Hatrack River Forum: The addictive power of craigslist.

This is topic The addictive power of craigslist. in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Kasie H (Member # 2120) on :

First it was apartments. I hit refresh probably every five or so minutes and was inevitably disappointed when nothing interesting disappeared.

Now that I *have* an apartment, I'm doing the same thing with the furniture. (There are some seriously ugly sofas in this world.)

Anyone else suffer from this??

Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :

Craigslist and I have a love-hate relationship that involves me browsing not only the cars, furniture, electronics and collectibles for sale, but also the job ads (even when I'm not actively looking, I'm looking on craigslist).

Also, I get the biggest kick out of the personals ads. Especially the "casual encounters" ads. We also had fun trying to decode all the euphemisms in the "erotic services" ads.

Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :

I found my dog there. I swear it was under pets and not casual encounters.

Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :

I bought my beautiful piano there. It was like magic. I had been thinking about poking around for a used piano for a long time. One day I had a few extra minutes at work and actually thought to check craigslist (I was a craigslist virgin). Within 10 minutes I had sent two emails and received one phone call during which I arranged to go look at one of the pianos. 24 hours later, there was a piano in my apartment. [Big Grin]

I haven't tried it with anything else, I'm afraid I'll spend all my money. It's worse than ebay because the people live close by and you don't have to pay shipping.

Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :

quote:
I haven't tried it with anything else, I'm afraid I'll spend all my money. It's worse than ebay because the people live close by and you don't have to pay shipping.

Much worse. I went through a period of craigslist swapping, wherein I would sell all the crap I didn't need (extra TVs, electronics, DVDs, etc.) and buy new ones...I was going through probably about 30-40 phone calls and hundreds upon hundreds of e-mails daily for about 6 weeks. It was so. much. fun.

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

Hey, that was my sofa!

-Bok

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

Can you search across craigslist with a single search, or do you have to choose locations first?

Posted by Kasie H (Member # 2120) on :

You have to pick a city but then you can search whole categories -- for sale, jobs, housing, etc.

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

Feh. I'm looking for stuff that would be mailed anyway (collectable cards) and I'd really rather not have to do that many searches.

Back to eBay...

Posted by theresa51282 (Member # 8037) on :

Paul and I found our new apartment on ebay. I just moved in on Monday and LOVE it! I am now addicted to looking for furniture and decor for the place. It really is addicting.

Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :

My mom had to remove it from her favorites to keep her from checking too often.

That said, I've gotten some cool stuff and helped a few people out there too.

Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :

I have spent many long nights reading the Best Of page. I also check the jobs, for sale, and rants & raves regularly and will occasionally stop in in some of the forum areas for advice. It's really very addicting, even if you're not in the market for anything.

Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :

I found a room for the summer on it. Only $350 a month and two trainstops away from Georgia State University (where I'm doing research). They were going to charge me $700 a month for a dorm room...

I also found my job a couple of summers back on craigslist. I *heart* craigslist

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

I just made my first-ever posting on Craigslist, as a first step in getting rid of some of my superfluous clutter. Hard to decide how much to ask, although there's a few items I'll be putting up for free to get someone to haul away without just tossing them. Anyway, interesting. We'll see how it goes. [Smile]

Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :

I'm disappointed in CL lately. I've been trying to sell my snowboard there, like new, for half what I paid for it, and I get almost no hits.

People expect a $700 snowboard package for free. [Frown]

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Hmmm. No bites on my lamp yet, which I posted seriously, but I had two takers within 10 minutes for a crappy old canoe that I listed as ugly, heavy, and with a broken seat.

This may end up being addictive. . .

Added: Four hours in less than an hour, three of them after I marked it sale pending, specifying they want it if they first person doesn't take it. Wow. I apparently didn't ask enough.

[ May 13, 2006, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: ElJay ]

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

Boy, I wished I'd known about this. There was this great oak desk with dovetailed drawers and a little contoured drawer side so you flip through your files. But it wouldn't fit anywhere in our house. We took it to the thrift store, but apparently they don't do large items. They left it out in the rain for a couple of weeks and I'm sure it wound up at the dump. [Frown]

I would have taken it back but once you drop it off, I think it's illegal to take anything away.