Should you’re underneath 30 and recognize the worth of a greenback, likelihood is that you just’ve used Craigslist. Began by a lonely San Franciscan in 1995 as a solution to join folks, Craigslist has since change into the net’s #1 vacation spot for labeled adverts. The positioning welcomes a staggering 200 million+ guests per 30 days, connecting school youngsters to smelly couches in 70 international locations.
I’ve been on Craigslist since 2005 after I started shopping for and promoting used airsoft tools for gasoline cash in highschool. And whereas I really like Craigslist for supplying me with telephones and furnishings all through school, as an grownup, I’ve damaged up with Craigslist (and it is best to, too).
11 superior, safer alternate options to Craigslist
There are a variety of superior marketplaces you may store by way of, fairly than waste your time (and hard-earned cash) on Craigslist.
1. Fb Market
Facebook Marketplace is my #1 total Craigslist alternative. You’ll discover listings for electronics, furnishings, temp gigs, residence leases, and extra. Consumers and sellers can talk and pay immediately by way of Fb Messenger and are required to make use of their actual profiles. Consequently, Fb Market has considerably fewer scammers and sketchy listings.
Plus, to encourage capitalism, Fb will sometimes provide to ship your offered gadgets totally free.
I purchased my Kindle, offered my Xbox, and have achieved dozens of extra gross sales by way of Fb Market and have solely had constructive experiences. General, it feels safer, kinder, and higher than Craigslist.
2. eBay
Tesla in all probability wouldn’t exist with out eBay, which purchased Musk-led PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Enjoyable information apart, eBay set an instance for on-line classifieds that I want Craigslist had adopted. The basic public sale website has gracefully developed right into a veritable world bazaar the place you should purchase just about something from anybody in any nation.
3D printed automotive elements from China? Carpets from Turkey? Uncommon collectibles from Iowa? They’re all on eBay, rapidly accessible by way of a slick interface with deep search features. Plus, vendor status is all the things on eBay, so most will work with you to make issues proper should you run into an issue.
3. Realtor.com
Realtor and Craigslist will share a whole lot of the identical listings for housing and leases, however I choose shopping on Realtor as a result of it has a greater UI and is just about void of sketchy listings. Plus, listings themselves are extra thorough, with photographs, flooring plans, and visiting hours.
Realtor additionally lets you join with actual property brokers and consumers and sellers in a better, safer method. So, whether or not you’re in search of an house rental otherwise you’re full-on shopping for your first residence, persist with respected marketplaces like Realtor.
4. Upwork
Should you’re seeking to rent or promote your companies for gig work, particularly for distant alternatives, Upwork is your pal.
Its #1 benefit over Craigslist is that it retains funds in an escrow, so that you’re much less prone to get ripped off as both the customer or vendor. Plus, its UI is much less clunky and simply feels higher.
5. Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a neighborhood-specific market and message board. You may filter to incorporate households inside roughly one, three, and 5 miles, and despite the fact that that community consists of hundreds of strangers, Nextdoor nonetheless feels extra collaborative than Craigslist and even Fb Market.
Nextdoor’s For Sale & Free part displays this pleasant vibe. Of us regularly record gadgets totally free or practically free, merely seeking to give them away to somebody of their space. It’s an ideal place to search out high quality furnishings, train tools, devices, and extra and buy them with out having to journey wherever unsafe or unfamiliar.
6. Habitat ReStore
Lastly, should you’re purchasing for home equipment, furnishings, or residence enchancment provides, take a peek in your native Habitat ReStore earlier than heading to Lowe’s or Craigslist. A hybrid of Goodwill and House Depot, the ReStore sells surplus provides and donations from Habitat for Humanity for a tiny fraction of retail. Better of all, the proceeds help future Habitat homes!
For brand new owners particularly, the Habitat ReStore is a must-visit. Even should you go away with only a window and a sink, you’ve already saved a whole lot and supported a 501(c)(3) within the course of.
7. Goodwill Finds and Store Goodwill
Goodwill has wisened to the truth that it receives a excessive quantity of beneficial items, from designer garments to jewellery to uncommon collectibles. So now, to generate extra cash for the trigger, it appraises these items and lists them on-line for costs a lot nearer to their true market worth.
Its two foremost shops are ShopGoodwill.com, which is an public sale website, and GoodwillFinds.com, which lists gadgets at a flat value like a conventional retailer. Costs are much like what you may see on eBay, with the occasional “treasure” that was misappraised or didn’t obtain sufficient bids.
8. Freecycle
Freecycle is like Craigslist totally free stuff. It’s a grassroots, nonprofit group with chapters for many cities and cities, and because it’s moderated by native volunteers, the standard management tends to be fairly tight — no scams or small enterprise spam.
For the common younger particular person, Freecycle might be extra useful for eliminating stuff than for locating stuff. Should you don’t need to lug your previous mirror or mattress spring to Goodwill, you may put up it there and somebody will seemingly come and seize it inside 24 hours.
9. Mercari
Mercari is sort of a standalone different to Fb Market. Sellers (largely regular of us, not companies) record new or gently-used gadgets on the market and consumers could make affords or just purchase them outright.
