I’ve been looking to find a replacement for my elderly Apple iBook G4 laptop, which is five years old and counting. The monitor is dim, hard drive capacity minuscule (and quite difficult to replace), battery weak, and generally quite sluggish by today’s standards. 15 to 20 seconds for Firefox to boot? You get the idea.
Anyhow, I checked out the local Craigslist computer listings to see what’s out there. A while ago, I ranted about the lack of decent furniture on CL in Cleveland; it was all either overpriced rustic Bicentennial eagle-laden Colonial crap, or overpriced floral pattered Rococo crap. Well, the computer listings in Buffalo aren’t much better. They fall into three categories.
The people who want retail price for used equipment. Here’s an example: http://buffalo.craigslist.org/sys/1732974479.html
“its still brand new used a couple of times im not much into it now just the same thing over and over again so im selling my laptop for $450 i payed $450 for it its great”
The people who ask outrageous prices for thrift store rejects. http://buffalo.craigslist.org/sys/1720171198.html
There’s also a lot of decade-old inkjet printers with asking prices just below the cost of a new printer
Obsolete crap: way too many CRT monitors, dot matrix printers, serial port flatbed scanners, pen plotters, and the like.
What’s not there? A reasonably priced MacBook or MacBook Pro. Screw it. I bought a refurb on the Apple Store site.
I just looked on NewEgg, and i can get that same netbook, brand new, with a larger hard drive, for $345.
I’ve ranted before about the morons and assholes who sell electronics on Craigslist. I think, in most cases, they know that they’re asking too much, but all it takes is one potential buyer who hasn’t done their homework and the seller can make a big score.
On a local board a woman was complaining that she wasn’t getting bites on a digital camera she had listed. Sure it was broken but somebody could probably fix it. Besides she was only asking $75 for it and she paid $140 nary a year ago. She seemed a little disheartened when I pointed out that the same (non-broken) camera was now going for $90 on amazon.
I love browsing the used shit sites, but those things make me a little wtf? too. The stuff people try to sell - that rant with the guy selling the stuff from his truck ashtray was pretty close to the mark. “Used shower curtain rings - $2.50.” Well, I can get a pack brand new from the dollar store for a buck, and save myself all the trouble of back and forth emails and the gas to drive over to your house, so while I’m a fan of “reduce, re-use, and recycle,” I’m just going to go shopping.
I feel for you. We’ve been looking for furniture on Craigslist, and while we have gotten some fabulous bargains there, some sellers are clearly delusional. A hint: if your furniture is not selling after you have posted it daily for several weeks, perhaps you need to change something.
Like perhaps if you paid $6k for your dining room set in 1973, you need to come to terms with the fact that a) much furniture produced in 1973 was butt-ugly, or at least not in line with current tastes; which means that b) nobody is going to give you $6k for your 37-year-old, butt-ugly dining room set, no matter how solid or mint-condition it may be.
I ran into a similar phenomenon while looking for bicycles awhile back:
"Bike - $700
I paid $700 for it 4 years ago and rode it every day, had tons of fun, but now I have other hobbies and I just want what I paid for it."
Uhhh, what? You want to use and abuse the hell out of a bike for 4 years for free? Never heard of depreciation, dumbass?
And then there was the time I was idly browsing the iPod Touches for sale. I wasn’t really going to buy one, but I was mildly entertaining the idea. Then I saw one for trade for art supplies. !. I had bought $300+ worth of art supplies for a class awhile before that and dropped the class, so almost everything was literally new in the package. I emailed the girl a list of what I had and asked if she wanted to make a deal, and she wrote back that she just wanted some markers and stuff. I pointed out the obvious fact that she wasn’t going to trade an iPod Touch for a few markers, so what did she want for it? She quoted me a price that was $40 above brand-new retail, and when I wtfed her, she said something about how her dog had eaten [some peripheral that cost about $40] and she had to replace it, so she was selling it for what it was actually worth (). It was fucking baffling.
Craigslist was pretty cool a few years back, but it’s really plummeted off a cliff with all the flakes, spam, scammers, overpriced junk, etc etc. I never go on there anymore.
I’m actually pretty addicted to craigslist. In fact, this thread reminded me that I hadn’t checked the furniture section in a while (just bought a new house and need some stuff to fill it up). Lo and behold,this rocking chair was located about 3 miles from my house, for $5. I’ve been wanting one just like this for a while, so I can paint it funky colors, maybe turquoise. I went and got it and now I have one! So, thanks for posting this rant.
New computers are so cheap now, I’d be pretty wary of buying them second hand.
The worst recent one I saw was for a 12 inch diagonal color television with built in VCR for $50. The VCR is broken. Ancient broken obsolete technology for $50. A week later it was reduced. I doubt they every got rid of it other than the trash.
I’ve seen stuff originally for free that is trash, where they at least in the end offer to pay someone money if they will take it. It’s never enough to dispose of it in a legal way. It’s more like the person will pick it up or $20 and dump it on a deserted road.
I love the posts in the wanted section. Recently, someone wanted the first complete Sims collection. I had a set someone had given me for christmas that I had never loaded. So I shoot off an email, complete with a link to Amazon on what they were selling for used and quoted a price of half that. “Oh, I don’t have any money. I was thinking someone had some they just didn’t want anymore.” You could have said you wanted it free in your ad, dipshit.
I think they need a “Queen for a Day” sob story begging category.
The ones that bug me are the ones where no effort went into making the ad at all.
“I have some headphones. They’re good. $40”
“Computer monitor. 3 years old. $75”
No picture, model number, even brand or basic information. It boggles me that people can’t spend literally about 45 seconds adding some basic info to it.
Sometimes I used to browse the erotic services section - not to get a hooker but just to enjoy the horrible english as a second language ads. There used to be some sort of … agency(?) that had maybe 15-20 asian girls and they’d post ads every day. And they used some sort of random [ADJECTIVE] ASIAN [VERB/NOUN] format with weird ass words like
ENJOY IMMACULATE ASIAN INFERNO
PLEASURE WITH EXPLOSIVE ASIAN GOOD TIME
SUNNY DAY ON SIDEWAYS ASIAN GAZEBOS
I looked through the adult section just now to try to find some, but apparently whoever made those ads isn’t around anymore. Maybe the apartment they were all crammed in succumbed to an EXPLOSIVE ASIAN INFERNO.
Last year, i was looking for a used bicycle, and at least half of the Craigslist ads didn’t say how many gears, or even what size the frame was, let alone more obscure information like component manufacturers, tire sizes, etc., etc. I’m not going to drag my ass out to your place to look at a bike that is 4 inches too short for me, and i’m not going to reward your laziness in placing the ad by calling you for details.
Same when i was looking for a bodyboard. If you can’t be bothered putting the length of the board in the ad, you’re not getting a call from me.
It wasn’t long ago that the twitchy bum in the reeking trenchcoat had to peddle his cartful of junk locally. Thanks to Craiglist, the whole world is his marketplace!
). It was fucking baffling.