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8 Things NOT to Put in Your Craigslist Ad

funding travels For the frugal person, Craigslist is a godsend, potentially saving you hundreds or thousands of dollars on stuff you need—but don’t need new. It can even help you find an apartment or items to get your new home set up when you’re moving abroad to, say, Prague or Panama City.

The other way it can really come in handy is for unloading things to help fund your travels. I sold two cars in a heartbeat through Craigslist before moving down to Mexico. If you want your items to sell quickly though, here’s what NOT to put in your ads. All these came from actual advertisements I read in the Tampa area the past week while looking at cars, cruiser bikes, and kayaks.

8) “Please take this piece of crap off my hands.” (FYI, it was a Chrysler Sebring car.)

7) “If you want more info, just come by the house.”

6) “I need to show these while my wife isn’t home.”

5) “Paid $200 new, selling for $160.”

4) “Must pick up tonight or before 9 am tomorrow.” (Ad was posted at 5:30 pm—for a 12-foot kayak.)

3) “Perfect except needs some new parts.”

2) “Will trade for _________” (Usually some item that less than 1% of the people reading are going to own.)

And the #1 most idiotic thing to put in a Craigslist ad:

1) E-mail me and I’ll send photos.

Want some improvement ideas? I like this blog post someone did with a Craigslist ad makeover for a beater car. Happy selling!

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Ryan

Saturday 30th of July 2011

Hahaha that's quality but don't be too hard on the fine people of Tampa, I've read some amazing crap like that from over here as well.

Linda

Thursday 28th of July 2011

The first thing I do when I land on an ad with no photos is hit the back button. Come on, it's free to put photos on there and takes a couple minutes!