Like Fb Market, Mercari has purchaser protections in place to enhance shopper confidence and likewise has a filter for native offers so it can save you on transport. Mercari’s UI is great, making for a breezy procuring expertise, and the choice for every type of products tends to be surprisingly robust.
10. Etsy
For the uninitiated, Etsy is the Amazon of customized or selfmade items. You may order personalised frames, customized jewellery, and even Renaissance-style watercolors of Shrek.
General, it’s a far superior different to Craigslist and even Amazon for particular presents and residential decor — together with for these on a strict price range. For instance, I obtained my accomplice Holly a silver necklace with an inside joke laser-etched on it for simply $35, and he or she melted. I additionally obtained my outdoorsy mates a picket body with their anniversary hand carved, eliciting an identical response.
11. Vehicles & Bids
Lastly, should you’re seeking to purchase or promote a “cool” automotive however don’t need to get scammed on Craigslist, contemplate Vehicles and Bids.
The brainchild of automotive YouTuber Doug Demuro, Cars & Bids is like eBay Motors however just for sports activities, luxurious, quirky, and in any other case fascinating vehicles from the trendy period. The choice could also be restricted, nevertheless it’s additionally extraordinarily well-curated, so consumers can store for his or her subsequent cool automotive with confidence.
That stated, should you’re simply seeking to promote your “regular” automotive, try my characteristic: The 5 finest (and best!) methods to promote your automotive.
5 causes to cease utilizing Craigslist
Craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, is a pleasant man, however he’s not a lot of a pacesetter (his words, not mine). And he’s a robust believer in Dunbar’s Quantity, a philosophy which states that people can solely preserve significant social relationships with a restricted variety of folks. So to make sure crew cohesion, he capped Craigslist at simply 50 workers.
Against this, Zillow and eBay make use of over 8,000 and 10,000 folks, respectively.
50 workers simply isn’t sufficient to handle a website with over 200 million guests per 30 days, as evidenced by Craigslist’s persistent charges of scams, faux listings, and crime.
So whereas Craiglist maintains a beneficiant Glassdoor rating, its customers endure enormously from the dearth of innovation, curation, security, purchaser safety, and help that its opponents provide.
Listed here are 5 good causes to cease utilizing Craigslist (amongst many):
1. It’s probably harmful
Every time a string of robberies (or worse) is linked again to Craigslist, the corporate is fast to defend itself. Craigslist reiterates that statistically talking, for each Craigslist Killer there are hundreds of thousands of regular transactions.
True, however Northeastern College criminologist Jack Levin points out that Craigslist remains to be a perfect searching floor for 2 causes:
- Customers can function in full anonymity, by no means revealing their identify, cellphone quantity, or any traceable data.
- Craigslist affords a perfect platform for premeditated crimes. For instance, a “vendor” as soon as listed a $1,000 cellphone for $800, and easily robbed a prospective buyer of his money upon arrival.
Whereas the chance of you getting robbed throughout a Craigslist deal could also be statistically low, probabilities of foul play nonetheless appear increased than on a competing website with fundamental purchaser safety.
2. It’s rife with scams, fraud, and phishing
You’re much more prone to be scammed than robbed courtesy of Craigslist. Craigslist scams are so widespread that there are .gov pages ranking them.
The most typical scams are faux housing leases, the place customers usually tend to make a digital down fee and share important private data with a “realtor.”
3. It’s choked with small enterprise adverts
Craigslist needs to be a spot the place you may go surfing and buy a gently-used cellphone or sofa from a neighbor. As an alternative, it’s change into bloated with adverts for pawn outlets, used automotive sellers, and extra.
As evidenced by the screenshot, there’s nothing stopping these companies from posting a number of occasions in a row, neither is there any safeguard vetting their legitimacy.
Positive you may simply ignore them, however opponents deal with sketchy solicitors significantly better. Each eBay and Fb Market have built-in filters for C2C listings versus B2C listings, making a a lot cleaner shopping expertise.
Talking of shopping expertise…
4. Its UI is older than Put up Malone
50 workers means which you can’t actually sustain with the Joneses within the interface division. Craigslist seems like an HTML-based web page from the 90s as a result of it’s; the location hasn’t skilled an overhaul since Sophie Turner was born.
You could possibly say that Craigslist exemplifies the “if it ain’t broke” philosophy, and that’s honest. The positioning features at a fundamental degree simply advantageous.
Nonetheless, if you develop accustomed to options like Fb Market’s transparency and prompt messaging, and eBay’s purchaser safety and vendor critiques, Craigslist begins to really feel much less quaint and easily outdated.
5. There are significantly better alternate options
Craigslist jogs my memory of Coolest: a Kickstarter that grew so common that it failed.
Craigslist hasn’t failed within the conventional sense, nevertheless it’s fallen behind opponents in usability, curation, and most critically, security.
Abstract
Craigslist began with a noble goal however has gotten too large for its britches. Its skeleton crew of fifty workers merely can’t present much-needed updates to usability, curation, and most notably, security for its hundreds of thousands of customers.
Fortunately, should you’re seeking to purchase and promote on-line, superior alternate options exist.
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