How I Sell on Craigslist

I sat in line all day to snag one of the original iPhones and every year since I have bought a new model. This is clearly not the most financially responsible thing to do, but I’ve been able to justify it by getting pretty good at maximizing the value of my year-old phone to help fund the newest model.

At this point I have sold countless items on Craigslist including iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, televisions, kitchenware, grills, an air conditioner and four cars. Most people I know are afraid to even try and end up giving valuable things away (which don’t get me wrong, that’s a nice thing to do) or just sticking them in a drawer somewhere. For me selling on Craigslist is pretty painless and I’m surprised that more people don’t do it.

Why Craigslist? I’ve tried selling on eBay before, which of course exposes your items to a much broader audience, but when you live in a major metropolitan area there’s a big enough market to find a buyer, and shipping can be painful and hard to predict price-wise. There are services that purport to do what Craigslist does with nicer sites and apps (craigslist.com looks like someone forgot to update a website from 2003), but Craigslist still seems to have the larger audience.

Here is a list of my selling tactics:

1. I search Craigslist for similar items to determine the initial price. I don’t expect to get that price in the end as some negotiation is normal.
2. I use photos that clearly show the item and any defects it may have (don’t surprise the buyer). I don’t worry about beautiful product photography, this is a venue for amateurs.
3. If I don’t get much interest in my item at its current price, I lower the price by $50 after two days (or by $500 in the case of a car). Once I get to the right price I will see a lot of interest.
4. I renew the ad every two days (which is when I also adjust the price) which brings my listing to the top. For a car this costs $5 per renewal.
5. If I don’t get a lot of activity at a given price, I’ll sell it if someone offers me $50 (or $500 for cars) less than my list price. If someone offers me $100 off the price I’ll counter, but if it’s lower than that I’ll ignore them (occasionally I find lowball offers offensive and am tempted to respond with outrage, but then I remember that that would be ridiculous).
6. The seller comes to the buyer. For the most part I ask the buyers to do the exchange at my house. Some people only want to meet at a public place but I’m not paranoid and don’t want to take the time to drive to meet someone (occasionally I make exceptions if they’re willing to meet me close to where I work). For cars I will typically meet the buyer at a bank.
7. I only accept cash or a cashier’s check. As a general rule I hate dealing with cash, but PayPal, Venmo, etc charges can be reversed. With cars you typically meet at the buyer’s bank so that they can get a cashier’s check.
8. Agree to the price ahead of the meeting. If someone tries to lower their offer when they show up (which is rare), it pisses me off and I will walk away purely on principle. I literally did this once over $5.
9. I never respond to offers that are over my asking price that come with a request to ship the item. This is a scam.
10. If I have an item that is low value, is really painful to transport, or that I just want gone quickly, I will list it for free. It takes very little time for someone to offer to pick something up for free.

So that’s my selling strategy. If anyone has some better techniques I’d love to hear them, but overall I feel like I have a system that works and is low effort, which enables my annual iPhone renewal.