Anybody else irritated with Craigslist?

[scgargoyle]

I use CL a lot, and you learn what to look for. We get a ton of ads for tractors worth $20K 'selling' for $2K. There is invariably an email in the text of the ad, and almost always a woman's name @ gmail.

A couple other things really bug me. One is folks who put a couple hundred keywords in their ad that have nothing to do with the product. There's a tire dealer in the southeast that does this. I'm tempted to keep calling them and asking dumb questions. When I retire, I think that will become my hobby. :D

The other thing we get a lot of is dealers flooding the categories. There's an antique dealer here that will fill 1-1/2 pages with their ads. If you select 'by owner only', then you can't see what other dealers are selling. Again, when I retire I'm going to call them (separately) about every single ad they post.

All that being said, I buy a lot of things on CL. Many of our building materials came from CL, as well as my tractor and my old pick-up. I even got my dog on CL!

[47sawdust]

I have also bought and sold a lot of stuff on Craigslist.When selling I only will take replies by phone.Some people think I want a pen pal if I include my email.As always common sense prevails.If a deal is too good to be true it probably is.
I also do a Google search of their address when buying,if there property is trashed out then their merchandise has probably not been maintained.I suppose I am profiling and not proud of it but it is a tell.
Yes the people that flood CL with commercial ads is very annoying but if I'm gonna troll I have to take the good with the bad.CL is a cheap way to travel.If I'm snowbound and bored I can go to Oklahoma and look for a rust free vehicle or out to the Northwest to look at old skidders.

[Ljohnsaw]

I use CL a lot, and you learn what to look for. We get a ton of ads for tractors worth $20K 'selling' for $2K. There is invariably an email in the text of the ad, and almost always a woman's name @ gmail.

A couple other things really bug me. One is folks who put a couple hundred keywords in their ad that have nothing to do with the product. There's a tire dealer in the southeast that does this. I'm tempted to keep calling them and asking dumb questions. When I retire, I think that will become my hobby. :D

The other thing we get a lot of is dealers flooding the categories. There's an antique dealer here that will fill 1-1/2 pages with their ads. If you select 'by owner only', then you can't see what other dealers are selling. Again, when I retire I'm going to call them (separately) about every single ad they post.

All that being said, I buy a lot of things on CL. Many of our building materials came from CL, as well as my tractor and my old pick-up. I even got my dog on CL!

I'd like to harass call them, too, in my area. Good luck on having the time when you retire!  I'm retired 3+ years now and I have less time than ever :D

I've picked up a lot of building material for my cabin from CL as well.  I'd say 90% of the stuff I got was free (windows, insulation, propane cook range, plumbing, toilets, sinks) and the other 10% was about 10c on the dollar (rebar).

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Although I do agree that Craigslist is loaded with scammers and con artists that you quickly learn to spot with ease, I can not deny that there are many good and honest people dealing with respect and integrity with one another on a daily basis.

I have found it invaluable in developing new sales leads and steady customers for our 5 businesses. We sell everything from custom signs and banners we make to coins and bundled firewood.

On the other side of the coin, we also do a of of buying of items off of craigslist, some of which we use or keep for the businesses or for our own personal use, and some of which we turn around and resell, either as is, or with some enhancement or repair we make to the item. Our one daughter buys furniture and refinishes the pieces and makes a pretty good side income doing so.

Having said that... a lot of times you can tell the scammers if they try to get you to go to an email address such as  jenny123@gmail.com as opposed to going through the craiglist mail system. Another trick in keeping scammers and robots at bay is to spell out some portion of your phone number. Insted of listing 512-443-7889... do five 1 two-4 four 3- 7 eight eight 9

[Ljohnsaw]

Another trick in keeping scammers and robots at bay is to spell out some portion of your phone number. Instead of listing 512-443-7889... do five 1 two-4 four 3- 7 eight eight 9

I've also seen substitution with other characters: For 1, use !,l (el) and | (vertical bar), for 3, use E, for 5 use S, and zero use O (oh) or Q.  For how common it is to spell it out and such, you'd think with the effort they put into scamming, they'd put more into their robots :-\

[glassman_48]

I occasionally post my northern Michigan firewood products stuff on craigslist.  I have had a lot of sales from craigslist.  I always hated when dealers would flood craigslist day after day with say trailers for example.  Recently craigslist is charging for dealers to post ads.  3 to 5 bucks an ad, I am guessing they are trying to cut down on all the same dealers that over advertise in there.  I think I sold 3 firewood processors from craigslist this fall alone. 

[Al_Smith]

The advantage of CL from a buyers perspective is the fact you are only dealing with one person. As compared to flea bay you have to deal with the whole world buying something sight unseen like a pig in a poke .