craigslist

[solewheelin]

it's crazy how they haven't changed a thing on there after over 20 years. i used to ride and skate all over to trade buy sell gear with people in the city from early 2008. Most were great experiences.
I recently sold cabinets to someone. I delivered them and helped carry them. Great experience.
Then again, i was trying to sell something heavy on there recently and the guy wasted 4 hrs of my time only to be a no show after i took a boat to meet him. I know it's common enough. I wasnt happy though.
Thats the thing. There no real honor code/ rules on there. Its always wide open.

Point - I realize though that it is one of the last mediums we have that isn't sucked on by the government.
Can it, should it be brought back? it's still easy to use providing people use the honor system.
Seems like maybe many that used it are now using fb marketplace more often so they can lowball more intimately. I could be wrong.

[John]

I hate FB Marketplace because it shows your ad to people too fuckin' far away to buy, and then they get mad because you won't ship or drive to another state so they can kick tires and lowball.

Craigslist is still great but I wish they would bring back the personal ads because that shit was fuckin' hilarious

[K2000]

IMO, it's the best place to buy speaker cabinets that nobody wants to ship.

IMO, not a good place to buy pedals (prices higher than eBay or Reverb, with a very narrow selection).

There's no accountability for sellers there. So (for example) I would never want to buy a vintage guitar there, only to find out it's not exactly what the seller described (replacement parts, etc)

[solewheelin]

Yup. Anything you don't want to ship. I love it for that.
I used to find so many pedals on there. Man alive it was so great. I guess covid made it shift in some way.
Negative stigma was also so stuck onto it which also kept it more underground i guess.
But now i feel like theres even more incentive to bring it back like its a source of community.
It really was based on extreme honor system though. It's what was both good and bad about it.

[repoman]

IME The music section of CL has always been sketchoid no matter where you are using it. Theres a high percentage of flakes that are into making music!
I pretty much stopped using it when Reverb came around, but then started using it again when Reverb was sold and they went to shit...mostly good experiences but still a lot of people that think nothing of arranging a time to meet and then not showing (and wasting a lot of your time).

The sketch level is considerably lower in other sections...bikes, tools, photo equipment...

[crochambeau]

I've seen some listings on facebook marketplace that, because I could peep on the seller profile, I have steered very clear on. That's the only benefit IMO, and I admit there is some "judging a book by its cover" going on.

I've also got a friend who was recently complaining about facebook marketplace because they needed to input some EIN/tax data in their profile to "activate" a selling feature on a listing that involved shipping. It would not surprise me to see facebook take that next step and demand sellers connect a bank account so facebook can start culling fees...

after which I expect craigslist might get a revitalizing boost. Insofar as the internet in general is concerned, it's been a more and more wretched hive of scum and villainy since Eternal September. Present company excluded of course.