Craiglist Update

I posted a little while back after our yard sale that we were going to venture into the world of Craigslist and post items of furniture and some tools for sale there. To prepare we did a lot of reading of other peoples experiences since we really weren't familiar with using it and only knew what's been on the news or others talking about this service.

We had A LOT of interest from potential buyers as we'd post the items with pictures for sale. Questions about the items, would we be flexible with the price and then several who took it further because they wanted to come over and see to purchase said items.  We were excited thinking, "wow this is a great resource!".  Only problem, not a single one showed up!!!!!

I had read lots of complaints by others that said this was the most frustrating part of the Craigslist process.  People who went to all the trouble to look up listings, email for info, phone or text for further info and then go to the effort to get directions and schedule a meeting only to not show up and have absolutely no consideration in contacting you to say they'd changed their minds, bought something else, or maybe had something come up that prevented them from coming over.  Did any of them make the effort to call or text they weren't coming?   No, nothing, nada, zippo!!!

We were left wasting time waiting around for these people whose mamas clearly did not teach them any manners.  We learned quickly to limit the time window for seeing the item.  This let us know that much sooner they weren't coming.  Then to our amazement some of these "no shows" would rudely contact you again demanding an email response after we decided to delete the items on Craigslist wanting to know "was the item available and let them know ASAP !!!".    I DON'T THINK SO.

So what to do?  Well on to plan B.  We had said we would give this a shot and any items that didn't sell we would do what we've always done in the past.  Have some great organizations take the items to sell in their warehouses for fundraising to support the great work they do.

 

                       
Salvation Army is coming today to get several items of furniture, then on thursday Habitat for Humanity will pick up the jointer, table saw and other tools.  This is a win, win situation, they get good products ( I won't donate junk)  and we get a tax write off.   That works !!

As for Craigslist, well we have a few other furniture items we haven't moved out of rooms yet and might give a try now that we have some experience.  If this doesn't work we'll call again these
organizations to make pickups in the future, and we'll just call our Craigslist time a "learning experience".