<p>We wanted to sell my son’s saxophone – which he’d just purchased used a year ago. I thought I’d sell it back to the store that sold it to us, but they only wanted to give us about a third of what we’d paid. I decided to try to sell in on Craigs List–although I was a bit wary, having heard some horror stories about scams. Anyway, we took a few pics, wrote a description, and posted our ad (which is free), specifying we would only consider local cash transactions. By the next day, we had a response from someone who lives in our town - he came over that evening, and offered the full amount I had advertised it for. I was so grateful to have sold it so easily, I said, “that’s okay, you can have it for $50 less.” (My husband and son, not surprisingly, were ready to kill me).
And last weekend, I sold a used textbook on half.com. I’m so flush with success, I’m about to start cleaning out my attic!</p>
<p>I have sold a lot of things on Craigslist (we just finished a major move–and it was to a smaller house, too). But my favorite section of Craigslist is the free section. I swear, you could post a bag of trash for free and someone would come and take it away. It saved me so many trips to the dump!</p>
<p>I’ve great experiences too. Take pics and put on. I just make certain I am not alone when anyone comes over, and let them see me writing down their license plate number from window.</p>
<p>I got a guy to come over and very neatly take out some basement cabinets I wanted out. He was thrilled to have them, and it would have taken me all day to get them down.</p>
<p>I have had a lot of luck with Craigs list. I think there are folks who monitor it very closely. Anything priced well with pics will sell quickly… sometimes too quickly. I have to confess that twice I put an item on Craigs list and got such a rapid overwhelming response that i knew I had priced something way to cheap and told the buyer the item was no longer available. I still have both, well, my son has the guitar.</p>
<p>We sold an old car that made odd noises in twenty minutes and a lawn tractor that had the wiring all burned up within hours. Craigslist makes a lot of sense for items too big for ebay. I plan on putting my old dryer on there next.</p>
<p>Sold a car on Craigslist in 48 hours with no trouble. It was a little unnerving when I started getting emails from people and I had no idea who they were, and they wanted to come see the car. But I only had people come when DH was home with me, and the 3rd person who saw it offered to buy it. So it was all fine.</p>
<p>S2 listed his truck for sale on Craig’s List. He had quite a few calls and showed it to a couple of people but neither ended up buying it so we sold it to CarMax.</p>
<p>There was an incident in our area last week where a father and son repondeding to a Craig’s List car sale ad were robbed in the parking lot where they met the sellers.
It was a set up from the start. The supposed sellers anticipated the father woud bring money as payment (newspaper did not say if it was prearranged) so pulled a gun on him, took the money and drove off in the car that was presumably for sale.</p>
<p>My S has bought & sold a TON of stuff on Craigslist. We prefer to have him deal with it than D & he is very good at it. Has mostly had positive experiences there & also on eBay.</p>
<p>Will give the free section a try to see if it helps us get rid of some things we need to get rid of from our carport.</p>
<p>Freecycle is another good place to help repurpose things.</p>
<p>Once we had a non-running ATV to sell and I was going to put it in the Free section. H said to list it as “best offer” instead and maybe we’d get enough to go out to eat on. Well…the emails started coming and we ended up selling it for $600. Crazy.</p>
<p>My nephew got scammed on Craigslist. He bought concert tickets which turned out to be fake. What these scammers often do is offer something at a “too good to be true” price. My nephew said that everywhere else he’d seen these tickets for $150/each but the scammer was only asking $75/each. (Danger, Will Robinson!!) </p>
<p>And of course you never, ever take one of those Western Union Moneygrams or anything funky like that. I think that money orders are even a bad idea, but I’m not certain of that.</p>
