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Is craigslist worth it?
 

I was contemplating making like 30-50 craigslist accounts and selling in all the major cities. Instead of local pick-up though it would go through Paypal and it would state in the ad that I only ship the products. Does anyone have feedback regarding this or if it's worth it?

I have pretty good success in my local craigslist ads where we can meet somewhere and they pay cash. I see some ads that say that they will only ship products and local pick-up is unavailable. Just curious, if it's worth it I would definitely be up for it. I have about 50+ e-mails ready to go.

you dont haven any up front costs with craigslist, or any at all really... so wouldn't one sale make it profitable?

That's true, but the time it takes is a different story. Posting and keeping track of 25+ craigslist accounts takes time. All that for one or even a couple sales a week isn't worth it at all. I'd say if this could rake in at least 7 sales or one sale a day it would be worth it. Eh **** it might as well give it a try and I'll post my results here.

Then there's all them haters in all them cities that will flag your posts. Also, at one point in time, there was some geolocating thing that would automatically ghost your posts if you were not located within a certain radius of the city you were posting your shingle. Might have been a temporary thing they were experimenting with or it might be implemented fully. I dunno.

I did that once and it went pretty smooth but the listing got deleted afterwards, I think the guy reported it since he filed a paypal dispute and lost.

GLAD you posted this Thread!

I had a few things to list on CL and would of totally forgot until I saw this Thread!

CL is Great for items to heavy or not worth to shipping on eBay. I make an extra $200-$500 (Profit) a month using CL.

A lot of it has everything to do with what kind of metropolitan area you live in for the resell of items.

There was this guy from FL who called me and wanted to pay me via paypal. So I guess some people do feel secure and don't mind paying via paypal. But that's only a very small number. People usually prefer to meet-up but you got to be very careful. I almost got scammed during my first transaction(350). He thought he was going to get me but luckily I got lost in the area so I didn't make it in time.
Then the 2nd time we scheduled a meet-up, Luckily, I gave him an address where cops where parked at for a while so he kept driving and didn't pick up his phone afterwards.

You can't get scammed from a buyer who wants pay by paypal as long as you have tracking. Paypal takes the sellers side for off ebay transactions as long as tracking shows delivered.

Actually you can get scammed as people pay from fraudulent credit cards or they pay from a hacked paypal account. Also one more thing, when your meeting up on craigslist, make sure you meet up somewhere there are alot of people around you. You don't want to get jacked by the guy..

I did Craigslist For a while. Awnsering 20 E-Mails a day, and people wanting to Meet you to Pick up their items, WAAAAY To Tedious for me.

items for cl that work sell well are things that you really can't or don't want to purchase in a store.

be careful with craigslist, esp selling high priced valuable items. You have you remember you never know who your dealing with. I personally never have anyone come to my house and I always meet somewhere where there's a lot of people around if I sell something cus there's a lot of shady people out there.

I have heard too many craigslist horror stories or people getting robbed.

I also hate craigslist b/c people will always try to give you a story or talk you down on your price. But hey, then again there's no listing or selling fees!

Why should you be careful about meet-ups?? You meet in person, if a buyer likes the product, he buys it and pays cash for it. Then you leave...How can you get scammed ???

I know 1 way, you meet up in a private place the buyer looks at the item then the buyer takes the item and runs.

Can you Imagine selling 20 Items a day on Craigslist, Each sale, say, 5 Emails, then Meeting People all over town, 100 emails and 20 stops a day, I could NOT Do that, But to each his/her own

But if you state in your listing that you're too busy to meet up with people so you can only ship and accept paypal then it's much easier. I sold some software to a guy, he paid with paypal I slapped the label on and dropped it down the mailshoot. He also filed a claim as soon as he got it and paypal closed it the same day in my favor, no questions asked.

craigs list being worth the time all depends on which city you live in..yea, you can post to other cities but there will always be some "by the book- do gooder" that sees you are out of state and feels it is their duty to protect Craig and his List and flag your listing...now where i live (good sized city) craigs list is pathetic and an embarrassment to even look at let alone try to sell on..and safety factors...if item is not big always best to meet in public like at a starbucks..especially in today's world..it's one thing for people to wonder what you have inside your house by the kind of car sitting in your driveway but to let a complete stranger in to give him complimentary "casing" tour..no way.

Yea, thats how it should go, but unfortunately it doesn't always turn out so smooth. I'm just saying, be careful on craigslist with high dollar items.

