Nothing sold or bought, but I keep looking for stuff. Had one guy just stop returning emails as he seemed really busy / was doing it for an older family / friend. I'd like to know what people have to say, as I have some stuff I'd like to get rid of.

I've never used Craigslist to buy stuff but it seems that it's only worthwhile if you're in a larger area that has an active community. You also have to deal with flaky buyers and security issues that come with meeting buyers face-to-face.

My dad is a musician/luthier and he's had a lot of luck with Ebay, especially with guitars that are nicer. He's sold guitars for more than they are worth on Ebay. It's much easier to get people into bidding frenzies. Just make sure the buyer picks up the shipping tab (the latest one he made/sold went to Ireland and cost about $70 to ship).

Paleo and Coldforged has the gist of it.

I'm not sure what Paleo means by bring muscle...not all of us has a guy named Rocco on speedial.

I've done some business in coffee shops and it worked well.
I wouldn't take personal checks. Cash or Certified Checks only.
Personal information the initial ad is a bad idea.

Just curious what guitars are you selling?

So how do you meet in a public place if you're selling, say, furniture? Load it up and haul it out there? My wife and I need to sell most of our furniture soon, and Craigslist seems like a good way to do that.

I've sold furniture on Craigslist and I generally meet at the house. So I break my own rule for that. But I have a back and forth with the customer to make sure they seem on the up and up. Then I just try to make sure it's during a time of day when there will be people at home around me, there are multiple people in my house, etc.

A 2008 model Fender Stratocaster (mexi), a smallish Fender amp, and I also have a Takamine S35 Acoustic, which currently goes for $90 on Amazon.

All the warnings so far kind of confirm my fears about this, and I'm not sure it's worth the hassle and the annoyances (no-shows, etc) to do it this way.

Interesting. My initial thought about Ebay was that shipping would make it close enough in price to just buying a new one as to make it not worthwhile. I was thinking of asking $300'ish for the Strat (they go for $400 new, and this thing is mint), but if it cost $60 to ship, I wasn't sure people wouldn't just go ahead and get a new one with free shipping.

I tried to sell a Jeep on Craigslist once, and it was about the biggest waste of time I have ever put myself through. Most of the offers were extreme lowballers, including one woman who basically started harrassing me over email, trying to say that I'm discriminating against the poor or something by not letter her pay for the Jeep in installments. She wanted to give me $900, take the jeep off my hands, then pay the difference over the course of X months. I finally lied and told her it was sold to someone else. After three weeks of that bulls***, I listed it on autotrader.com and it was sold within a week.

On the other hand, I did sell a PC and it was fairly smooth, and the guy didn't even try to bargain. I've also bought some golf clubs and other assorted crap. All the above tips apply, the most important being meet in a public place and don't let them know where you live. It's bad enough that you have to share your email with these people (using an account you create specifically for CL'ing helps alleviate this).

I know it sounds like overkill, but it really doesn't hurt to bring muscle. Once or twice, I have taken my brother along for the ride. He's about twice my size and looks like a Korean gangster. Ironic considering he's a harmless musician. The guy doesn't need to be an ass kicker. He just needs to look like he can take care of things in the event they get out of control. Craigslist muggings are generally crimes of opportunity. If the ¨seller¨ thinks the risk is too high, it is far less likely to go down that way.

I tried to sell my Wii on CL and got nothing but sketchy responses from people from Tijuana who wanted to meet by the border. Didn't think it was worth it.

Yes, for some reason alot of people on craigslist say how much they want what you might be selling; but they never show up to actually buy it. Obviously, you will eventually sell your item to the right person. For some reason craigslist buyers are unreliable. Probably has something to do with the avaliable prostitution only inches away with their mouse. Maybe they decided to use that money that they were gonna give you for your old microwave to get a cheap hooker.

I refer the right honourable gentleman to the response I gave moments ago (re: Ordell Robbie)

My backup is my left hand.

Totally joking as I've never even been in a fight, yet find the talk of muscle, etc. in a post about Craigslist too funny not to riff on a bit.

I've had nothing but luck with Craigslist. Maybe it's where I live. I've sold two Tivos, 3 TVs as we've upgraded / gotten rid of secondary TVs. I've sold a laptop. I've sold quite a few video game systems where I changed my mind. I've sold video games. I've sold a couple entertainment centers, a coffee table and 2 beds.

I've made a deal with someone to wait in line with me for a special addition Gameboy Advance SP (black Friday sale) so I could get 2. In exchange I gave her an unopened older SP model. She waited in line from 4am on as her son always wanted a video game system and she couldn't afford one. They'd go to Toys R Us just so he could play the demo systems

My wife used to buy mass transit passes off of Craigslist. She got burnt once, but was smart about how she did it, so he never got the money. She buys coffee cards off of people (sometimes people sell a $15 Starbucks gift card for $8 - $10). She meets them in a Starbucks and right there transfers the money to her card so they don't use it online (smart woman my wife).

Anyway, point is either we live a charmed existence here in Portland or else we play it right.

The last thing I bought on CL was about a year ago. Dude from Aberdeen (1.5 hours away) was selling a drag bag, some AR-15/M-16 mags, a couple ALICE packs, and a pair of boots that fell off the back of a truck. I didn't want to drive up there myself, but had a coworker that lived up that way and owed me money besides, so I just had him pick the stuff up on the way to work. Decent and naive sort he was. Nothing happened, but, well, it could have.

Every couple months, we have a story about some guy getting Craigslist mugged in this area. More often than not, it is for ¨intimate services¨, but occasionally (and mostly during the holiday season) it is for crap like hard to find hot videogame consoles or concert tickets. I figure it is far less likely to happen with the sort of stuff I'm likely to buy on CL, but it's really not a huge hassle to bring a friend with me, to meet in a public place, and to park on the other side of the mall.

I'll add to the "meet in public" chorus, but you probably won't need muscle. I've sold my old drawing table on CL, which was a decent experience. On the opposite end was the time I bought a 27" CRT TV for $40. The TV was fine, but the seller's house was at the intersection of two streets that intersected in a 'Y', with no street signs. Turns out the guy was on 7301 B St, two houses away from 7301 A St, which was a crack house. They weren't too happy with the big white guy coming to take their TV.

On that note, if you're buying a TV off of CL, don't start the conversation with "I'm here for your TV." Always mention the ad.