Get Rich With.. Craigslist
Ahh, Craigslist. We’ve mentioned it together many times already here on Mr. Money Mustache, but it is such a great invention, on par with the bicycle as one of the Top Two Things that will Save America From Itself, that it deserves its own love note.
Let’s illustrate with a little story.
Early this afternoon, I was enjoying some manly hobby time, fiddling with tools out in the shed. Then a piece of wood fell over and bonked me in the shin. I picked up the wood, only to snag it on a fluffy bag of insulation poking out into the room. I tried to stuff this back into place, but the shelf was already overflowing with scraps of wood and other construction materials. “God Dammit!”, I said, “My shed is way too crowded!”.
The root of all this evil was a pair of Papasan chairs that were also hanging out in there, taking up half of the floor space. They were surplus furniture – one from the good ol’ days in my first house, circa 2000 , and another left behind a few tenant turnovers ago in the rental house. Both in good shape and fairly stylish and modern, but just with no reasonable place to fit in our current house.
In the bad old days, you’d have four choices for bulky troublemakers like these:
- Leave them in your garage or basement, forever cluttering up your life and let your children sort them out in your estate sale when you die.
- Plan to hold a garage/yard sale someday to sell them off.
- Pay an exorbitant fee to list them in the local newspaper classified in hope of selling them.
- Throw them out.
Note that options 1 through 3 usually turn out to be equivalent – you are unsuccessful in unloading the items so they stick around and burden you until your death.
But here’s what I did today instead:
- Heaved them onto a reasonably clean section of my driveway with some trees in the background.
- Whipped out the iPhone and snapped a few pictures – an overall shot plus a few closeups, with cushions on and off.
- Ran the Craigspro app on the phone to log into Boulder Craigslist, type a description, upload the photos and click “Post”. (I priced the chairs at $25 each, in case you were wondering).
- Received a text message on said phone approximately ten minutes later. “Your chairs still available? Can I pick them up tonight?”, “Yup, here’s my address, see you at 5:00!”.
- 90 minutes later, helped the young lady who had just moved from Chicago to Boulder (a very wise move in my opinion) load them into her pickup, with a fresh fifty dollars rustling cheerfully in my pocket.
Shed cleared, ‘Stash enhanced. What a fantastic invention Craigslist is. And the more popular it becomes, the more useful it becomes, since the market grows. It is the type of service I feel we need to save the world – completely non-corporate, non-greedy, and community organized. Craigslist does everything for free except for a very small subset of categories of postings (such as employment ads placed by companies in NYC). This small stream of income is enough to pay their tiny staff and run the service around the whole world.
And what a service they are providing. Even though it is very simple, it enables countless millions of people to buy and sell products and services, free from advertising and commission fees. And most significantly to me, to get almost anything you need, used, and sell anything you don’t need for a fair price as well.
The value of used goods is a funny thing. A high-quality front-loading washing machine and dryer set costs about $1200 new these days at a store. On Craigslist, you’ll pay $400-$500 for a very similar set that is just a few years old. The person you bought them from lost $700 on the transaction. But if you buy carefully and keep them good shape, you can use these appliances for a few more years and re-sell them for virtually the same amount if you need to move on or upgrade. The used-to-used depreciation is even less on longer-lasting things like furniture or garden tools.
This brings up a neat possibility – not only should you use Craigslist instead of a retail store to buy every manufactured thing you need. You can also use it as a free way to “store” your unused goods. I didn’t hesitate to sell my papasan chairs today, because I know if I ever need them back, I can open up Craigslist and find plenty more just like them at any point in the future.
I feel the same way about the 2001 Honda VFR800 motorcycle I “stored” on Craig’s a few years ago. She was my baby when I foolishly bought her new in 2001, but I just wasn’t finding many chances to ride by the year 2007, having no job to commute to and a young child to care for. I was hesitant to sell the bike, until I realized I was really just storing it and letting someone else pay for the continuing depreciation. There will always be an infinite number of motorcycles streaming by on Craigslist and if you need one, you just reach your hand into the stream and scoop one out.
Over the years, I’ve probably done a couple hundred thousand dollars of deals on Craigslist, including finding about fifteen sets of rental house tenants, selling a car and a motorcycle, buying a different car and a minivan, plus an untold number of furniture and tool transactions. One time I really liked a person who came and picked up some free chairs from me – we are still friends today. Another time I wanted to learn how to re-roof my own house, so I posted an ad asking for an experienced roofer to come work alongside me to teach me how to do it. I got a reply the same day and hired the guy – That roof came out great, saved me $3000 over a roofing company, and I’m still friends with that roofer as well. Later he gave me a kiddie pool for my son and helped out on several other construction jobs in my circle of friends as well as offering work to me.
