I was thinking I left a few things out the other day about Craig's List. For instance shipping. You will get asked about shipping items from time to time and I am not wholly against this if the item in not likely to break (I've sold a lot of yarn this way) and the buyer is willing to pay through PayPal. I have the shipping supplies on hand due to my knitted toy business so it's not really a big deal especially since you can buy and print labels online at USPS. But do make sure that the buyer pays for shipping charges and the PayPal fee for sending the money.
What to sell on CL was another thought I had, but that one is pretty easy to answer - pretty much anything if you're willing to wait long enough. By that I mean that your stuff might not sell and at the end of 30 days your listing will no longer be renewable. It will still be up but way down at the bottom of the listings. Then what should you do? Well, I give items up to three months to sell so I make a new ad for the same item and delete the old non renewable ad. This may sound like a pain and if it is for you then go ahead and donate that item. I basically try selling everything first and if at the end of 3 months it still hasn't sold (hasn't happened too often) I will donate it or re-list it in the "free" section on CL.
I'd like to talk more about what I give away on Craig's List. Mainly things that I think would get thrown out if I donated them or items that the charity pickups don't accept. For instance, today I gave away a WaterPik that was only used a few times, but somehow we managed to loose the charger for it. Now, my son didn't take to it so I don't want the hassle of finding another charger, but that doesn't mean someone else would mind. I also got rid of all my hair accessories like barrettes, binders and clips since I cut my hair short as well as all my nail polish , new emery boards and 4 extra clippers. Totally useful stuff, but really unsellable. I feel good not to put more in a landfill and hopefully I helped someone out. It's simply recycling I guess.
Now it's funny that I'm going to say this as I have an ad for clothing up currently, but the one thing I find that does not sell well is clothing. The ad I have up now is for new pants that were washed then deemed too big by my son - can't be returned, but easy to sell. And certain high end children's clothes will go, but regular used clothing I find it's better to simply donate to your favorite charity.
Someone asked me why I didn't use eBay, especially when we sold all my son's Legos, as you can get a better price and my response was all the fees and if the purchaser didn't like it the item they leave bad feed back and nasty emails (happened once to me and it was ugly - yuck.) No fees with CL and if they don't like it they don't buy it - so simple. You may not get the best price for your item, but then again you did get more than at a garage sale where you sit around all day and maybe sell it.
Well, I think I've finally exhausted all I can say about Craig's List except if you haven't tried it yet - do! It can be very rewarding.
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