This topic is so juicy and sinister that it has been banned from my other blog in the Tallahassee Democrat. It is an interesting service that has virtually taken over my interest in eBay. It is called Craigslist.org. With that web page - you open up a new world of saving money and discovering hard to find items to purchase.
Unfortunately - if you do not live in a big city - Craigslist might have limited service for you. But if you live in a city like Tallahassee or Allentown - consider yourself lucky.
Simply put - Criagslist.org is a very simple - text based - database. It is completely free - no sign up fees - no insertion fees - no sharing your sales profit with company.
In my case - my base page is - http://tallahassee.craigslist.org/. When you click on this page - you see several categories to select. 99% of the time I use the "for sale" category - but there are many others to choose. There are "subcategories" like - tools - cars - furniture - household - motorcycles - electronics - CDs.
Most of the time I am buying or selling personal items. I have purchased - cars - scooters - appliances - cellphones - cameras - furniture - tickets - computers - and car parts. I have sold - cars - scooters - appliances - cellphones - cameras - furniture - tickets - computers - and car parts.
"Craig" lives in San Francisco. He started the list as a hobby. He does charge for real estate and job listings in San Francisco and New York. It has become a multi-million dollar company being run out of an old home in San Francisco. It has about 20 full-time employees - including Craig Newmark. He started it in 1995.
Here is an example of a simple sale. Suppose you want to sell a car. First your register to get a free account. They give you a logon and password. Then you select the category from the list - in this case "cars + trucks." Next you click "post" - and the layout page comes up on the screen.
On the layout page - there is a box to write the title. There is also a box to put the price. Then you type the body of the advertisement in the large box. This is where you can get very creative. Writing good ad copy is a skill onto itself - but after a few ads - you're an expert. One the best features follows - the place to select your pictures. You can upload four pictures for free from your computer.
If you know how to use HTML to layout pages - you have an even broader choice of tools to tweak your ads. You can change the type fonts - type color - type size - and even access pictures you have stored elsewhere. These pictures can then be enlarged and the number you can use is unlimited in your ad.
Then with the press of one key - your ad is published - and it can be seen all over the world. You can have people contact you by email or telephone.
99% of the time - you meet the buyer in person - let them check out the merchandise - and pay you. If you a trusting person - you can accept a check - I accept cash. If the buyer wants a receipt - you can type one on the computer.
All the rules of buying and selling are honored. You must be cautious - check out any purchased items thoroughly. "Let the buyer beware" is your motto. Whenever I am buying a large ticket item - I ask a lot of questions - and try to check out the seller by tracing warranties and I even call the dealer where the item was purchased. In my cases you can transfer the warranty to your name.
To get a good idea what the value of an item is - I often look it up on eBay or in Google.
I have bought and sold over 100 items - and most of the sales are completed with both a satisfied buyer and seller. If at anytime you feel uncomfortable - just cancel the deal and walk away. Tell the customer you changed your mind. The only hint I have had of customers being unhappy was when they later found out that I paid less for the product - cleaned it up - and sold it for more money. One fellow became very unhappy when I bought a motor home from him - drove it 40,000 miles - then cleaned it up and sold it for a few thousand more dollars than I paid for it.
Like any other sale - you are allowed to bargain for a lower price. Some folks get insulted when you only offer them $200 for an item they purchased for $1000. Veteran sellers are not insulted - they usually like to bargain the price up a bit. Because of vanity - others would rather throw something away than sell it to you for a low low price. In those cases - I smile - hand them my card with a price on the back. In many cases they call me later - when no else offers them anything. Cash speaks volumes.
Many times I buy an item I just want to "try." After I had purchased an item - and realize I do not need it - I clean it up - take some nice pictures of it - and put it back on Craigslist. Some folks would say it is a waste of time - but this is what retired guys have a lot of. I used to get paid $50 an hour - but no one is paying anything for my time now.
One time I bought a Mercedes Diesel for $2000. We drove it for 6 months. We decided to sell it. I scrubbed it from top to bottom - took 20 pictures of that car - and put it back on Craigslist. I got calls for it from as far away as California. A man from Mississippi eventually bought it for $4000. We still email each other talking about that car. He even told me he fixed the turbocharger on the car and it can cruise at over 100 miles per hour now and get 35 miles per gallon. Oh well - maybe that is one that got away from me.
One time a guy called me about a car - he didn't want to buy it. He just wanted to talk to the guy that wrote the ad. That was the ultimate compliment. We were on the phone for 20 minutes.
One time - my buddy Darrell bought a Saturn with a pushed in front end for $200. He pulled out the front end and drove it for a year. He asked me to sell it. He said I could keep everything over $1000 of the price. I scrubbed it up and marketed it. I got 40 calls for that car at $2495. The first guy drove it and bought it on the spot. He was so happy he beat all the other callers. While taking him for a test ride - I "got rubber in three gears." He turned on the CD player and out blasted some Buddy Holly tunes. He gave me a puzzled look. I said to him with a straight face, "Cracker music!" He flashed me the widest pearly white grin I ever saw. A year later the "cable guy" came to our house to service the Internet. He looked at me and smiled, "Remember me?" I didn't. It was the guy that bought the car. I asked him how it was doing. He said it was the best car he ever bought. He drove it a year and someone hit him broadside. He was okay - but the best part - the insurance company gave him $5000 for the car! That car just kept giving and giving.
I have lots of Craigslist stories including the one where I wrote a story about "Buying and Selling on Craigslist" for the Tallahassee Democrat. It appeared on their web site for an hour or so - then it mysteriously disappeared. I called the editor of the paper and asked him what happened. He said he would check into it. He called me back and said that no one erased the story.
In the next breath he said, "You know Craigslist is a very sensitive subject around here." I never brought it up again - until now.
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