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How to Make It on Craigslist

blog.priceonomics.com

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Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#41

Post by _delirium »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #27
lurker17 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's low-end Goldman Sachs market-making. Tinman Sachs, maybe. Not extremenly different from panhandling. It's definitely abusive of the Craigslist community. Blah blah "price discovery is a service in a free market blah blah" does not apply to Craigslist. There are a few ways a job like this could be ethical and productive, respecting the hippie community culture of Craigslist but improving efficiency in exchange fo…

> Not extremenly different from panhandling. I want to say you're wrong, but I'm not even sure how you reached this conclusion. > It's definitely abusive of the Craigslist community. How so?

For the purchased items I think it's fine, but for the items people are donating, the intent is usually that they be claimed by someone who plans to use them, not someone who plans to flip them. Though it does depend on the item; sometimes people give things away because they just want to get rid of them, especially with hard-to-move things like appliances. You can sometimes tell by the tone of the listing what the intent is, and I suppose it's up to each person's ethics whether they want to respect that.

It's a big controversy in communities like freecycle that attempt to maintain a certain charitable ethos and actively say that flippers aren't welcome, sometimes with exceptions for people who repair things (it's usually considered okay to take something broken free with the intent to repair and sell it, because that isn't pure flipping). Probably less controversial on Craigslist, which is a bit of a free-for-all.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#42

Post by dcarlson »

jccc wrote: post #32
pavel_lishin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not extremenly different from panhandling. I want to say you're wrong, but I'm not even sure how you reached this conclusion. > It's definitely abusive of the Craigslist community. How so?

I think the point is that Craigslist itself is supposed to connect buyers and sellers, and he's inserting himself aggressively between them for profit, adding no real value.

I disagree. He does add real value.

1) He retakes clear photos of the merch at a variety of angles - something that many craigslist postings lack

2) He himself has a threshold of quality, and inspects the product before picking it up from the original seller - I would much rather trust a guy who buys 10 cordless drills a week on craigslist to know the drill is bad, than relying on my limited knowledge of cordless drills and their common defects.

I'm willing to pay a few extra bucks for his vetting.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#43

Post by jccc »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #26
mahannay wrote: post #17

It's very impressive that he's able to earn so much money and support his family via Craigslist, but I can't help but think about how useful (or not useful, really) his job is for the overall economy. Basically, he's another middleman - buying goods for a low price and selling them higher. Without him in the picture, buyers could have purchased their items for less and saved money. I just don't see how this job adds…

> Without him in the picture, buyers could have purchased their items for less and saved money. And yet, they didn't. The items he's selling are still cheaper than they would have been brand new, and he's in effect connecting people with items they want, for cheaper enough for them to afford them, for a relatively small fee. You ought to rally against real estate agents, brokers, etc. harder than against this guy.

Real estate agents and the like bring an awful lot of time, skill, experience and special knowledge to their problem domains that their clients don't have. What does someone like this Craigslist middleman contribute?

Do buyers and sellers go to this man the way people go to real estate agents for their services? What would Craigslist buyers and sellers think of what he does if they knew about it? Respectfully, I think they would strongly prefer he weren't interfering.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#44

Post by fasteddie31003 »

JOnAgain wrote: post #34
fasteddie31003 wrote: post #31

I made a tool that does something a lot like this that uses machine learning algorithms. I gave up on it a while back, but give it a look. http://ec2-184-72-247-63.compute-1.amazonaws.com I called it Eds-list

Seems to find all the fraud listings pretty well

Yea I found that fact too. I imagine that the fraud values are outliers which my algorithms think are good values.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#45

Post by rexf »

jccc wrote: post #32
pavel_lishin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not extremenly different from panhandling. I want to say you're wrong, but I'm not even sure how you reached this conclusion. > It's definitely abusive of the Craigslist community. How so?

I think the point is that Craigslist itself is supposed to connect buyers and sellers, and he's inserting himself aggressively between them for profit, adding no real value.

