What's the Trick to Successful "Craigslisting"?

I'm not an expert, but I have bought and sold. Relist the item every day. Have a descent photo if not an exellent one. I'm amazed at the poor quality photos people use and I for one don't want to buy something I can't really see. People want to be sold on something, especially something of value. Tell a great story with it. Not something like, "this thing is collecting dust in the corner of my garage", but be interesting and honest. "bought this really amazing quality treadmill and now I need to make room for a growning family". Dont show that you think its junk, show that you think its valuable. At the end of the day, people shopping on Craigs list want a bargin. It needs to be priced right. If you don't get any nibbles keep lowering price and repost.

We have not had any luck with craigslist. We've listed several things and didn't sell them. We sold a lot of stuff on eBay including a motorcycle and parts. My hubby has also sold vehicle stuff on the Ford Diesel Forum that he's apart of. Anyway, whenever we post anything on Craigslist, we just get people calling to sell things for us for a small fee... If you have trouble on Craigslist, you might have better luck selling it elsewhere. Maybe put an ad in the paper too or something like that. good luck!!

The tricks to ANY successful listing are:

1. Have what someone wants
2. Title the listing correctly and NO SPELLING ERRORS - do not use AWESOME, beautiful, etc
2011 STAIRMASTER EXERCISE TREADMASTER Commercial quality (if that's what it is)
2. Have great pictures of the item(s)
3. NEVER sound desperate to get rid of anything
4. Have a good write up - measurements and details if you have the owners manual all the better...

Use the KISS method (Keep It Simple Silly) - you can give a great but BRIEF description of the item(s).

Before you list anything - research...
How many are currently listed? For example - there are almost 5K listed on ebay right now
How much are they listed for? on ebay - right now - anywhere from $85 up...
how many have sold? On craigslist you can't find this out - on ebay you can do an advanced search - several sold for $75 and up...
Is mine a newer model than the others?

Double check your spelling - if you have it spelled wrong -it won't come up in the search engine and you'll have just wasted your time.

Most Craigslist listings do best on the weekends....that's my personal opinion.

Hope this helps you!!

Patience. You just listed this morning. Make sure your pics are excellent, and also link to a website that sells the product you are listing. That way people can see how much it is new and all of the specific product details. In general, things in great condition sell for half of the new purchase price.

Have you posted pictures? Pictures are what sell things for me.
Do you have the original instructions...stuff like that usually helps. Good luck.

Give it some time, you just posted it this morning - I get most of my hits on the weekends when I am selling stuff. Also - you want to delete your post and re-post it near the weekend so that your posting pops up at the top of the list. And be sure to put a picture. If I am buying something on craigslist, I don't even look at the ad if there is no picture......also - put your price back up and put "or best offer"......

Good Luck ~

I have sold a bunch of stuff successfully on Craig's List. I try to post late Friday afternoon so it will be near the top for those who search (it seems like a lot of people want to pick stuff up on the weekends.) I include as much info as possible about the item including the price to buy new and special features. Also, be sure to include pictures of the actual item (not stock photos from the internet). Good luck!

What I do is go through the wanted section and if someone is looking for what I am selling I email them and tell them what I have. I also go through other towns besides then one I posted the item in because we live in a town right in the middle of 3 big towns on craigslist, so I could really choose any of the 3 to list but you can only choose one. Also be sure to post good quality pictures and have a great honest description of the item.

i sell stuff on there all the time, always ahve a picture, or more than 1, re-list it every 2 days and keep the price low, i put my phone number in the ad too.Putting it up on friday is also a plus.

everything ive ever placed on there has sold within a week within 10 dollars of what i was asking.

Good pictures is key. I sold one car & bought another via CL last month. I didn't even look at ads that didn't have pictures. Also, give people a variety of ways to get ahold of you. You can always remove the ad when the item sells so you don't continue to get questions/emails/calls/texts. Good luck!

I second what Cheryl said. When I search for something on CL, I check the option for ads with pictures only. Pictures are important. And when I'm getting ready to post something for sale, I do a search on CL first to see if there are already any for sale and what the asking price is, so I can be cheaper or at least competitive. You just have to have a little patience. I've had some stuff sell really fast, and other stuff that's taken longer. You have to decide what's more important: do you just want to get the treadmill out of your way or is it worth it to wait a little longer for a buyer who's willing to pay what you want?