So I view Craigslist not just as an Environment Saver – by preventing the unnecessary manufacturing of a bunch of new stuff – but also a Community Machine – connecting millions of people to do real activities together, as opposed to the soul sucking model of big corporations stamping out stores across the world, staffing them with minimum wage workers, connecting them to a stream of wasteful products flowing straight from China, and having us all drive into the big boxes every day to bring home SUV-loads of it which will soon end up buried in a landfill.
But even I am just a casual Craiglist user compared to some. You can also use it to find a job, a lover, or even to make money as a reseller. Some people with an eye for value and a mouse finger built for speed search each day, finding undervalued or free items, scooping them up, and then re-selling them at higher prices on Craigslist or ebay. Arbiters in the world of used goods.
But since it’s not retail, there is actually some skill involved in being a truly successful Craigslist participant. You will do much better if you do your buying with real manners and your selling with real marketing. For this reason, we will conclude the article with
Mr. Money Mustache’s Guide to Great Craigslist Success
Selling:
Always take the time to properly stage and photograph whatever you’re selling. Clean it up, put it in front of a nice background, position the camera in a useful and dramatic way, and make sure the damned flash is off. Take ten photos, and post the best four (or whatever the maximum allowed is) on your Craig’s posting.
For rental houses, link to an external website with at least 20 pro-quality photos, every room from every angle at a minimum. This technique alone lets me charge at least 10% more for my rentals than similar-quality homes with crappy Craigslist ads!
Use loads of descriptive text, including full specifications, measurements, emotional descriptions of the benefits of owning this item, and include the price it cost new, to illustrate how cheap your asking price is by comparison.
Have a catchy headline that includes the brand name and something like “high-quality”, “Fancy”, or “luxurious” in it. Silly old advertising words still work well, since they have a nice vintage feel to them, as if being spoken by a 1950s man with styled greasy hair.
Buying:
Respond quickly, with a polite and intelligent inquiry by email. Not, “U still hav ur speakrs?”, but rather, “Hi, I saw your ad from Tuesday on Craigslist for the Polk Audio speakers – I’m right near you in Longmont, are you around this weekend for me to check them out?”
Once you have contact, make your offer in advance by email or phone, “I’d be interested in those speakers if you can let them go for $200. I understand that you might want to hold out for a better price, but email me back in the future if you decide this will work for you”. Once you are at the person’s house, your position is weakened since they know you drove there probably willing to pay the full price.
Overall:
Just like the real world, Craigslist is full of both wonderful and useless people, so you can hone your interpersonal skills by seeking out the former and learning not to waste time on the latter. But in general, I feel that the more of your business you can do locally on a person-to-person basis, the better off you’ll be in life.
Thank you Craig Newmark!
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I just scored a $250 bike off craigslist two weeks ago after my last one bit the dust and was sold…on craigslist! I got my new one for half the price ($125) and he threw in some tools, a seat lock, and several bike locks. It was brand new in 2007 and was ridden home from the bike store, that’s it! Ooo it’s so nice :) I haven’t had a car for a year and won’t ever look back.
Awesome article. Thanks to craigslist I’m able to run a business re-selling phones, and electronics. Not once have I run into trouble. Meet in public places, and use common sense and you will be good.
Gabriel —
I’m curious — where do you find the phones and electronics to re-sell?
I’m looking into finding ways to make money using CL.
Jean
One way to find things is a garage sales. When I was teaching, one of my students parents make their living cruising garage sales to find treasures and then sold them at their flea market booth.
Today, I’d use ebay or craigslist if I were doing that.
-Mike
Last summer my husband and I decided it would be better financially to own one car instead of two (we live on a bus line). I used Craigslist to sell my car and I actually got the blue book value for it. I then used that money to pay off a student loan. All I did was wash the car and park it in front of some pretty trees for the photo. I had people calling me within hours of my post. I always check Craigslist before buying anything new.
Could not agree more. We’ve saved hundreds buying and selling used bikes, stroller, wagon and other baby/kid stuff on Craigslist. Why pay retail for those things when they are outgrown within a couple years?
Well put.
Another very good post….
We buy almost everything used off internet sites or at local flee markets. The main benefit aside from the enviromental benfits for me is that we bind less capital in our ‘stuff’ and when we do not need something anymore we can usually sell it to someone who needs it at a price very similar to what we payed for it.
I bought my car several years ago off craigslist. I’ve sold quite a bit on there too.
Even met my boyfriend on there! Not in the sleazy dating category, but the Activities section. Always lots of free/low cost events posted there, perfect when you have just moved to a new city and don’t know anyone!
Mr Mustache, another great post. Thank you.