<p>Just to echo most everyone on here, I have had nothing but positive experiences with CL. I use it mainly to sell old textbooks. It’s a good exchange, I get to sell my books for a lot more than the stores would pay me for them and the other person gets to buy it at a big discount.</p>
<p>used both to get rid of stuff as we renovated -</p>
<p>to avoid scams…I would request a local working phone or I wouldn’t respond…there is a lot of the Nigerian sending their agent responses to our craigslist .</p>
<p>We have had great success selling items on Craig’s List, ranging from old car manuals ($20) to a piano ($2,000). </p>
<p>But then we spend our proceeds by buying from Craig’s List too! ;)</p>
<p>I haven’t sold on it but I bought a couch from CL recently. Only cost $30 and looks like new. :)</p>
<p>When D bought a used car for grad school, I discovered the reason the newspapers are tanking, financially speaking. No one sells a car throught the newspaper any more. Everyone uses online services, such as Craig’s list.</p>
<p>I, of course, have no idea how it works…</p>
<p>S bought a great new-looking couch on CL. The seller said it had only been used about 6 months & we picked it up for S when we were in town. S was very happy tecause it fit nicely with all their other IKEA stuff & he had been eyeing the full-price couch there.</p>
<p>With furniture, do watch for bedbugs & termites; the latter is the bane of our existence in HI.</p>
<p>Just to add–I try to do the transactions when my hub is home. I also try to sell mainly to women. Although, a woman “accidently” almost walked away w/my $20 (given to her to give me change) & the item I was selling, a while back! When I mentioned it, she turned back. :-)</p>
<p>I also try to keep stuff in the garage, and sell on the driveway, esp. if it’s a big item. Not to be paranoid, but better safe…</p>
<p>But, overall, it’s been super-positive. Sold an entire room of furniture, old bikes, karate gear, lamps, pictures, exercise bike, etc. Most people are quite nice. One woman even called & told me a kids’ playset I’d posted for $15 (thinking: just take it!) was actually worth over $100! I thanked her & sold it to her for $95. :-)</p>
<p>We sell on ebay, half.com and craigslist. </p>
<p>Craigslist is good for large items. We’ve sold a lot of exercise equipment on Craigslist. With Craigslist, buyers tend to be a bit more flakey (i.e. they say they will come by and then not show up). Also, they tend to want to talk you down.</p>
<p>It is super easy to list items on half.com. I do a quick check to see what everyone else is listing their item for, and then I list my item for a few cents less. Sometimes it takes awhile for things to sell.</p>
<p>Ebay is great for items that have a “name” and for items that aren’t in high demand. I just sold a used neti pot for $8 (I was going to give it to Goodwill), an old Sharper Image Ionic Breeze air purifier for $30 and a used wetsuit for $25. I listed the wetsuit on Craigslist and didn’t receive a single nibble.</p>
<p>It is a fun way to get rid of junk and make a little extra $$.</p>
<p>I have lots of small “stuff” that would be nice to sell on ebay…but when I take into account the extra time to package and ship (which for me includes standing in line at a very slow PO), then it usually isn’t worth it. I can also donate to a charity, and claim a deduction on the value, which is usually more than what it would sell for at a garage sale. I would consider a company where you bring your items, and they list, package, and ship, all for a percentage of course. However, we have none here.</p>
<p>We’ve also tried buying through Craigs List, but often when we went to see the item, it was not in as good shape as the photo appeared, so again wasting time.</p>
<p>Favorite method of buying used “stuff” is at charity or neighborhood garage sales. Lots of items, little chasing, and fun browsing.</p>
<p>I’ve been meaning to try to sell some things through either Craigslist or Ebay but haven’t gotten around to it, too intimidated, I guess. What kind of payment do you accept on Craigslist? Cash? I have some new things, mostly men’s clothes, some odds and ends, like the Clocky, an alarm clock that rolls away-- all new or at least unused (things I found in S’s closet after he moved out–Christmas presents that he never used). Should I start on Craigslist or go straight to Ebay?</p>
<p>Fresnomom, if you sell a neti pot for $8, how do you clear any profit after packing and shipping, not to mention the time spent?</p>