Computer Search Frustration (Craigslist)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

What the hell is with these idiots selling computers on Craigslist? They put such little effort into the description I can’t for the life me believe they will ever sell. I can only assume they bought the thing with as little knowledge as they are are now trying to sell it with.

Titles like this…

dell dimension 8200 - $175

Inside you find…

175 or best offer

That is it. Can’t they at the very least add some sort of information.

Then there is this one. Title reads…

GATEWAY LAPTOP - $550

And inside…

120GB HARDDRIVE 3GB MEMORY ,BUILT IN WEB CAM,DVD BURNER, COLOR IS RED,LIKE NEW, USED ONLY A COUPLE HOURS

Well at least there is some information. The fact that is it red will sell this baby. I don’t even know why I opened this as it is out of my price range anyway.

Then we go on to this one…

Full Gateway Computer System for Sale

Inside we find…

**System includes:

Gateway hard drive Intel Pentium Processor, Windows XP, Restoration disks
Standard Monitor (not flat screen)
HP Desktop color printer
Keyboard
2 Speakers
Mouse
$250 or best offer**

Uh a little help here. Ghz?, GIG? RAM? CD? DVD? USB? Any actual specs might help a tad.

I am so frustrated. I want to get a decent used system in my price range but I am ready to poke my eyeballs out looking at ads like this.

I know there is more of a selection on ebay but the shipping costs put me over the top of my budget. I know there are refurbished ones out there but again they are more expensive that I want to spend. I have even looked in the local paper and I got ads that tell me they have a black and grey tower for $100. Am I suppose to hold the ad to my head and the specifcations will meld into my brain.

I just want to find a decent used computer for about $250 bucks and I can’t seem to find one. :mad:

2

Yeah, they probably don’t know any of those things. Almost everyone has a computer now, and the vast majority of them don’t understand them.

But this problem is not limited to computers on craigslist. Almost everything is written up so as to convey the littlest information possible. Looking for cars is infuriating. So many ads look something like

Great little car - LOW MILES!!! $4500 obo

And inside

99 civic runs great ive had it about a year and ill sure miss to see it go $4500 obo

No pictures, no milage listed, no VIN, no style, no color, no punctuation. There’s sometimes detailed information about the type of stereo system (cool tunes with a HK 21002 model surround and thumpers), or some totally unimportant work they’ve done (replaced the right rearview mirror and the drivers side floor mats a while ago).

And don’t get me started on the people who continue to use strange abbreviations of words in ads. I want to grab them by the neck and shake them while screaming “It’s not a newspaper! You don’t have to pay by the character!”