Buying and Selling on Craigslist

My husband had always wanted a bird: A large bird that he could teach to talk and say all kinds of embarrassing things to entertain friends. Even before he started talking to bird breeders, he was looking at supplies for his new pet.

At one point, he bought a very large cage off Craigslist.com. I came home to find the cage sitting in our living room taking up half an entire wall and immediately looked at our then one year-old son.
"I know he can be a bear, but honestly, is he that bad we need a cage?" I asked my husband.

Apparently, he got the cage from someone desperate to sell for one reason or another for a fraction of what a cage that size would cost retail. In his mind, he had the cage, now all he needed was the bird.

After looking further into the subject, all I had to hear was that large birds can be very messy and can bite curious toddler fingers that find their way into the cage. I also was not very thrilled after hearing horror stories about birds who learned to mock the cries of children in the home very convincingly.

In favor of what was best for our child and my sanity, I had to tell my husband the bird dreams may have to be put off until our son was older. The cage went right back up on Craigslist and was sold to another very grateful buyer for a price even lower than the great price we paid for it.

By now, almost everyone has heard of Craigslist, but if you haven't, Craigslist is like a community bulletin board with listings for nearly every major city in the United States. It now even includes international cities. The site is most famous for being a very simply laid out, easy-to-read marketplace where people can list free ads for just about everything with up to four photos. It's like Ebay for the impatient.

The site works because it becomes the central marketplace for anyone who has anything to get rid of in your immediate vicinity without the cumbersome registration process. You can find anything from cars and homes to sporting equipment on Craigslist. You want it today? Chances are someone has it and you can go get it the same day. No waiting by the mailbox after waiting out a lengthy auction.

So far, the site is most popular for the buying/selling marketplace aspect, but Craigslist is also handy for many other things. Many employers save a lot of money each year posting 'help wanted' ads on Craigslist instead of using the popular job-posting sites that require hefty fees. There are few parts of Craigslist that require fees to post. The sections that do require fees are the sections to make job postings (although the fees are very light in comparison to other sites) and there is a fee to place apartment ads by brokers, but only in New York.

Other than that, the site is completely free!

Amongst other ads seen on Craigslist: reailty shows looking for contestants, musicians looking for new bandmates, classes and events offered, babysitters looking for work, clientele seeking babysitters, a 'gigs' section listing temporary employment opportunities, those seeking dates in the personals section, a forums section where users can discuss a wide variety of subjects, and a favorite guilty pleasure of mine to read: a section entitled 'Missed Encounters' which allows those who fall in love with someone at first sight from afar but never get the courage or the chance to approach the person, to post about their encounter in hopes of remedying the situation.

Craigslist is great entertainment, but its status as America's garage sale is what keeps people coming back for more.

My husband and I have shopped for vehicles on Craigslist, bought saltwater fish (the pet we agreed on after ruling out the bird), motorcycle parts, musical instruments, exercise equipment, a bed for our son, and more at great prices. Most of these things were bought from people who had to get rid of things for one reason or another and wanted to do so quickly and without having to ship it to the other side of the United States, as so often happens with Ebay.

Craigslist is a more intimate and personal way to buy than using Ebay. You often meet the seller or buyer face-to-face to exchange the items, but it also offers you the chance to look at the actual product before you buy it, something that causes quite a bit of frustration with the buying-on-blind-faith aspect of Ebay.

Meeting the seller face-to-face is often more preventative of fraudulent activity. All the sellers we have met from things we have bought have been very friendly and personable and we haven't had a bad experience yet.

In our experience with selling things, we've met nice people happy to be getting products at reasonable prices. The woman who bought the bird cage from us even sent pictures of her bird happy in his new home with very kind words and thanks.

There are some negatives, however. Craigslist buying and selling can also be dangerous. It means you need to take extra precautions. People sometimes come to your residence or even inside your home when picking up items they are buying. Obviously, this breeds concern about robbery and theft. Women should always use caution when going to a seller's home or meeting a seller to purchase a product.

There are also standards Ebay sets that work very well - such as the positive/negative rating systems put in place to identify flaky sellers /buyers. No such system exists on Craigslist. While Craigslist eliminates the annoying registration process, it also means anyone can post ads and all users' e-mails can remain completely anonymous through an e-mail redirection feature in place on the site.

That means that if you are cheated on a product, there is nothing you can do to warn others about dealing with that seller. Look over the product carefully before you buy.

There are other issues, such as purchasing large items. You can't just pay the big bucks to have it shipped to your door if you do not have a vehicle equipped to carry such things. You will almost certainly need a truck or will have to have a friend that owns a truck who doesn't mind if you call them asking for help. Most sellers don't offer to deliver the items they are selling.

As far as placing an ad on Craigslist, the process is relatively easy. You go to the section you would like to post an ad in and on the upper, right-hand corner of your screen, you click post. From there, the process is self-explanatory. You can leave your phone number in the ad for phone calls or your e-mail can be anonymously disguised to protect your account from unwanted spam. After that, you sit back and wait and make plans for potential buyers to see the product you are offering to sell. Ads do expire after pre-determined periods of time depending on your location so be sure to keep reposting your product every week until it sells.

Buying and selling on Craigslist is easy and completely hassle-free. Seeing as you don't have to worry about shipping anything and you don't even have to leave your house, it's a very convenient way of getting rid of the things you never use or just don't know what to do with...even seven foot tall bird cages. You might get more on some of your items if you sell them on Ebay or you might get less. It's a toss-up, but if you're a no-hassle type of person who doesn't want to deal with boxing things up to ship, you want to get rid of something in a hurry, or if you have something that would be too much of a pain to ship, then Craigslist may be your best bet for getting rid of unwanted items.

You may have a fortune in things you never use that could be someone else's treasure. What are you waiting for? Get to cleaning out those closets!