I built a free webapp that may be useful for such Craigslist arbitrage. It constantly crawls Craigslist for search terms in your price range and emails you the results (instantly or in a daily digest):
How to Make It on Craigslist
131–140 of 177 posts
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#132Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
As he mentions several times in his posting, time sensitivity is critical. Minutes, even seconds can make/break a deal... automation may be much slower than a human who's constantly scanning. Furthermore, it's clear that it's not just "pickup" and possibly "delivery"... the author is making a clear buy/sell/bargain decision on the spot... what happens when the pickup results in a fraudulent item? Clearly this means t…
Your spot on with what I've been wrestling with over the past months. It's difficult, but possible. I did a trial with a friend in Houston and it worked out well. We made a little over $200 in a day on one laptop. Communication wise, it's definitely labor intensive at first as I'm trying to make wise decisions over the phone and looking at pictures. It is possible to pull it off, it's just going to take a lot of work…
That makes sense... with sufficient margins, it could definitely be done. I'd love to see a follow-up when you get a chance!
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
As he mentions several times in his posting, time sensitivity is critical. Minutes, even seconds can make/break a deal... automation may be much slower than a human who's constantly scanning. Furthermore, it's clear that it's not just "pickup" and possibly "delivery"... the author is making a clear buy/sell/bargain decision on the spot... what happens when the pickup results in a fraudulent item? Clearly this means t…
uhh, automation is going to be much, much faster than a human who is constantly scanning of course, it can't analyze the data as efficiently, but it would definitely be faster to have an automatic filter that saves time in looking through obviously overpriced or useless postings
With automation it could be much better, with a lot of machine learning: trusting users with whom you have already made good deals, the cities/neighborhoods most trustworthy, the articles more profitable, etc.
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#135It'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…
What? This is pretty much what every single retail store does.
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. They will take a lesser fraction of the value in cash when there is a positive value in getting rid of it. Small items are easy to get rid of anyway (you could just throw it in the trash), and if they have value they may be willing to store them and wait. My overall reaction to the article, though, was that he's doing a fair amount of work for a pretty so-so return, and it looks hard to scale it upwards. (That $…
It definitely will take a lot of work to scale it, but I think it can be done. I could probably be watching 3-4 cities at a time fairly easily. Portland has a very active Craigslist community and I have a lot of down time waiting for new ads to come up. On the other hand, if I'm always at the computer, I lose a good chunk of profit on items I have someone else pickup, so I have to increase volume to make up for it, w…
I'd say that a netbook with 3g internet would be a worthwhile investment, so you could check for new deals even while your out on the job. Then you'd always have your next destination, you could plan routes efficiently, etc.
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#137Earlier 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 think you're being a bit harsh and missing something here. Creating a wonderful vacation and memories for your family is priceless. And as seems to be the case, he is paying off his debt on a schedule and is not over his head. I'm pretty happy for him.
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#138What about operating in bigger markets, like cars, trailers, RV's, etc. ? Or are those markets too competitive? Having sold cars on Craigslist before, I know that there are people who are offering low values, fast sales, shortly after posting in hopes of finding a desperate seller, so maybe these people make profit much less likely for a trader.
Laws vary, but you can only flip a few cars a year, like a dozen or so, before you're required to get a dealer license. These generally cost thousands of dollars a year and come with a lot of paperwork overhead.
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#139I find it interesting that you start off the article with a sob story about having no money and end with a vacation to Hawaii a year later. Shouldn't you be saving some of this and investing rather than spewing what would assumably be quite a bit on vaca? I am definitely not stingy and blow my money as I please, by my debts are dropping, investments growing, and I haven't(by choice) brought any hellions into this world to support that will need college tuition soon.
Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but it irks ne to see people who have their long term priorities all out of whack(and they usually have way more kids than they can support)
Re: How to Make It on Craigslist
#140Nicely done dude. Happy for you.
Go Portlander!