Thank you for your advice.
Today I am meeting up with one girl in a public place. I was selling a LV Speedy 30 bag on craigslist and she emailed me. So, the girl wants to have a look at (and hopefully buy) the bag. We've been emailing each other for a few days now. She gave me her phone number. Hopefully, she won't run away. :) Wish me good luck, that's my first craigslist transaction.

Good luck! Just hope she won't be able to tell the bag is fak e. :lol:
(If it is)

Just a heads up for ya, she may appear to be a girl in the e-mail or even on the phone but could always turn out be a guy later and just because you decide to meet in a public place doesn't mean you might not end up in a private place later with your bag gone and no money. I've been through those types of situations many times before, just letting you know.

Are you craz y??? Lol!
I would never sell a fak e especially when you meet in person.
It's authentic. I won it on one of my penny auctions. It's nice and I wanted to keep it but the color is brown. I don' wear brown.:croc:

Thank you for your warning. I'll try to be caareful. I'm from the same city as you are, so I know how dishonest people cam be here. :(

Lol jbuntz are you a dishonest person? I better watch out when I go to Kiss & Flys.

:lol: Must be the brown monogram one. ;)
How much did you get it for and how much are you selling it for? I gotta try that site out!

Let us know how it went. :)

CL is cool but not enough traffic. I still keep 2 ads up slow or not because cash in hand beats paypal all day long.

I don't know what you are trying to sell on CL but I have a product that I sell on CL and move quite a bit of it. 20-30 per week. I have a Taco Bell like 3 blocks from my house where I meet people at. I have been interested in posting in multiple cities and there is software available to do that but I don't know if any of it is actually any good.

You can but it's hard. Post #4 Vic is right if you can't get a ip in that city then your ad will be ghosted.

Yeah that's how i can't figure out how some people are posting in like every major city in the US. I can cruise through the big cities from west coast to east coast and will see the same ad posted multiple times and it's the exact same ad. Maybe there is a CL stealth out there :)

Yes there is I see it too I think it's called outsourcing.

There is.

Some people offer their time and skills to list on behalf of people. These folks don't sell their own stuff, but they'll get your info all over the place. I am suspicious of these enterprises. I just sit and ask myself 'if I could do that all over the place, why wouldn't I do it for myself?'

Yea I know I see alot of it on freelancer just 10 cents a post I guess you have to be really bored lol.

There's plenty of craigslist software out there that use proxies, ip changer's, g-mail generators, ad creator's that give you multiple variations of the same ad some of it's pretty expensive but they've got some freeware out there to.

Here is a little update....
So, I took a train to the city and brought a bag with me... I came to the appointed place and waited for the girl for about half an hour...The place was a little coffee shop where this girl worked.. Finally, she came... She looked and spoke very politely...Then she started checking the bag to see if it's authentic or not...All of a sudden her friend (that worked in the same shop) jumped in and started making nasty comments about the bag and me...She was sooo rude... She threatened me in case it wasn't authentic .. I gave my phone number to the girl that was buying the bag just in case... Then her friend insisted on photocopying my ID...I felt soo terrible, couldn't say a word, the whole situation was intimidating!!! At the end, I took the money and left......An hour later the girl emailed me, apologized for her friend's behavior and said that she took the bag to the LV store and it checked out just fine.....

The bottom line is I don't know if I am ready to go through the same experience next time...It almost killed my desire to sell on CL. :(

Why does that sound so familiar :rolleyes: :behindsofa:

Awww...so sorry to hear. =(

Next time you know to hire me as a bodyguard but don't worry, I'll do it free of charge! :)

On another note, If I was you I would've told that jealous piece of sh** bi*** off. Photocopying your I.D, are you serious? She deserved the :slap:

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you... for being overprotective of me! :cheer:

craigslist is cool because you don't need all your info. Meet in a public place and make the exchange. I sell about two products a week.

I hadn't heard of "ghosting". It may just be for certian catagories. I know that I posted a ad for contractors (something for my day job), in a few cities over a thousand miles away. That was 4 weeks ago and I'm still getting emails about it.

Maybe the "ghosting" is just for the "items for sell" catagory?

I presume you live in a fairly safe city.

I've lived around some pretty rough places. Have no interest in meeting people. Have no interest in anyone seeing my face, my vehicle, my license plate, or following me back to my lair. Have no interest in defending myself to the death for a couple dollars. 2 sales a week wouldn't be enough to motivate me to get off the couch.

For the items sold by some people around here, going in person would be risky. What if the buyer has some bracelets to trade. The chrome kind that connect together and are meant to be worn behind your back and include an involuntary vacation in a room with bars for a door and without windows.

Craigslist if fine for some, not fine for others. Almost always some element of risk (physical or financial).