Craigslist is awesome, I’ve found my last three apartments through there and bought and sold a bunch of stuff. Of course, I was always selling stuff people wanted…
If you’re on Facebook you should check to see if there’s an “online yard sale” type page for your area. People post things for sale with an uploaded picture and you can haggle right there in the comments or send private messages. You can also call them out publicly if they turn out to be a con artist (I saw that happen once). I’ve never had a bad experience with any of the local FB groups myself, though.
My anecdotal evidence is that eBay is better for the seller; Craigslist better for the buyer.
Of course, my CL-Love might be swayed by a recent purchase:
My iPod died. (I’m breaking into a sweat just typing that, because…* my name is digs, and I’m addicted to audiobooks. [Hi, digs]*) So I quick checked CL, found a couple of cheap nanos, and then noticed one from a month before. Called, talked to a kid who’d just gotten an iPhone and really wanted “some pizza money”.
So I met him at a pizza-by-the-slice place, and bought him and a friend a “Guacamole Nacho Steak” slice. Which upped my purchase price to $37. But even better, I was only book-less for two hours.
Not everyone bothers to itemize, I’ve heard Goodwill and SA can be picky about what they’ll accept, and I feel better about something going where it’ll definitely be appreciated vs. sitting on a sales floor for a while then getting dumpstered (my husband worked in a thrift store for a while).
But where else can you find free imitation crab meat? Having said that turning up with significantly less than the agreed price is an old scam and sucks balls. I’d be tempted to turn them away on principle alone but I understand why you didn’t after so much hassle getting rid in the first place. Maybe EBay is the way to go for smaller easily shipped items.
I’ve had nothing but good luck on Craigslist, both buying and selling. Of course, it probably helps that we live in a small-towney area, where people are generally decent. And I say that as a dyed-in-the-wool misanthropist.
When our youngest outgrew the first phase of infant paraphernalia and we were left with a collection of overpriced designer items (bassinet, swing chair, etc) my wife took to selling them via Craigslist. She priced them very attractively ($200 item new, lightly used for 4 months, sell for $70) and each person without fail mysteriously had $10 less in their pockets than the asking price when it came time to do the transaction. We just rolled our eyes and went with it and the last item or two had a “Gee, I only have X-$10” surcharge figured into the price.
On the plus side, I had an antenna tower attached to the house I was looking to be rid of. I offered it for free in my ad and specified that I needed you to tell me in detail how you planed to get a 30’ metal tower out of the ground and away from my house without damaging my house or the neighbor’s. Got a handful of yahoos who either had no plan or a one line answer and one guy who actually sounded competent. He and a buddy took that thing down lickity split and did away with it.
I get great entertainment value from cl.
Looking for a used fridge (for apt rental) I just had to magnify the pic from the overstuffed french door fridge for sale. At least 5 bottles each some upside down of mustard, dressing, catsup, pickles, olives, and asoortred botlles. , almost empty but not empty enough to rinse and recyle (aka toss in the bin). some kind of crazy can’t throw it out going on.
and the ads debunking the local restaurant corporation, denouncing and condemning their capitalist ways of hiring and firing staff.
We did find stellar renters on CL, mut’ve been my wording in the ad, so far 1 hard working young couple, a long distance middle aged trucker and an older woman with a cat, kitty is litter trained and on a leash. nice blend, so far so good -
and i do screen out those who have loads of cash but no jobs (meth cooker) or the caregiver aka grandma who is looking for rentals for offspring with no job prospects. WHy do they think I give two turds about their issues?
I know that this is a really old post, but $125 for $150 ten-year-old speakers? The world is awash with people’s old junk. High supply, unpredictable demand. I would never list anything* without being ready to part with it for half or less what I paid.
- Very large purchases and collectibles notwithstanding.
Unless stereo equipment is vintage “radio era” stuff or high end audiophile tube amps, a good rule of thumb is, start at 50% of original price. That’s if it is in excellent shape; especially speakers, because the foam surrounds deteriorate. Old accordion surround speakers can be good, but they suffer from glue dry-out and demagnetization. Bottom line= folks think their used up stuff is generally more valuable than it is.
A good measure of value is what Ebay will get you in a reasonable time. I look at the completed sales going back a few weeks … that’s what the junk is worth right now.
I recentl;y advertised some stuff on CL-got nothing but scam replies. The “advertise for RedBull” seems popular today. $600 a week for advertising on your car-just sned your name address, SS#-so the scammer can cheat you.
As far as speakers go, there’s the additional and very real issue of the drivers themselves. They’re foam or paper cones and both rot over time. I found a high end audiophile place in Goshen NY - of all places. They were able to find a guy who made new cones to original spec for my IMF Q2 Studio Monitors. I went from cracked on one side and weak on the other to amazing “new” sounding on both.
So, yeah. Collectible is all well and good but if you’re buying older audio gear, there’s a bright line. Are you dying to have that make and model regardless of functionality or do you need to have it in working order.
Drives the prices, IMHO.