Craigslist Gloat

That's a good deal, Jon. Here's a nice shear I had to pass on up here ..

Thanks! I thought it was a pretty good deal. Already have one of my customers looking for work for them to help me cover the purchase. I have a 6" wide DiAcro shear and a 12" DiAcro brake with one solid 'finger' that I'll be selling to help offset the new toys. Man, need a bigger shop... (but then, don't we all?? )

That is one NICE looking shear there! Too pricey, too big, or a combo? Looks like it's set up to allow slitting of longer sheets via the throat on the right side. That right there is a very handy feature.

Jon

Just as a followup about Craig's List... I previously sold everthing on eBay, with the exception of items too large to ship. So, just as a lark I began to use Craig's list for all large, local pickup only type items (plus I liked the fact that their is no listing fee or commission on sales). I've only been using it for the past 8-months, but in that time a sold a 1990 Ford Bronco (within 3 days), a garage full of pipe organ pipes, blowers and wind chests (5 days), and a number of other bulky or heavy times...and all at their asking price or nearly close to it.

I'm not preparing to list an 1100-lb. antique letterpress and a 23-ft,

I still buy and sell quite often on eBay, but mostly mailable items.

Still, something I'm curious about: Without listing fees and comissions, how does Craig's List earn its profits?

Harry C.

I often wonder about that too.

This is described on their site:

Q: How does craigslist support its operations? A: By charging below-market fees for job ads in 7 cities and for broker apartment listings in NYC.

Craigslist is beating the s*it out of ebay, which now very often has nothing in response to what I'm searching for. Ebay's glory days are behind it. I believe it is their crummy policies that are to blame, along with their sky-high fees.

GWE

They were once asked by a "stock analyst" as to how they plan to maximize their profits. Craig's answer was, "we have no plan to maximize out profits". I kind of liked it.

That is not the case. I list a lot of stuff on both venues. Realistically, Craigslist has about 1/100th of the buyers that my listings attract on ebay. ebay is well worth the fees, but craigslist definitely is also worth more that I am paying for its listings (nothing).

What Craigslist is beating the s*it out of is the newspaper classified business. Some news stories estimate that they've removed hundreds of millions (per year) in classified revenue from the market.