Using Craigslist.org effectively

Last year, when I decided to start my business, I used craigslist.org to find garage sales. Each week, starting at around Wednesday, I would search for garage sales selling video games. I was mainly looking for games for the Nintendo Gamecube system, but I was also interested in Xbox 360 games and even PS2. My son Phil, has an Xbox 360, PS2, Nintendo Gamecube and Nintendo 64. He has collected these systems over the years. I will only purchase games that can be played on these systems so I can test them (having been the buyer of a broken game, on a few occasions). I would not buy any PS3 games or Nintendo Wii games because I do not have a way to test them.  But I digress.

When I first started using craigslist.org to find garage sales, I was mainly looking for video games. So I would click “garage sales” and when I got to the garage sale page. I would further filter the results by typing “video games” in the search box. Then I would read the ad, seeing what kind of video games were for sale, and if it was what I was looking for I would make my list of addresses and go looking for garage sales. Don’t get me wrong, I found some great deals: a gamecube system with all the wires, controllers and 11 games (good ones including Mario Sunshine) for $15.00.

Game testing central

But what I soon found out towards the end of summer, is that a lot of people will not call them “video games” but actually by their names like “gamecube” , “Nintendo” and “Xbox 360”. It turns out that my search was too broad and I did not take into consideration that these games could be called by something more specific. Shame on me! All of my years of buying and selling on Ebay should have taught me that when doing a search, I need to be specific. I would think of searching “video games” on Ebay or Amazon, I would get thousands of results!

Here are some tips for using craigslist:

• Craigslist.org is great if you are having a garage sale. It is free advertising and the times I used it, have been my most successful sales.
• Personally, I have never used craiglist to buy something off someone person to person. If you are planning on doing that, meet in a neutral location and bring someone with you if you can. My husband got a great deal on a Dell laptop that way.
• Also, there are a lot of scams on craigslist so be careful. If something sounds too good to be true, be wary. This is especially true in the employment section.
• Be specific in your search so you can find exactly what you are looking for.