muggings. Just be smart about where you meet someone to sell your stuff. Just like anything else. If the only time they can meet is 10:30 at night and they want to meet at the corner gas station near the unlit payphone.... your Spider sense should start tingling.

Aside from that, just be honest and upfront about what you are selling. Expect to get a lot of texts if you only give your cell number unless you say in your ad NO TEXTS (in which case you may get 50% less - some people don't read)

Ive been able to sell quite a few things on CL. I sold a riding lawn mower that didn't run, my 2005 Dodge Caravan and some other things as well as have purchased some things at good deals. Take good pictures. Some people will filter out ads without pictures just to speed up searches.

I'd be cautious when you set up your ad, it will ask you to put in your address. I did that by mistake on my ad for my lawn mower. The guy showed up at my house because it gave him a map. The guy was nice, but it was a lesson learned. By the way, I must have underpriced it since he showed up within an hour of me posting and he had cash in hand. It was on NC4x4 for that price for weeks with little interest.
 
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Craigslist is good stuff. It's easy to weed out spam/time wasters with a little common sense. Put up detailed clear photos and all relevant info and it will sell. There are so many posts where there is no pic or the pic is from 30 feet away and doesn't tell you anything. There are options for hiding your email and phone number....it won't be visible in the text of the ad but will be listed under a 'contact' drop down menu.
 
I usually put in my ads that I only reply to ads from a traceable email address -- registered domain or ISP name...and all gmail/hotmail/etc mails will be ignored. That's what all the spammers use. I have a filter setup to shuffle them on off to the junk folder if they are from one of the free email hosts, and also have the word "craigslist" in the message. I've done pretty good selling, so it hasn't hindered things too much. Never put my phone number. I have done the address thing a couple of times, but use the address of a convenience store 1/2 mile from the house...that at least tells them *almost* where it is...close enough.

You will meet some interesting people selling on CL.
 
I haven't done much selling in the past 8-10 years but as for buying I know CL is awesome...

As for selling,

1. Beware!!! Do NOT put your phone number in the ad. Put it in the contacts (as mentioned)This feature was only added recently. I've heard of programs that search numbers on CL for spam / advertising. You can generically google every craigslist in a state or nation wide by keyword "craigslist" / "North Carolina Craigslist" and such. Same goes with "Craigslist text or call".
2. Alot of folk won't bother without pictures, price and complete description.
3. Take a short break after you post and then go back proof read your ad. It's so easy to make a mistype that kills the ad for once someone reads an ad, it shows up "read" and they won't go back. A fresh eye picks up so much more when proofing.
4. Delete ad immediately after item sells.
5. If item doesn't sell within 10-15 days, delete old ad and begin a new one. Don't know how it works but I think there's a feature to relist now?
6. Be nice and polite no matter unless some asswipe starts something and keep track of people you talk to. What comes around / goes around. I learnt since a very early age to never burn bridges with folk you meet and you just never know where it will take you. Remember -reverse searching is easy by using keywords such as your location with maybe something else to narrow you down from here on. I wouldn't want to piss off the CL killer... LOL
7. Don't rape with your price. If an item doesn't sell, don't know about you but my "time" has a price (I'm getting paid hourly to sit behind a computer as I type now). do your research and knock your price down every now and then. Remember, no taxes and 95% will be local.
8. Specify if you will ship or not to eliminate that.
9. If selling alot, place a unique word for everyone to search and tell them "to keyword search (word) for other items". I use my internet nickname of "Gittinwidit".

For buying: It's a great opportunity for the "horse trader" type such as me that knows the current price on a given item / items.
1. Learn the search key characters. They are your best friend.
2. If you got the time, I find my best deals by searching backwards using a slew of "-" items and weeding out what I definately "don't" want first. And use the generic catagories such as "for sale" section that searches everything. That leaves the misspellings and wrong catagory listings and such. I saw 2 news articles lately where there's been entire businesses started by using this method. And keep a log of key paths if you buy an item frequently to save time for my search will be 200 characters long by the time I begin to start reading.

Being from out-of-state when it first started up (1993-4'ish?) and working with a very small company, I've met my whole realm of friends from CL and it keeps on growing. My last full time employer when I was unemployed during the recession, a part time side work employer now I met recently (shared a job this morning) and a partner (and best friend) for my landscaping business (3 years now and growing) all came from CL. My dogs. Most my furniture. All of my building materials / and a ton of it. My vehicles. My renters. And most importantly... 6 years and growing stronger every day - My wife. :)

I started a business parting F-100's when CL was first introduced and it became such a huge job (entirely on CL and ebay) I had to quit parting after 6-7 years of it since I had a 40 hour day job (with benifits) as well at the time. I was working night and day and all weekend. I made a ton off of CL...

I've met 2 local people recently that make their entire living off of CL today and good livings at that. One guy parts cars down in Fayetteville. He's non specific on what vehicle and knows what he's doing and makes enough for 3 helpers / partners.

Everybody uses CL now days as their employer advertising. It's now one of the top rated sites for employment.
 
X2 on the people you meet. Most are perfectly normal, cool people (at least in my experience) but some really interesting charactars.
I always treat people w/ respect and have generally received the same.

When you get emails about stuff, look to see if they actually mention specifically what the item is in the email body. The spammer/scammer will say stuff like "I want the item blah blah". Ask yourself, "could this email refer to anything?" When inquiring about buying I always make it a point to specifically ask a targetted question about it, that shows them I'm both real, and serious, and their response tells me if they actually know or even have what is listed.

X2 on treating people well.
Last year we bought a couch and loveseat from a local guy, young guy and wife. Nice folks, interaction went smoothly, in fact I couldn't fit it all in my truck and had to make two trips. They were a little overpriced, but they had a baby on the way (she was quite preggers) and a little hard up for cash. Yeah, it could have been a line... but instead of lowballing them, I just paid what they asked and moved on.

Well about 6 weeks later, I had the pleasure of being pulled over for speeding. Low and behold, guess who the deputy was? Guy came up to window, looked in and got a big grin. "Hey! Oh I remember you, how are the couches?" some friendly chat, I asked about his wife and baby... he just gave me a verbal wanring and split.
Would that interaction have gone differently if I had lowballed the guy? No idea... but considering I typically get profiled as a druggie, I can't see it working in my favor.
 
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