How successful have you been buying and selling on

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Craigslist?

i been cleaning up stuff and listed some items at about 1/2 the new price. no response. trying to figure out what i am doing wrong So how succesful have you been on craigslist buying and selling.
 
Never sold on Craigslist but bought a few things. I think putting some keywords at the bottom helps. Like if selling Mobil 1 oil, just write:
Keywords: castrol, pennzoil, chevron, Havoline, valvoline, engine, 5w-30, 0w-20, 5w-20, etc.
 
Out of the 100 or so listings I've put on CL in the past few years, I've probably sold at least 85 of them at my asking price. The remaining items didn't sell and went to Goodwill or I tossed the item in the trash.

If you keep stuff in good condition and have the original box/manuals/etc then you can usually fetch around $10 below the current online/big box retailer price. For example, I had an old steel gun cabinet that I bought in 2010 for $90 at Academy. Nothing too special, but I kept it in decent shape. Sold it last year on CL for $70 even though you could buy the exact same one brand new at Academy for $85 + tax.

So in 7 years of ownership, it ended up costing me $20 or roughly $2.85/year.

People on CL seem to fall into 2 categories:

- Willing to pay for the item, but you have to prove that it's in excellent/new condition.
- Only willing to buy it for pennies on the dollar, but these same people usually don't try buying like-new items (they're junk collectors)
 
You can't just list an item for 1/2 price. That doesn't really mean anything. I've bought ipod touch's on Craigslist for $40, they listed for $200. You have to research the market, if everyone is selling at 1/3 of list, then 1/2 is too high. I always look at the existing ads and ignore the high priced ones. Those are the ones that don't sell and sit there forever. Basically whatever price you come up with, discount an extra 5-20% to account for seller bias. Then it just sells for the asking price and you don't get hagglers. When I get them, I just tell them to call me next week if I still have it. Pretty much whatever I want to sell is gone within a week and I never hold anything for anybody, first to show up with the cash gets it.
 
My experience selling has been poor. You accept an offer for your product and make arrangements to meet with the buyer either at a public place where both parties are comfortable or even at my home. Then they don't show up. This is just one example.
 
Kijiji is more popular up in Canada. Regardless here are my tips which may help your item sell faster.

I find the best way to sell stuff is to post it on a Thursday/Friday night. People get paid at the end of the week, so they have the money to burn. Take a few quality pics of the items. Ask a reasonable price and it should sell.

If it's something that's an indoor item I'll mention from a pet free and smoke free home.
 
Listing at 1/2 price makes you look like a scammer. List for full new retail, FIRM, like everyone else.
 
I've sold alot on CL and this is what works for me. First pick an area close to your place to list it. Nobody's gonna travel hundreds of miles for a $10 tool. List what the items are correctly, give as much info about the item that you can. Take good close up pictures of the items. Separate them. Don't show it in a big pile.Do some comp work to be sure your price is in the ballpark for what others are asking. relist it after 2 days, otherwise it gets buried in the newer listings. Be available to show it. If you can only show it an weekends, state that in the post. Last be ready to bargain, everyone will offer you less then what your asking. Don't get insulted, that's what someone is willing to pay for it. Be ready with counter offer prices before the buyers even show up. Remember , your trying to sell this stuff not hold onto it forever.,,
 
I tend to list things for a little more than I would pay, knowing I will come down some in price. I have been pretty successful in selling things over the years.
Most recent sale was an 8 gig external HDD that was brand new. Retail was $160. Actual price in stores was ~ $145. I was asking 125 and sold it for $110. Made a time and place to meet at (local Whataburger is where I usually meet people), guy was there on time and paid what we agreed on.
Almost identical story with an X-box I sold. Even sold a 4 year old used battery for $20. Completely upfront about it (still held a charge and started my truck, just old and would only hold a 12.3v max charge). Guy needed a larger battery for some electrical hobby, using primarily as a capacitor type use.

A big part of it is location, some areas are better than others.

My buying experience has not been as good, sellers just not showing up, or show up with something totally different than what was posted, or suddenly changing price higher.
 
We have Kijiji here in Canada. I HATE selling items on there. Every idiot is just trying to lowball you. Get so many "What's your lowest price?". Whenever I get a dumb question like that, I always reply with an answer higher than my original price. Then watch their pea brains explode.

I have sold quite a few items on there though.
 
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If you are getting no response, not even fake accounts or scammers you probably don't have a well worded ad and it's not showing up in search results.

If selling something like a string trimmer, also include the words weed whacker weed eater. When I listed my mazdaspeed6 I got no hits in the first few days but when I re listed my mazdaspeed6 mazda speed6 mazda speed 6 i got multiple hits in the next few days and sold the car in 2 weeks. It's all about how you word the ad to hit peoples search terms.
 
Meh.

The last guy left me not wanting to deal with it for a while.

Had an item for $100 and I was going to throw in some additional stuff for free if he was interested. Asked if one of the free items functioned, I said not sure... havent plugged it in a 10+ years. He then was going to offer me $50 if said "free" item didnt function. It was a screaming deal for $100 and he knew it.

He even tried paying the $50 during the exchange.
 
CL has been great. For stuff too big or heavy for shipping on ebay or giving used oil away (I get rid of it when I have 50 gallons) its the best.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Meh.

The last guy left me not wanting to deal with it for a while.

Had an item for $100 and I was going to throw in some additional stuff for free if he was interested. Asked if one of the free items functioned, I said not sure... havent plugged it in a 10+ years. He then was going to offer me $50 if said "free" item didnt function. It was a screaming deal for $100 and he knew it.

He even tried paying the $50 during the exchange.


See, these are the kinds of idiots you get. Gah!
 
We have sold many things on Craigslist and have had good results. Sold my wife's 2006 Honda Civic within 45 minutes of posting on CL.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
We have Kijiji here in Canada. I HATE selling items on there. Every idiot is just trying to lowball you. Get so many "What's your lowest price?". Whenever I get a dumb question like that, I always reply with an answer higher than my original price. Then watch their pea brains explode.

I have sold quite a few items on there though.

It usually works pretty well. When I get a super low offer I just reply that I'll wait to see if I get a better one. I did waste half an hour of my time after work to go look at some snow tires. He took pics of the best one and the rest were down to 5/32... So I make sure I don't drive too far to look at anything.
I picked up a nice pair of skis a couple weeks ago, he priced them fair and they were in great shape and he even threw in the matching poles.
 
Craigslist is dead.... Compared to Facebook Yardsale.


My wife makes about $500 or so a month buying at thrift stores and actual yard sales or flea markets and posting them on facebook. Most everything she lists sells in a day or less.


Facebook also has Marketplace which is like Ebay sort of but free.

I have sold everything that i thought was junk from used tires to old tools on Facebook.
 
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