Really, never understood the allure of Craig's List.
Maybe this is why my in-laws are always "looking for a good deal" on CL.
Craigslist is best equated as the classifieds of the internet, for damn near anything other than weapons related stuff (due to their EULA/TOS)
Newspapers in general are being purchased up by "superpaper" companies around here, and as such they institute their own craptastic interface on the web as well as giving you a paragraph at best on local news plus indexing things for sale from around the country from papers they own.
Try doing a job search on local newspaper sites. You'll quickly find that the Army is hiring, Marines want you, and there's plenty of jobs that are over 300 miles from you in another state that the newspaper YOU specifically went to doesn't even sell papers in. It's the same thing with their classifieds.
I have acquired through craigslist....
- the gym set we have ($400)
- the pickup bed trailer
($150 due to his markdown since nobody uses pintle hitches other than us or semi trucks apparently)
- my motorcycle
($950)
- the toolbox/fuel tank in my truck ($200)
- Free tracked snowblower up in Alaska (Anchorage FD firefighter family was selling it, they saw my star of life and CMSFD department tshirt and gave it to me free)
- The 02 Impala we had till totaling out via speeding dodge pickup (LE purpose and design saved the wife's ass, zero passenger compartment impingement in a dead stop 60mph rear impact) ($2500)
- GMC Jimmy we had (and sold via craigslist) ($800)
- My Yaesu FT857D with associated equipment ($400)
- 3 pole bags worth of camo netting poles for use as antenna masts/netting poles/whatever ($5)
- MRE box consisting of around 40 pieces of toddler clothes for the kid ($5)
- My Zune mp3 player plus the wife's reader tablet ($50)
- A couch we had up in Alaska ($20)
- Xerxes, my German Shepherd (free)
- Zonk, my little hellion of a black cat (free)
- My Suunto Vector from a 2LT who couldn't figure out how to change the battery($50)
- One of my air compressors ($20)
- Spare rims and lug nuts for the silverado so I only needed to swap complete wheels for winter/summer tires vs having to have tires mounted all the time (time/cost savings) ($75)
- The daughter's Little Tykes car ($5)
- Washer and Dryer we now have ($300)
- 5th wheel trailer we sold for a profit later
($1800)
- Gooseneck trailer
($3500)
Craigslist is well worth looking at for stuff you need or want. Chances are, someone else has exactly what you want.... and they don't want it. Advantage of dealing person to person? You can toss 1/4 of what they want in the wife's pocket, roll up, offer them 3/4 of what they want (if that) and they'll see green and go YEP DEAL. If they hmm and haw, you gotta go talk to the wife and you can use that to confer as to how much more you're willing to offer if they don't counteroffer you right off the bat. Done that specifically with pretty much everything on the list that wasn't free. Examples: Gooseneck asking price, 6k. 5th wheel, 3k. Motorcycle, 1.5k. Impala, 4k. Jimmy, 1.5k.
Edited to add: How could I forget! The shell and cup game I played to get the Hmmwv tires/rims for the blazer!
Dude wants 35" tires, has rims
Different dude wants 16.5" rims, has tires
Buddy has HMMWV tires/rims for $800, $400 for me
Get tires from buddy sans cash, mount on truck, demount tires, get $200 for tires from dude, get $200 for rims from another dude, go link up with buddy and hand him $400
Result:
