eBay VS Craigslist

Now that the nights are getting crisp, I'm digging out my merino wool and spending more time huddled around the monitor's warm glow, my thoughts turn to... getting rid of my under-used stuff to make room for new stuff. Well, at least I'm figuring many people are now spending more time online to buy my old stuff. Selling always goes in spurts; I'll sell five to ten things and then nothing for months. I've been mentally stacking all summer in preparation and have finally started again.

Every year I go back and forth between Craigslist and Ebay, the goal: sell for the most money with the least hassle. The advantages of Craigslist are, number one; it's free. Number two; it's as easy as post/communicate/connect. If you've got something big or really heavy, or worth less than three times the cost of shipping it, or can't be shipped, Craigslist may be your only real option (sold my floor-standing drill press and gas welding tanks on CL).

The advantages of Ebay are a worldwide audience, especially in these times of the super-weak dollar. And "accountability" - if you bid, you pay, or you get a bad reputation, or booted.

So a couple weeks ago I pop up an ad on Craigslist for a Roland Jazz Chorus 77 - absolutely mint condition, priced accurately. Purchased a year ago for the same; beautiful but unused. I get a couple emails expressing casual interest but no follow up. A week later I remove the ad. I immediately get emails from two individuals: "do you still have the JC?" John knowingly answers simply: "Yes".... ...nothing...no reply.

The other very common scenario is "I'll take it!"/never show up. As a friend says: "there is no incentive to complete the transaction".

That's Craigslist. The reasons it's so popular are the same reasons it's kind of crappy to use. It's free - so people do a lot of "fishing": placing ads with unrealistically high prices, just to see if they get a bite - why not, it's free. The other big advantage/detriment is no sign up is required. This makes it popular with the barely-internet-literate, and it's rooted in meeting someone face to face before you hand your money over - none of that internet-tomfoolery. This lack of product-search-sophistication encourages the "fishermen" who succeed with the people who don't realize that they could have bought the same thing, new, without driving 30 miles to get it, for the same price.

Anyway. Still stinging from my annual reminder, I put the the JC on ebay last night for the same price plus at least enough shipping to cover it to the furthest corner of the US. Woke up to "item sold" and electronic payment in my account. The JC is going to Redmond WA, to recently relocated Germans (M$ employees I'm guessing). In the end, with shipping, it's costing me $15 more than Craig. So philosophically, I could have saved $15 and not sold it, or spent $15 and sold it. With Paypal and a FedEx account, the hassle-factor is not a point higher than trying to coordinate with some ding-dong who may or may not show up - and this continuously becomes more important.

Ah ebay, I'd love to save the money but you're just so damn convinenent.