Craigslist: A short success story

Craigslist.org has gotten a lot of good and a lot of bad press. Being a completely open, unregulated advertising and buy/sell classified ads site has it's drawbacks and it's advantages. In my personal experience I have had mixed experiences but largely a successful endeavor.

This past weekend I sold a stove on craigslist. I listed it almost 3 weeks before hand and got a few responses. Some didn't write back a second time and others changed their minds. I finally got a nice lady truly interested in the stove and she came with family to pick it up Sunday. That put me $350 ahead!

Before this past weekend I had success selling and iPod touch that I got as gift. I didn't really want or need it and decided to try local to avoid ebay fees and shipping hassles. It worked out well and I sold to a guy who really wanted it at a fair price. We both won!

I also would like to add that my current job of 3+ years I landed off of craigslist in 2007. In fact when I was job searching in 2007 I had 2 job offers and they were both from craigslist. I never got any other offers or even contact from any of the other job sites I used.

The downside of craigslist is the hordes of scammers, cheapskates, and all out spam that comes with being an open site. It is pretty easy to see and filter out most of the junk. I usually stick to the job boards and classifieds to sell stuff every now and then. It also happens to be a good place to find focus groups if you live in a large metro area. The best rule for craigslist applies to everything: If it sounds to good to be true then it probably is.