Is Craigslist Really All That Bad?

I’ve had a lot of experience over the last few months in dealing with eBay and Craigslist. My brother needed a little extra cash and decided to sell off several of his prized belongings and I suggested to him that I setup a website and eBay store for him. It sounded like a good idea, but after a few months of selling on eBay it became quickly apparent that between the fees charged by eBay and PayPal that they were taking a good chunk of the money. Yes, eBay is a world-class marketplace for selling your wares online, but we needed an alternative. After a brief conversation with one my brother’s friends, we decided to take our business to Craigslist.

Why I Don’t Like Craigslist

Craigslist – oh let me count the ways that I do not like thee! I’ve had some bad experiences with Craigslist in the past – one episode was when someone used the Apheus name to get people to submit employment applications to them at a gmail account (and I would assume all of their personal information). It took me a few days to figure out why I was getting swamped with phone calls and emails about the “job opportunities” I had available. When I told people I didn’t know what they were talking about, they usually weren’t too happy. It was no fault of my own, but that experience just soured the milk for me.

Another reason I don’t like Craigslist is because it seems too “seedy” for my tastes. I think everyone is well aware of the trouble people can sometimes get into when using the classifieds service. That’s why most people on Craigslist try to control their contact information by only listing a cell phone number – people usually can’t reverse lookup that number and find out where you live. There’s no control over who gets to post and what they post. Of course, after having to deal with several unpaid bids on eBay and having to work to get my fees reimbursed, I guess most online services of this type have the same problem.

From the perspective of a  web designer (and perhaps this is just a pet peeve), Craigslist does not look good. When I look at a website, one of the first things I will look at is the aesthetics of the website. Craigslist is just too plain and tacky for my tastes, but considering the seedy factor I talked about before, I suppose it should be expected. The website is very functional, it just reminds me of those websites from the mid-90′s where graphics were unheard of.

Why I Don’t Like eBay

OK, now that I’ve bashed Craigslist, I suppose it’s eBay’s turn. First off, the items that we are selling on Craigslist can be listed for free and they aren’t taking a cut of the final sale price. When we were running an eBay store, we had to shell out $15 a month just for the store, plus an insertion fee of $0.20 per item. On top of that, once the item actually sold, they would charge a final value fee, which could be as much as 15% of the final value. On top of that, if you process the order through PayPal (which you are basically required to do) they will charge you $0.30 plus as much as 2.9% for the transaction. Oh, and did I mention that they will hold a portion of your money for a few months?

Holy Cow! By the time you’re done selling an item for $25, you’ll have paid out about $5 in fees (and I’m not even including the cost for the eBay store). That may not seem like a lot of money, but think of it this way – the eBay companies are taking about 1/5 of your money and don’t have to do a darned thing. Good business sense on their part, but bad business sense for someone who only has a small presence on eBay.

I don’t even want to mention the problem I have with shipping. Even though we charged the customer for the cost of the shipping, it was very disappointing to find out that very few items actually fit in those flat rate boxes from the post office. Whoever at USPS designed those boxes should be given some type of Congressional medal for figuring out a way to screw shippers out of actually being able to use the flat rate boxes. With everything we shipped from our eBay store, only ONE item actually fit in a flat rate box. Everything else had to be shipped in boxes I purchased from Wal-Mart or Dollar General.

Another problem I have with eBay is the how people who shop on there always expect something for nothing. I’m sorry eBay shoppers, but a lot of you are basically, well – not cool (I had used another word there, but I didn’t want to offend anyone). Some of the items we had listed on eBay were simply too large to ship at the local post office. A boat motor is a rather large item, wouldn’t you agree? Even after having boldly listed that this item was for “local pick up only” people continued to ask how much it would cost to ship. I don’t have a shipping dock here on Muckshaw and I don’t plan on building one anytime soon. But, trying to be a good online merchant, I requested several shipping quotes for those who inquired. When the quotes came back in the $300 to $900 range, I passed the information along and was yelled at for doing so. Apparently, I was somehow suppose to be able to ship a huge boat motor to California for around $20.

While keeping on the subject of the boat motor, my brother showed me that the motor did run and I was satisfied in knowing that I had accurately described and priced the motor on eBay. You wouldn’t believe the number of emails I received with people yelling at me saying that the price was too high or that it didn’t really run. What? OK, Mr. eBay Shopper, if the price wasn’t in your budget, then you need to move on – I’m sorry that you didn’t have the money to buy it (not my problem). To satisfy all of the naysayers who said it didn’t run, my brother and myself actually set the motor up in a barrel of water, started the engine and videoed the entire event. I put the video up on YouTube for the world the see, but do you think that would stop all of the naysayers? Think again… why did I even try?

Craigslist is a Winner

Even with all of the problems I have with Craigslist, I have to admit that it is marvelous tool for selling stuff in your local market area. I was astonished at how quickly we were able to sell stuff on Craigslist and how eager the respondents were to buy the stuff we had for sale. The biggest benefit of Craigslist is that you don’t have to dish out hundreds of dollars in fees to eBay since they don’t charge a dime to list merchandise. Also, since everyone comes to pick up the item you have listed, you don’t have to worry about the PayPal fees or the amount you have on hold. Cash in hand is always preferable to money in an account that you can’t touch.

The shoppers on Craigslist are no strangers to price haggling. But it seems like people enjoy the game a little more over the phone or in person. The make an offer feature on eBay is just way too impersonal and usually results in people making ridiculously low bids. If someone is going to take the time to drive out to look at an item, they’re more than likely not going to do so unless they have an offer in mind. Since I touched upon it, you don’t have to worry about shipping anything on Craigslist. Everyone already knows that they’re expected to pick the item up and most of them seem quite happy even if they have to drive several miles. No more shipping boxes!

My Final Thoughts

Overall, I’ve been very happy with my recent experiences on Craigslist. I was able to help my brother make some extra cash and I learned a few valuable lessons that I can actually translate into work experience. We were able to sell more locally on Craigslist than we were able to sell nationally on eBay. I’m not sure where eBay is headed, but I’m not sure how some people can claim to make boatloads of money on there unless they’re selling in huge volumes. Many dropshipping companies claim that you can make a killing on eBay, but I’m not so sure. With the huge cut that eBay and PayPal take out, it sure doesn’t leave much room for profits and certainly won’t make you a millionaire.