Selling Your Computer Stuff on Craigslist in Dallas, Texas

Everyone seems to have old computer equipment sitting around collecting dust. One way to clean out the home office is to sell your old computer equipment on Craigslist. Some items, such as old 15 inch monitors, cannot be given away and should be recycled at the nearest electronics recycling facility. Other items just require the right buyer and a little bit of patience.

One Thousand Feet of Ethernet Cable

A year ago I purchased 1000 feet of Cat 5 cable, the blue Ethernet cables used to wire local area networks (LAN). The idea, at the time, was to make my own length cables the exact length that I needed so there wouldn't be cables jumbled all over the floor. That was before life got in the way and my daughter started to walk. Now I harbor no illusions that I would be cutting my own custom Ethernet cables for my house. Dallas Craigslist seemed to be the appropriate place to sell my box of cable.

Late one night I wrote an ad for my box of cable and added it to Craigslist. The ad was quickly dashed off and added to the numerous ads selling computer parts and equipment. I wondered if I should add a picture but then I thought to myself, who would want a picture of a box of cable? So I left the ad without any visual cues. Days turned into weeks and still no response from my advertisement. The box of cable sat unused in my closet and I was scratching my head over what to do with it. I decided to place the ad one more time, this time adding a photo. The picture made all the difference. Within a week I sold the box of cable for what I paid.

Giving Away Small Accessories

At the same time I posted several pieces of computer equipment for free. I had five sets of desktop speakers and several keyboards cluttering up my spare room. Free computer equipment goes quickly. In the first two hours, I had given away all five sets of speakers to different people. The speakers went to several students, a mom with 3 kids and a man who was building a computer for a low income family. Although I could have posted the free computer equipment on Freecycle, I find constant emails to be overwhelming. Instead, I just post on the Dallas version of Craigslist and I only receive emails when I have an offer.

Selling on Craigslist has been mostly positive for me. Although I get the inevitable no-shows from time to time, people show up within a reasonable amount of time for the most part. Craigslist also has anonymous email for the seller so if a response sounds off, you can ignore it completely.