Although Markdown Mom is relatively a new fan of Craigslist, having not had this service available in her area until recently, nonetheless there are a few insights she has garnered from using this service.

• A great site for selling items locally or statewide. This allows for flexibility in your customer base. Oftentimes, smaller cities or towns do not have the pool of customers to get the response you want. Depending on the size of your state, a seller can list an item(s) locally or in the nearest largest city that can increase the amount of money realized from its sale.

• As a seller you must be prepared to answer phone calls or emails, this can produce a deluge of inquiries depending upon the popularity of the item and the asking price. Unlike Ebay, this will take up your time and most, not all, inquiries may not be productive, and even with more serious inquiries, “no shows.” Remember there is no buffer between the seller and buyer, these are one-to-one deals. To limit the number of calls, be sure to give as much description as possible.
• As a buyer, if you are looking for a specific item you can either list a “wanted item” in the category that item would be placed or in the “Wanted” category on Craigslist. Markdown Mom recommends doing both.
• Check items for sale once a day and if interested respond quickly, time is of the essence, if you really want to get to the bargain before others. Craigslist for the bargain hunter is much like attending an estate sale or a good garage or yard sale, the early bird catches the worm.
• If you are a seller, list everything like size, be specific and if necessary take measurements, condition, flaws especially if you don’t provide a photo–you can never give the buyer too much information. Include your email or phone number (times available to take calls). Markdown Mom prefers email since it allows seller more control as to his/her time allocation to this endeavor.
• PROVIDE PHOTOS. Although you can still try to sell item without it, a picture as they say is worth a thousand words especially since you are competing with auction sites, online sellers, all of whom provide photos. Don’t have a digital camera? Ask a friend, remember sites like Craigslist are taking the place of Ebay online stores that use to do this for you at a percentage of the sale.
• Seller be sure to specify means of payment, cash and money orders preferable, local checks with ID is up to you.
• Find an item that you wanted, but missed out on? Don’t hesitate to inquire on Craiglist as to possibly of purchasing it from the party that bought it off of Craigslist. You won’t get the bargain he/she did, but if you really want it you can negotiate the price provided that buyer is open to reselling. Some bargains are picked up by dealers with the sole intention of reselling. Since you know what they bought it for you know where to start the bidding price, but allow for a decent profit. Unless this is one of a kind, expect that the most to pay for it is 2½ times what they paid.
• This is also a good place to find FREE items, or to list items for FREE. Sometimes the owner just wants to get rid of the item for a number of reasons: downsizing, redecorating, or declutter. FREE does not always mean junk. If you are handy at refinishing, repairing, reupholstering, or trying to help out a friend who is in need, don’t pass this by.
• Make sure that you can get the item home. Some sellers will offer to deliver for an extra fee and Craigslist does list fee-based delivery sources in your area. If you live in a small town and have a friend or relative in the city where you find an item you’ve been looking for ages for, see if they will act as your proxy and check it out, pick it up for you, or store it for you until you can retrieve it. Don’t have them store it for very long as this is one sure way to lose a friend or tick off that family member.
• When you sell the item, REMOVE THE LISTING FROM CRAIGSLIST IMMEDIATELY. If you haven’t sold it, consider looking at the price you are asking, lower it and relist. A decent item should only need to be advertised twice at the most, so be sure to look hard at the price you want, compare it to others being sold, and initially price the item right. A fair price is not necessarily the amount of money you currently need to get, but what the market will bear.

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