Wait, wasn’t this the market eBay used to be in essentially? But with an auction-based twist? Seller X has a used item. He lists it on eBay. Buyers Y and Z determine how much they are willing to pay for Seller X’s item and the highest bidder wins. Item is shipped. Buyer and Seller sleep peacefully at night.
But the story sparked something else in me that I hadn’t realized before; I use Craigslist as much, if not more, than eBay now.
And why not? There are no fees, no in-your-face “premium” listings that take top rank over any of yours (because the seller gave eBay more money), and you can post photos of your items for free. And if you sell locally, no shipping!
Sure, eBay has a larger market because it does market to the world, basically, and I wish there was an option in Craigslist (there may be) so you could list your item in multiple cities and offer a shipping cost and method. Also, Craigslist has a really bad search feature. Many times I want to search for an item not only in my home town but cities within 100 miles of me. All of these features may exist, but they aren’t promoted well enough for me to see them. I think Craigslist could also use a major redesign.
I know a bit about Internet marketing, but for the life of me I can’t see how Craigslist makes money other than its fees for job postings (which may very well be its main target audience) but they manage somehow, and I am thankful.
Thanks to their fee-less-ness, I skipped over eBay Motors to sell my Toyota Tacoma last year. I paid zero dollars to list it, and eBay and PayPal got zero fees from the sale. And it took 29 days for it to finally sell for the exact price I wanted it to sell for. And it sold locally.
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