I have always had really good hits on Craigslist but as the others mentioned making sure you post it to the correct category, making sure that you give a breif detailed description, and really great pics will usually do the job. I ave sold a dog crate, a few cell phones, and a few other odds and ends. The dog crate sold within an hour after I posted it. The other items sometimes it just took a few days to get a response from people. Also I have found if you usually include your telephone number instead of just an e-mail as a matter of fact I stopped doing the e-mail all together because I was tired of getting all those junk spam messages-ergh!! Really irks me but I just let them know to send me a text rather than call but if they do call leave me a message and I will call them back-that way I am prepared to take the call rather than them calling me while driving down the road offguard. I might say something I didn't mean or not think something through....such as the gas money involved to meet them or something. I have even sold a cell phone on there having the person pay me via paypal and me shipping but just be sure that you put on there it ain't your problem if it gets damaged and let it be their choice in how you send it and they will be the ones to have to pay for it. The only thing with that is you will have to tote it around to find out which carrier cost what -which you may not want to involve yourself in if the item is bulky and hard to get around. In my case it was a cell phone.

Did u put pictures? Do as many pictures as it lets you do - profile of it, the keypads, front view.....

Put in measurements.

You only did it this morning. Wait a few days or maybe even a week. It's 4th of July weekend coming up. Everyone's brain might be on that (BBQs, what food to buy, what they're doing, swimming, etc) , not on treadmils.

I know that when I am looking to buy an item I need to see a picture. Also if you are able to deliver it to the persons house I would put that in the ad. Sometimes people do not have a big enough car and therefore will not even reply.

Hope this helps

must have a picture. i filter out all ads with no picture. dont worry that you havent sold it today. if it had sold today, you'd be kicking yourself for pricing it too low. Be patient.

A woman was murdered from my town by a person coming to look at a car she and her husband had listed on Craigs list. Her body was found one place and her car was in a another state if I remember correctly.

Don't sell things on craigslist that cannot be mailed and purchased without being seen.

Try selling it through friends or to extended friends on FB or some other place to people you actually know or that are friends of a friend. It is just too dangerous.

I am in the middle of cleaning out my garage with lots of help from Craigslist. Posted a bike and 2 bike racks on Tuesday and they were picked up within hours of posting.

A few tips I didn't see when I glances at the responses below.

1. I mention that an item is from a non-smoking house. My husband picked up a desk off CL and it smelled so strong we never brought it in the house.

2. I say cash only because I don't want to accept checks. I usually put down the price with "or best offer" afterward if I really want something to go. Usually, the buyer pays full price without asking for a deal.

3. When I'm looking to buy something on CL, I usually search with keywords since there are so many listings. Consider what people will use to search. For example, when selling my bike, I used the word bicycle and bike in the write-up so someone entering either would find my post. Important descriptive words are also helpful here(ie...children's/kid's bike).

Good luck!

April had some great ideas. We have sold cars, etc., but we usually do it from my husband's office and a cell phone, junk email, etc. No tracing us back home. I use his office address when I sell things on Amazon, as well. The check thing (and money orders) is for your own protection. Somehow when you cash them, scammers can access your account by getting the cancelled check or a copy. Repost often as it's too hard to look through many postings. Do not let them meet you at home if you are home alone. Have someone else there. Even when meeting someone at the office, we take someone else with us, even though it's a public area. Anyway, good luck! We have had good success with everything we've sold. I'm sure you will, too, with some patience.

LOVE craigslisting! (Buying and selling!) There must be a picture and decent description, spelled right. Noone even clicks an ad that doesn't have a picture attached, and if there's too many questions because there's no description, it's "too much trouble"....and if the spelling is all wrong, sometimes people just don't want to do business with you or they'll make judgements on your items based on the judgements they've already made on you (mean but true). Another tip is to watch your wording and capitalization. Capitals in the computer world can come across as "shouting" and even though I've wanted something, I've waited another couple months until it came across from someone else, just because I didn't like the "tone" that a seller had. I'm thinking specifically of an item I wanted for my toddler a couple years ago but the description was a little like a mom who's lost her patience and is lecturing potential buyers on what she will and will not do, and how you will procede with the purchase. I just laughed and went on past. Yes "OBO" (or best offer) will help, if you're willing to go down a little to get it out of the house. Never take checks (though I don't bother writing that in the description, it's just something you say when you're making arrangements for pick up when you have a buyer). I do tend to keep my eyes out for something comparable so I can know what it's going for, or beat it by a few dollars. It will be a little harder to sell electronics (I don't buy electronics used) but I know several friends of mine that have specifically looked for treadmills in Dallas. And finally, this would probably be too hard for you since it's a treadmill, but my husband doesn't allow me to sell stuff at our house for safety reasons, so I would never give my home number out (they could do a reverse lookup and get my address) but instead would list my junk email address and my cell phone number (which is actually another state's number). I would meet them at McDonalds or some fast food joint with a playground nearby (I had one less than 2 miles away) and that way if they were a little late the kids were playing and I was sipping a coke while waiting, and it was a public place with other people around. I've had only good experiences with cl, except one time when a lady came in a car too small for a train table (even though I'd listed measurements) and we had to meet up again when she got her husband's truck....which wasn't a big deal. Happy craigslisting!

PICTURES!
Proper spelling
Keep your price the same for now; don't appear desperate. If no bites within a week, then you can think about changing it.