How to sell things on craigslist.

Craigslist is a great way to buy and sell things in your area. Unfortunately there are risks and draw backs. Here are some things to consider when selling things on craigslist.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Common sense
• Neutral thinking
• street smarts

1. Post your ad with as many details and quality pictures of the item as you can possibly manage to provide. This saves on tedious emails requesting more photos and a description.

2. Unless you are willing to accept trades make sure you state that the Item is priced as marked and no trades will be accepted.

3. Avoid scammers before they email. Use statements such as "local offers only, i will not ship this item!".

4. Many people will make appointments and not show up and generally irritate you and waste your time. Make sure the item is ready to be seen and that it is in the condition you said it is. So be prepared for the mass questions and the flaky ones it comes with the territory.

Tips & Warnings

• Be very up front with payment terms: CASH ONLY. No checks, money orders, pay pal or the like. Good old cash is the best method of commerce with odd strangers.
• Exchange phone numbers and call the person at least once before aranging a meeting. This way they feel obligated to at least call if they aren't going to show up or are going to be late. Otherwise you will most likely end up sitting around for an hour until you give up on them.
• Be ware of people offerning money orders and wanting the item shipped.
• Post the item slightly above what you are willing to accept for is as it is a general principle of buyer pride never to pay the listed price.
• If meeting a stranger be sure you are meeting in a safe place or you have trusted friends along with you.

[aparker]

on 11/27/2008 Good advice, I think more detail to step 1 will reduce problems in step 4. I had to go through 5 scam replies before I found my future potential buyer. Also, making sure the payment method and meeting point are discussed beforehand.

Here is an example where I applied many of the steps above to ensure a quick sale of some old camera gear:
http://blogs.adamparkerphotography.com/blog/Selling-old-camera-gear-on-craigslist.com/8/