There is real value:

People who do not have time to check craigslist's free section around the clock are able to buy items at less than retail price.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#46

Post by awj »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #26
mahannay wrote: post #17

It's very impressive that he's able to earn so much money and support his family via Craigslist, but I can't help but think about how useful (or not useful, really) his job is for the overall economy. Basically, he's another middleman - buying goods for a low price and selling them higher. Without him in the picture, buyers could have purchased their items for less and saved money. I just don't see how this job adds…

> Without him in the picture, buyers could have purchased their items for less and saved money. And yet, they didn't. The items he's selling are still cheaper than they would have been brand new, and he's in effect connecting people with items they want, for cheaper enough for them to afford them, for a relatively small fee. You ought to rally against real estate agents, brokers, etc. harder than against this guy.

Considering he's getting these items off Craigslist and turning around to sell them on Craigslist, the only reason people aren't saving money is that they aren't beating him to the initial purchase.

Well, that and managing to ferret out poorly displayed/marketed items and re-post them with better advertising. That is a valuable service, but I'm not sure how much of his activity can be meaningfully characterized as doing so.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#47

Post by jccc »

dcarlson wrote: post #42
jccc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that Craigslist itself is supposed to connect buyers and sellers, and he's inserting himself aggressively between them for profit, adding no real value.

I disagree. He does add real value. 1) He retakes clear photos of the merch at a variety of angles - something that many craigslist postings lack 2) He himself has a threshold of quality, and inspects the product before picking it up from the original seller - I would much rather trust a guy who buys 10 cordless drills a week on craigslist to know the drill is bad, than relying on my limited knowledge of cordless dri…

What kind of "value" is added that is secret? Don't you think buyers and sellers alike should know up front what they're paying for?

To the seller: I'm going to make probably $100 on this washer in a couple days by Windexing it and taking some good photos. That's your fee for my pickup and selling "service."

To the buyer: I bought this washer a couple days ago for $100 less. That's your fee for my delivery and vetting "service."

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#48

Post by awj »

thinkdevcode wrote: post #39
chc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing a variable that equals "Having zero debt at all times is not everyone's highest priority".

Let's rephrase your statement: "Paying back on things you've already purchased with someone elses money is not everyone's highest priority" Now we take this statement and multiply it by 34 million, and we have the reason why America's total US consumer debt is 2.43 trillion. I dont mean to nitpick, but I get really annoyed when people do extravagant things when they can't afford it.

> I dont mean to nitpick, but I get really annoyed when people do extravagant things when they can't afford it.

Everyone does. Good luck getting people to settle on your definitions of "extravagant" and "afford."

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#49

Post by davidw »

dataminer wrote: post #11
kalid wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how he's able to move giant appliances / half-ton loads of steel out of people's homes by himself.

Hand truck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_truck is a very simple machine and is part of any movers toolkit.

You really want one of these for the heavy stuff though:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairclimber

It makes a world of difference.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#50

Post by pavel_lishin »

jccc wrote: post #43
pavel_lishin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Without him in the picture, buyers could have purchased their items for less and saved money. And yet, they didn't. The items he's selling are still cheaper than they would have been brand new, and he's in effect connecting people with items they want, for cheaper enough for them to afford them, for a relatively small fee. You ought to rally against real estate agents, brokers, etc. harder than against this guy.

Real estate agents and the like bring an awful lot of time, skill, experience and special knowledge to their problem domains that their clients don't have. What does someone like this Craigslist middleman contribute? Do buyers and sellers go to this man the way people go to real estate agents for their services? What would Craigslist buyers and sellers think of what he does if they knew about it? Respectfully, I thin…

> What would Craigslist buyers and sellers think of what he does if they knew about it? Respectfully, I think they would strongly prefer he weren't interfering.

Having tried to buy things on Craigslist, nice, clear photos are amazing - it saves me the trouble of shlepping somewhere, looking at the clearly mis-represented item, sighing, and shlepping back home.

As far as the sellers, what exactly are they losing? They stated the price they wanted to sell for, and they got it. You could argue that they could have gotten more with a better camera, some cleaning, and a better ad, but at that point you can argue that nobody should hire ad agencies.

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