The Definitive Craigslist Guide for the Recession [Craigslist]

[Field Nurse]

To paraphrase one shopping expert, nearly everyone wants better deals on everything these days. Craigslist is a great place to get those deals, and you don't have to be a jerk to get them.
Photo by acloudman.
There's a reason reporters and others looking to take the pulse of the economy so often turn to the free classifieds site: Its endless pages of sales, desires, and trades reflect how we're all dealing with less cash on hand—or at least available credit—than many of us have grown accustomed to. There's a lot more stuff available on Craigslist these days, and many more ways to get it faster and cheaper than the next buyer, while still maintaining a sense of decency when dealing with folks who might be down on their luck.
Let's take a look at a few buying and bargaining techniques anyone looking to shave some expenses off their budget should have under their belt. Think of Craigslist as a gigantic open-air market, one where everything's available if you know where to look, when to look, and what's worth haggling over. Saving your brand-new purchases for the really good stuff, and sticking with decent used gear when you can, is the stuff millionaires are made of.
Find the Stuff You Need

The first thing to remember about Craigslist—neophyte and veteran alike—is that it's only as helpful as the people in each community choose to be. If you're in San Francisco, you're probably covered on everything from antique bicycles to personal training in Zen meditation, so you can do all your Craigslisting locally. If you're in, say, Walla Walla, WA, you might not even have a Craigslist for your community. Craigslist is all about local trading, and the site even issues multiple stern warnings remote transactions, but if you've looked high and low locally, sometimes you just gotta try your luck at establishing far-off contact.
If that's you, searching all Craigslist sites across the country with Google is a great option. Hit up Google's Advanced Search tools, type "directory" in the field for unwanted words (it prevents a lot of results clutter), type "craigslist.org" in the "Search within a site or domain" field, and fire away. Or you can manually enter something like "mac mini" –directory site:craigslist.org. Again, you'll want to be careful how you approach someone expecting a local buyer, but sometimes a deal that requires a drive or some mailing costs a lot less than buying new.
Not everybody on Craigslist is great at taking shots of their for-sale items, and some don't throw any pics up at all, making it hard for you to know whether you're wasting your time clicking around. Mash up your Craigslist view with Craigslist Image Preview, a Firefox extension that puts all the product images on your main results page. The sometimes-allowed, sometimes-offline MyWiseBunny also creates a visually-focused page of search results for no-nonsense browsing.
Get to the Buyer First

There's a lot to be said for showing up early, especially if you're buying from someone who needs cash right away, is moving away, or just needs that thing out of their basement before the remodel. Being first with a fairly negotiated offer (more on that below) is usually the way to win out over a phalanx of competitors kicking each other up and down in $10 increments. The true key to speedy Craigslist use—whether you're apartment hunting or hunting down a cheap, good-condition dining room table—is RSS. Feed reading isn't all that popular to the world at large. That means those who do grab the RSS feed from every Craigslist search that matches their needs are ahead of the game. For instant notifications, you can have new pings for every new match delivered instantly via either email or SMS. The sooner you know, the more likely you are to get the goods.
Bargaining, Haggling, and Negotiating for Wusses

A mass sense of hard times ahead cuts both ways—sellers are less likely to laugh off any offer on the table, but they may also be willing to wait for the better money down the road if a sale isn't urgent. Here are a few tools for old aces and young guns alike to try out:

• See what your item sold for before: As explained by Wendy in her Craigslist for power users guide (fourth item down), Google can reveal the prices that buyers in any market have been paying for a certain item. When someone tries to tell you the "fair market" or "real" price of something, it's great to have actual history on hand.
• Be not ashamed of the haggle: Lifehacker's offered up a lot of whole-mind tips on haggling, but these are not times for life experience and feel-goodery. The Guardian UK's Tanya Gold picks up a few tips on shopkeeper haggling that, transcribed to a Craigslist inquiry email, make good sense:
  Research comparative prices. Tell the bastards (my words, not his) that you can get it cheaper elsewhere, and produce a printout to prove it. ... Suggest discounts on expensive or broken items. And, when entering a shop [Ed. note: i.e. "emailing a seller"], make friends. Empathize. Smile. Emote. "Ask lots of questions," says Tynan, "because if they've put an effort into selling the product to you, then they are likely to want to seal the deal." And be polite.
  ​
• Default to the 15-20 percent rule: If you're lacking for great insight into a seller's character or temperament, you can switch tracks and just figure out what you can afford to pay. Then, as we've previously suggested, knock that down 15-20 percent. Don't be afraid to admit that you have a spending limit in a follow-up email; if nothing else, it shows you're dealing in real numbers, not emotional guesses, and may leave a seller feeling better about your intentions.

Selling in a Downturn

To be honest, nobody can tell you exactly how to sell something in any market, because nobody knows your real circumstances but you. Still, a few tips from a best practices guide to Craigslist selling hold true in almost every sale. Accept only cash, be detailed and unfailingly honest in your description and details, and research what items in the same basket as yours are going for, either on your local Craigslist or using the Google trick cited above. And if you need to walk away and re-consider your price range, do so—you can always re-post, but it's going to be tough calling up your buyer and asking for a trade-back.
Get on the Bartering Bandwagon

It's happening more and more, according to statistical evidence and Craigslist itself—people trading their goods for other goods or services instead of straight-up cash. The barter section of Craigslist could be very unfamiliar to even veteran buyers and sellers. Instead of concise X Item for Price listings, you find handymen offering to provide repairs and maintenance for, say, a bedroom set, or a person with ultra-rare concert tickets looking to pick up a USB drive. Here's one way to think of it, though—if you could work a second, freelance job, or put any item up for sale with a guarantee of a buyer appearing, what would you offer? Bartering is the same as being hired or selling, just with a different end result—and sometimes a better one. If what you're looking to offer or get isn't available on your Craigslist community, try digging into the wider world of net swapping—home rentals and places to stay, for instance, are detailed at the tail end of the New York Times' overview of the swapping economy.
Have you gotten closer to Craigslist's text-and-links screens recently? How does the service fit into your financial and commercial life? Tell us any tools or tips you use on the online classified giant in the comments.


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