My problem is I really don’t like to bargain. Here’s the price, take it or leave it. I now have a coke machine on CL that I bought for $300 and selling for $100. I’m surprised I don’t have any takers.
But then I sold a used smart phone and had about 5 inquiries in first 5 minutes of post. It really surprised me.
Good point – I should mention that you don’t HAVE to bargain. Most of my own transactions take place at exactly the listed price with no haggling involved. It is only for larger or overpriced things that a little bit of friendly adjustment can be made if you like. It’s not like an Indian bazaar with wild price arguments constantly underway.
Also, the reason you are having trouble selling your Coke machine is because WHO THE HELL WANTS A GIANT COKE MACHINE!? Talk about an un-Mustachian object – heavy, takes up space, generates no income, anchors you firmly to one residence forever. The opposite of minimalist living. You are wise to try to sell it, however. ;-)
if option 5) is sell on Craigslist, then option 6) is hire me to pick up your old (but still useable) stuff and sell it on craigslist.
There are a whole lot of people who have too much stuff – stuff they never use – who want to free up space. But though many are responsible enough not to just dump it in the ocean, many haven’t quite caught on to the mustacian principals, so instead of selling it or giving it away on CL, they hire someone (like me!) to come pick it up and haul it away for them, knowing that it will be donated or sold instead of turned into landfill.
job – still work occasionally at the bikeshop I found in a CL ad almost 5 years ago.
lovers – none that worked out in the long run, but had lots of fun, and still friends with one person I met through CL
reseller – actually, people pay me to take things from them, which I can sometimes then sell on CL – hundreds of items sold or given away so far, thousands of dollars of income (I’ll come back to this in a moment)
my home – 35ft trailer, priced about 25% below blue book for its age and condition ($7500)
activity partners – found a number of Full Contact Spoons players through craigslist ads. (come to think of it, I should really organize another game soon)
Here is my favorite hauling/CL tale:
I once had a customer who was clearing out their garage of old stored stuff.
They had (among other things) some fancy Scandinavian design style bookshelves which had been disassembled for storage. I charged them to pick all the stuff up and haul it away. Most of it was good enough for reuse, but not good enough to sell, so I gave it away.
But the shelves were in excellent condition, and I posted them for sale on CL.
Well, the buyer had no way to pick them up, so they hired me (as a mover) to deliver them. They weren’t sure how to set them up, so they hired me (as a handyman) to assemble them.
Fast forward one year…
Same person is moving to a fully furnished apartment, and they remembered that I get rid of unwanted stuff in an environmentally responsible manner. So they give me a call to get rid of all their unneeded furniture. Including the shelves they bought from me a year earlier!
So I pick them up again (for a fee), and repost the old ad, and sell them (again) and deliver them to someone else.
MMM – another great entry and spot on. We use CL only for getting rid of larger stuff, have privacy concerns so small stuff not worth the time or money (we usually donate the small stuff). We also only post cell phone number for inquiries so that we can’t be reverse looked up and address only given to the ‘winning’ acquiree.
We use CL for acquiring items needed. Great tool: http://www.searchtempest.com. Enter your zip, radius for review and item you are seeking. Searchtempest will look across the radius of all the CL’s in your area, no need to individual search each CL. We just acquired a 3 yr old softub for $350 which would sell new for $4.6k – Woo hoo CL and searchtempest. We are now soaking fools.
Best regards – Kitty
Its funny that you mentioned Papusaun chairs, as we went though the same spiel as you. We sold them for 75 a piece here which was great, as well as a bunch of other stuff. We sell our old stuff, and we get nicer used stuff. It is awesome!! You just have to know what you want, be patient, and you will be rewarded. I do hate the lowballers out there,but oh well.
You got $75 for yours?! Damn, I was too generous with mine. Maybe if I used your fancier and more European way of spelling the chair names I could have fetched more.
Lovely ode to Craigslist! I’ve found multiple apartments, cars, furniture, and bikes through the site. Even bought & re-sold my wedding dress on it!
MMM, I liked this post a lot. I have been using c-list for years for all the reasons you mentioned. I will add another verb you can do in addition to storing things on c-list, and that is testing things. I am an outdoor gear junkie but hate to pay retail for stuff. So if there’s a backpack, or bike, or type of skis I want to try, I look for a deal on a used one on craigslist priced such that if it doesn’t work for me, I either make a few bucks for my time or at least break even when selling it.
Also, for the sellers out there, here are a few lines I add to every post these days:
- Cash Only.
- If you’re reading this post, I still have the item.
- Please respond with normal english sentences. If I think you’re a spammer, I will delete the email.
