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How to Make It on Craigslist

blog.priceonomics.com

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Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#151

Post by jseliger »

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…

Exceedingly useful. He's providing important information to the market and matching buyers and sellers who otherwise wouldn't have met each other. There was a recent Econtalk podcast with Mike Munger on this subject: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/10/munger_on_middl.htm... , in which Munger and the host, Russ Roberts, discuss the role of middlemen and making markets.

Without him in the picture, buyers could have purchased their items for less and saved money.

Without him in the picture, buyers might not have found the items and wouldn't have the benefit they think buying the items at all will give them. He's doing a major public service.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#152

Post by jeffclark »

kin wrote: post #28

People also used to do this with eBay. I also sometimes sell on Craigslist but I work full time so it has to be larger scale. Sometimes I buy event tickets and sell them on Craigslist for a profit if I know there will be high demand. The profit margin is typically at least 50%. And I make at least $100/ticket for simply printing a piece of paper and meeting someone at Starbucks.

I do the same thing with tickets. And since I can make Internet, I made a site to handle accepting the payment and getting them their PDF ticket: http://www.boxrowseat.com

Made selling on CL about 1000x easier :)

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#154

Post by roseburg »

mey wrote: post #96
roseburg wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Appreciate it.

Personally I've always considered craigslist to be sketchy from a buyer or seller point of view. Since I live in Portland, I'll keep you in the back of my mind if I need to get rid of anything I don't have time to handle myself. I'd rather work with someone trustworthy then deal with the unknowns of craigslist. (Welcome to self branding. :) )

If you go to news.google.com and type in Craigslist you will get a vastly disproportionate number of negative/positive Craigslist stories. Muggings get reported, smooth transactions don't.

Shoot me a message if you ever need help with something.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#155

Post by tikhonj »

JWLong wrote: post #58
thinkdevcode wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It might not be the most logical thing to do, but it's not like it's necessarily an immoral thing to do (as "Let's rephrase your statement: 'Paying back on things you've already purchased...'" implies). It's one thing if the money is borrowed from a friend or family member (as a charity or with extremely below market interest rates). But the 2.43 trillion dollars of debt that you cite is almost entirely with institut…

It probably isn't even illogical. He makes money in a way that heavily depends on him--his morale and how much work he is willing to put in. I would not be surprised if going on a vacation actually motivated him enough to be a good deal from even a purely fiscal perspective.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#157

Post by roseburg »

Kluny wrote: post #136
roseburg wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have a 7" samsung galaxy tab with built in 3g from verizon. I also have a dash mount so I use it as a gps as well as to pull up emails, addresses and listings on the fly. It also acts as a hot spot to give internet to my laptop when I'm traveling.

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#158

Post by ars »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #130
dangrossman wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about. Pull out your 2011 form 1040: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf * 56: Self-employment tax. Attach Schedule SE. * 61: Add lines 55 through 60. This is your total tax. * 62-72: Credits and payments, including the Earned Income Credit. * 76: AMOUNT YOU OWE: Subtract line 72 (total credits) from line 61 (total tax). That's where his $6.3k SE bill gets nearly wip…

But he gets those credits whether or not he reports his profit. On a cashflow basis, it will cost him 20%. You are right though, his tax bill at the end of the year would be about 8% of $45k.

That's not true - the EIC goes up when you make more (up till a limit).

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#159

Post by ars »

dmotz wrote: post #144
Barnabas wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Went to check it out. Pretty. I didn't see anything but yet another "create a login" screen, no sample of what the email looks like. Closed tab.

Appreciate the feedback. No one likes blocking signups, myself included. Trouble is, the app can't serve the user without having his or her email address on hand. I suppose I could rework the process so the user can give an email address after seeing how the interface works. For those curious, the emails it sends are simple lists of links, sorted by keyword.

What you should do is ask them what they want to search for, then go and do the search and show the results. (It's OK if you show old results - not sure what your technical architecture is.)

Then invite them with: Have these results emailed to you every day, enter your email here:

Also, I tried to sign up using the login form - that's not cool. If there is no match put up a page say, no such account, would you like to create it?

Re: How to Make It on Craigslist

#160

Post by ars »

mikeash wrote: post #119
jccc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt very much that sellers would appreciate this liquidity "service" if it were spelled out for them. They would feel cheated, as would the buyers.

People rarely feel ripped off buying goods from retail stores, even though everybody knows that retail stores just buy goods for less money than what they charge and make their profit based on that difference.

Not exactly. Retail stores make their profit by buying in bulk and selling individually. Their service is dividing up large orders.
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