How to Sell Effectively Using Craigslist To Get the Most Money Possible

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By serenity-now
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Sell Effectively Using Craigslist To Get the Most Money Possible

So trying to sell an item on Craigslist? Craigslist is an extremely popular site to buy and sell all sorts of items or services. You might be selling a common item or not, but lets figure out how to maximize that sale!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Item to sell
Email address

Step 1

First what are you selling? How much do you think it will sell for? We will address this again, but its important to understand who you are selling to...local or anywhere. Will the buyer be meeting you? Will you be sending it in the mail? These are the initial questions to consider.
Step 2

Once you know what and where you are selling, goto craigslist. Now before you go and start posting you should figure out what "it" is fetching in the open market. So go to the search bar and find out how many people are selling your item, and how much they are asking. I would suggest knowing what Ebay is selling your item for as well.
Step 3

Now you have an idea on what you want to charge for your gem, its time to post. Go to the "post to classifieds" and then "For Sale", then the appropriate category and finally the city.
Step 4

Now its about the posting. Now lots of people like to add all sorts of crazy characters to the title, big capped words things to stand out. And perhaps that works to a small degree, however I have found the most common way to sell something is to use the right words. When someone is buying on Craigs they are usually searching for specific words/items. So lets say you are selling your TV. My header for that would be something like "Sony 50" Plasma TV Best Price Here" Something simple seems to always work for me on Craigslist.
Step 5

Now the price should be just a shade below the average price that you found when researching the sales price. Keep in mind if you plan on selling this via mail then keep that cost in mind. As for the description, I try to find a link to the item I am selling and the description. So for that same Sony TV, I would find that online, find their description or technical page and copy that hyperlink. Along with a good description with all the hot words like "best offer" "sell quick" and those sorts of things the hyperlink will give you the description you need to inform the buyer of the product.
Step 6

Now don't forget to add a picture. This is big! Take a picture of your item, I don't care how bad it may look, if you don't have a picture the chances of you selling your item quickly and for the right price just went out the window.

Comments

redar said

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on 9/15/2009 An excellent 5* article and I written so well. This information is important to me. I never really know how to work with craig's list this is helpful. Thanks

illuminator26 said

on 9/11/2009 I love Craig's List. It's probably one of the most useful sites out there. I've used it for everything from advertising to finding jobs. Best of all, it's free. Great tips on How to Sell Effectively Using Craigslist To Get the Most Money Possible.