I don’t think the spammer actually read the posts, so I’m not sure how much the last one will help, but the 2nd one, I am definitely going to steal that;
“do you still have it?” is probably the single most frequent email I get… so much so that my auto email response to all CL inquires begins “I still have it”
Thanks for the idea
Bakari, I agree about the scammers. Mostly I’m just tired of emails like this: “saw your ad on the craig list live in boulder too want to see bike”. Humans that type that way are the same ones that show up talking about how they forgot the other $50 bill on the table, and would I just take what they brought.
ha!
yeah, good point. that’s true for me too.
Craigslist is amazing. Unfortunately, I have found that in a rural area it is almost non-existent. There is plenty of land and large houses so people don’t mind holding onto their stuff. Another reason I am excited to move back to a large city and share resources in the future.
I consider myself a bit of a Craigslist aficionado. Found all my apartments that way as well as roommates when I used to have them. I got really good at listing our apartment looking for a new roommate since someone seemed to move out about every 6 months. Having a link to another site with tons of photos is key. I got a lot of positive comments on it and I think it helped attract discerning people as well. I’ve also bought nearly all of my furniture off of CL, actually I think getting higher quality items (buying older solid wood furniture) than I would have paying top dollar for a new retail item. The only problem with furniture can be transporting it. Even so I’ve paid a “man with a van” $100 to help us move a couch and loveseat which was definitely worth it (they looked like new and only cost $600). I now need to get more into selling items I have a bike that needs to go…
Craigslist saved me $1,100 on a tool I needed for my business last week. I had been looking for the item used for a while and was close to giving up and buying it new but gave CL one more try. I was so happy to have found what I needed in perfect condition for $950 vs $2000.
Deals like that add a little more stubble to my money mustache!
Craigslist is also absolutely phenomenal for pet accessories. People go to big pet stores and buy crates, carriers, cat climbing trees, aquariums, and get them home only to have their pet never use the item, out grow it, or die (this is very often in the case of people buying $500 aquariums for some gold fish…). You can find these items for very little money, bring them home, disinfect them, and let your pets enjoy them without shelling out hundreds of dollars!
I’ve been keeping my eye on CL waiting for the perfect large aquarium to give my ball python some more room to move around, then I’m going to sell the current snake habitat and probably end up breaking even. Craigslist rules.
I also like to use craigslist as an alternative to freecycle for getting rid of “worthless” junk around my house. People will take almost anything if it’s free – and it saves me the cost of taking it to the proper disposal place, and it gets recycled in some way. Win win! Now I just need to find someone to take the 20 gallons of old paint that we inherited with the house for free, although I don’t think that will happen.
I do exactly the same thing. For things I don’t want to bother to sell, I just post them in the “Free” category. *AND* I could care less what people do with them — they could even turn around and sell them on CL the next day. I just don’t want them cluttering my life! I would give them away to charity, but around here it is virtually impossible to get Purple Heart to pick something up. They just don’t have time for some reason.
Some folks get irritated when they give people something for free and those people then sell it. But I figure in this economy, I don’t have a problem with helping someone out that needs the money by simply giving away stuff I don’t want.
Actually its really easy to get rid of old paint. I did a website for a company (click the link in my name) that recycles old paint into new paint.
We have found some great deals on CL, most recently a flat screen tv and a dishwasher for less than half the cost of new. I really want to sell some things but I am concerned about safety. I am a little paranoid about strangers coming to my home. Any advice on this?
Sure.. You could always do the transactions when you are not home alone, or you could arrange meetings outside at a public spot like a park’n'ride (as I did just yesterday to save someone from driving to my town). Craigslist people are on average very nice, 100% of my hundreds of transactions have been with gentle, smily people. But for extra screening you could insist on an email response first, and call back only people who write well and leave you a real email address and local phone number to call them back at. In general, I think we are too fearful as a society. Bad encounters with strangers in situations are incredibly rare (statistically). Driving is far more dangerous but we still do that without worrying, right?
For all but the most expensive things I sell, I just put the item outside in the driveway, and tell the buyer to drop money through the cat door. That way we don’t have to worry about trying to synchronize schedules.
In 5 years, only once has anyone taken something and failed to leave the money.
Though this would keep you from having to open the door to strangers, I agree with MMM that its pretty unrealistic to think that someone is going to attack in that situation. If someone wanted to randomly attack someone, they wouldn’t have to pretend to want something on CL, they would just do it. It might be a concern for posting under “romantic encounters”, but not for selling furniture.
Would you be willing to try and sell your house on Craig’s List? (I assume you don’t due to MrsMM license)
Sure! I have listed houses for sale on Craigslist in the past and even came close to selling one to a couple that came in that way. In the end they changed their minds and I sold it to someone else, but I still always list houses for sale on Craig’s and check there when shopping for one. Ideally, realtors would be made obsolete by technology :-)