Let's talk about Craig's List apps for your smart phone

If you don't know about what I'm about to tell you...you better put a helmet on to keep from making a mess because it's going to blow your mind.

I used an app for years named Craigs List Notifier on my android phone. It worked great for various reasons but it's main function was to monitor Craig's List for searches I specified. For example, you guys know how hard it is to get the jump on a Miata sale via CL. If the car is priced low it can be gone in an hour. I could configure this app to search for manual transmission Miata's of a certain year range in a specific price range every 15 mins. Worked great.

Then the app was taken off the market. Fudge.

It's taken me a month to find one that worked like the previous app. I tried cPro and Mokriya. cPro was a paid app and I was unable to easily configure it to run searches repeatedly during the day. Mokriya was free and would schedule searches but I could not configure the search frequency. It seemed like it would search once a day at best. Also, Mokriya missed some ads that fit my search criteria. Not optimal.

Next I tried configuring an internet RSS feed site to send emails to my phone. That site was an RSS feed site named feedly and a site named IFTTT to send the rss notices to my gmail account. That didn't work either.

After that I went back to the google play store and found Clapp. (Ha ha. It's named after the slang term for an STD.) As a single download it's a great CL search app. Next you have to download CLNotify so it will then become fully usable in the way the Notifier app was. CLNotify is offered in the app itself so it's not hard to find. With the second download you can set the frequency for checking CL via searches you've built. It works great. I have it set to run searches every 15 mins for the cars I'm looking for.

Previous to finding this app I was on CL quite a bit during the day. Trying to score the next hit..I mean sweet sweet deal. I happened across a few this way. I found a Focus SVT w/ 120k miles in great shape for $2500. I was next in line but he first person to see it bought the car. I've seen a few Miata's but I'm not shopping those right now. A turbo'ed GSR showed up, in pieces, which I decided to pass on. The ad was deleted in under four hours. To me, this means the app works. I at least see and get a crack at the really hot deals.

If you guys try this...let me know how it works for you. Also, if any of you have other apps that work or bargain hunting techniques you'd like to share let's hear it.

Craigsnotifica is the best for Android, IMHO. It got pulled off the play store (after an unspecified complaint) and the developer is no longer supporting it, but you can find the installation package out there.

You can set up multiple searches, with full search criteria and regions. It supports push notifications as soon as something gets posted. It's really lightweight, no bloat/adware.

Powerful and simple.

Without these tools, you're not in the game for getting good deals on CL. Here's an example of a deal I missed out on a few weeks ago:

Atlanta -- 1995 Porsche 911 (993) with all maintenance and documentation. C2, sunroof manual. Dark red metallic over tan leather. Beautiful car! $22000 obo.

I was corresponding with the owner early in the day and told him I would take it Monday once the bank opened, but I was sure it would be gone later in the day. He didn't seem to believe me, but sure enough...within three hours someone showed up with that much cash. Great, no-excuses car for probably $12-15k under the market value.

Craigsnotifica is what I'm using too and seems to be working well for me. Too well at times...

craigsnotifica, I have the .apk if you want it. Still on my phone. BUT it seems broken now because you cant enter a zip code and a radius to set the areas, you have to enter them manually and its a pain. Thats what I mainly use it for. It also normally doesnt load the ad correctly in app and I have to use the web browser version to see it.

Leafy wrote: craigsnotifica, I have the .apk if you want it. Still on my phone. BUT it seems broken now because you cant enter a zip code and a radius to set the areas, you have to enter them manually and its a pain. Thats what I mainly use it for. It also normally doesnt load the ad correctly in app and I have to use the web browser version to see it.

These were some of the complaints that forced me to look for an alternative. I could find the apk but once installed the app just didn't work right on my Nexus 4. Maybe because of the new Android version? Either way, I found that CLapp works great and just as well as Craigsnotifica.

So, install this thing and let's flag some adds that shouldn't be there in the first place. All while shopping for cheap fun cars.

clapp you say? Will download next time I'm on wifi.

Leafy wrote: craigsnotifica, I have the .apk if you want it. Still on my phone. BUT it seems broken now because you cant enter a zip code and a radius to set the areas, you have to enter them manually and its a pain. Thats what I mainly use it for. It also normally doesnt load the ad correctly in app and I have to use the web browser version to see it.

Try it again. ...I have it on my phone and tablet... it wasn't working for a few weeks but the other day it started working again

I have the cPRO app on my iPhone and it works fine. I picked up my 2.5RS using the Notifier function. It works really good for posting used cars and parts as well.

It gives me problems sometimes, but I'd say 90% of the time it works as intended. Its pretty cool stuff and I'm glad to have it. It was a paid app, but only $5 or $6.