Craigslist free section....am I missing something?

So every time I have something useless and IMO worthless I put it on the Craigslist free section to keep it from filling up our landfills. Every time I get like 15 emails in 30 minutes, and someone picks it up within 40 minutes. I've checked ebay and everything I have goes for next to nothing, and if I put it on craigslist for $5 I get 0 hits. What do these people do with these things? I feel like there is too much demand for someone just needing an old vacuum, 6 disk cd player or 10 gallon fishtank. Do they pawn it? Is there a secret underground vacuum black market? I like the karma of helping someone out with a new vacuum, but I wonder if there is $$ to be had instead.

They may be taking it for donation and writing it off on their taxes, or they might just need a vacuum, cd player and a tank for homeless fish.

i only check the free section for firewood. and the vultures always get to it before i do. they probably sell it

I'm a pack rat, so I'll take anything if it's free. If it's something that someone else can use, I have no hard feelings if you give it to someone that actually needs it. I have picked up some cool stuff, like some awesome 60's style shag chairs in the brightest blue and green I've ever seen, a stainless kitchen sink with garbage disposal, a pair of 24 port Cisco Catalyst switches, and tons of random electronics that I've either fixed and used for myself, or fixed and reposted. Some stuff has been sold, though, after I've used it for quite some time and I get a nicer one.

If I see something listed that is not "Spent" and may be of use to someone. I may grab it. if it is better than what I have I may put mine in the community seasonal garage sale, or drop it off at Goodwill or Salvation Armani. In some of the really hoidy-toidy neighborhoods some really decent stuff just gets put to the curb because "Oh, its just too much bother... !"

I always set my junk on the side of the road. There are several older guys that come through the neighborhood and collect most of it. One of them recycles scrap metal. There is another that fixes old lawnmowers to sell. I would just as soon let them have it as give it to goodwill or SA. Several times I have helped them load the heavier stuff.

Toyman01 wrote: I always set my junk on the side of the road. There are several older guys that come through the neighborhood and collect most of it. One of them recycles scrap metal. There is another that fixes old lawnmowers to sell. I would just as soon let them have it as give it to goodwill or SA. Several times I have helped them load the heavier stuff.

Exactly ! A lot of stuff has a great deal of life left in it, But "Bigger, Better, Newer" took over!

No reason for a lot of stuff to hit the landfill !

I'm a college student. I'm always on the lookout for furniture, certain electronics, tools, kitchen stuff... If it isn't bad enough to throw away, it is good enough for someone. And also consider that if you might get $3 for it on ebay, it isn't worth your time. But it might be worth someone else's time.

The other side of that coin is that people will take anything if it's free. There's a huge difference in peoples' minds between something listed as "free" verses asking $5... A few years ago I put some mildewey pressboard kitchen cabinets out by the road, no countertop or any other useful hardware included (I think a couple of door hinges maybe?), and to my great surprise they were gone well before garbage day! Habitat for Humanity wouldn't have even taken those.

Toyman01 wrote: I always set my junk on the side of the road. There are several older guys that come through the neighborhood and collect most of it. One of them recycles scrap metal.

There's always a good use for old scrap metal

EastCoastMojo wrote: They may be taking it for donation and writing it off on their taxes, or they might just need a vacuum, cd player and a tank for homeless fish.

Every time my fish is homeless I look for a new tank on yonder list.

Now we know that your pet fish is a mudskipper

You can pick up a dozen old giant tube TV's on free craigslist right now. Too funny.

I set steel out at my curb for the local scrap guys too. I told my "new friend" to stop back and knock on the front door in two weeks. He did. Gracias!

I occasionaly use Craigslist Free for things I know Goodwill does not accept and I have no good way to dispose of, example my old mattress set, no way to get rid of it easily, but it was far from dead just needed a new home, i even delivered it 15 miles to the new owner and they threw in $20 for gas. Seems a fine way to unload some things.

I heard Team Cheaparall picked up 157 free vacuums off of Craigslist before finding their super fan on ebay for $3.57.

i am one of those guys that picks up scrap on trash night. work is usually slow during the winter so it helps supplement my already crappy income. plus i am doing a service to the environment by keeping recyclables out of the landfill. i even pick up wood and use it to help heat my house instead of letting it go to the dump.

so far in the last month and a half i literally paid for my sonoma with the scrap i have picked up and taken in with it and heated my house for 4 or 5 days

Nope, some people are pack rats. I know a person who will leave work to pick crap up off the curb because she is starting a new hobby every day.. She moved to a new house 2 months ago and the basement is full of crap she has picked up from craigslist.

Best way ever to get rid of moving boxes. They always go really fast.

an inverse argument...

Often times I have put "valuable" things in the free section and had zero hits, but then I put it for sale in the appropriate section for $20 and get all kinds of drool.

A great example... I have some used marine exhaust manifolds that are useless to me. I put them on CL for free. They went the whole 30 days without a single reply. Reposted... nothing. I put them in the Boat section for $15 and they were gone in a day.

First of all, someone who needs Penta Marine manifolds isn't going to be trolling the "free" section, and second, people tend to place more value on something for which they have to pay. I've watched free cars sit for days, but if you advertise a "free" car for $150 it goes in a heartbeat. Why?

Let's say you are looking for a free car so you search the free section of CL. You find a free 1977 chevy van with no motor, a hole in the roof, four flat tires, no title, and massive rust holes. You might get all excited and instantly reply that you'll be there in 20 minutes, but then you realize that its not worth filing for a title, buying tires and an engine... so you pass. But imagine if you place that ad for $200 in the cars section. Now, someone who is looking for a 70's disco van project will jump at the sale.

Here is a good story that demonstrates this. Before the internet years, my father often times put our castoff donation stuff in the back of his truck. When he finally got to town he would drop it off at Goodwill, but in the meantime he might trade it for something or just give it away free. One time we had an old TV that the picture was shrinking. He put it in the back of his truck with a sign that said, "free, needs repair, please take." It stayed there for over a month.

One day we were in town and he had an idea. He changed the sign to say, "TV for sale, $200." We walked into a truckstop diner and it had been stolen before we came out. If people think that something has value, they will value it.

This holds true for anything you put on CL. If you have a Miata worth $4000 and you put in on CL for $4000, you'll get a zillion replies right away from casual browsers who happen to see it on the first page. No one will actually follow through. When you finally sell it is when its on page 12 and someone who is serious about buying actually searches for a car that fits your description.

I reply to every buyer email I get, but I my excitement of selling is proportional to how long its been on the site.