Yea .... mostly likely it is. Be sure to only accept cash only .. local pick-up only. What happens is they want to send you a check for more than the amount and then want to get the rest in cash. The check then is from a bogus bank or money order and takes a couple of weeks for your bank to find out.

You are out money and the items.

Craigslist is great .... just be smart about it.

Yes, if they all say the exact same thing then yes they are a scam. I use craigslist often but I am now seeing a new message myself " Hey I just saw your ad on craigslist.com, do you need help getting out of debt." Well no I don't. My listings are to rent out a mobile home, sell two that we don't want and we are trying to find someone who can sew my daughter a couple of dresses.

I had one lady that wanted to buy my X-BOX 360.She claimed that she could not pick it up and that she could mail me a check and she wanted me to mail the X-BOX to her daughter. I replied that was not going to happen. Needless to say I got several replies back from her that we not so nice. I wasn't about to go that route with her though.

Just remember if it seems to good to be true then it probably is....

I have sold through the mail for years and years. A postal money order is the only guaranteed funds. You can cash it at the post office, all other payment methods requires your checking account to guarantee it.

I would only use Craigslist for stuff I'm giving away, not selling. I've never bought anything thru Craigslist. either. I consider it a total crapshoot-good for clearing out stuff you don't want. I gave away a pool deck and ladder. a pool pump with filters and chemicals. Nothing of real value. And I allowed local pick-up only. I wouldn't hold anything for anyone, first come gets it!

I use Craigs list all the time for buying and selling - got a great dining table and chairs for $200 - retail at over $2000. I always state that I will only sell locally and for cash if I am selling. I have had no problems. Cheaper than Ebay too.

I have bought and sold dolls for years, but I can't make my self send hundreds of dollars or even $50. to a perfect strangers for the #1 Barbie or whatever. When I did buy a doll through the mail it was from a doll store with an address and phone number I could confirm. To many people I know ave been cheated and besides I like a return policy in case I change my mind.

I love Craig's list, mostly the free board. I have also sold a truck and snowblower on the other boards. Cash only. Also if you go to Yahoo and click Groups then search for freecycle groups in your area you can save tons of $$$. I have given away tons of stuff and received all baby stuff for my new grand-daughter to use while at my house. Highchair, walker, pac-n-play, etc. Also got a good working dishwasher for my son's house. Freecycle is great!

I have sold lots of furniture on CL. First of all, in your add you need to add:

IF YOU CAN SEE THIS AD, THEN THE ITEM IS STILL AVAILABLE

When it sells be sure to delete your ad!!!

Secondly, I move whatever I am selling to the garage so that no one has to come into my house.

Lastly, expect 80% of the people who inquire to never follow up with you -- eventually though, your stuff will sell to the right person. I had a cast iron sink out there for four months and no one looked at it. One day and lady called, came over, and bought it.

I have bought and sold lots of things on Craigslist. Be prepared to deal with flakes though. I have had so many people say they are showing up to buy something and you never hear from them again. And they also offer ridiculously low prices. I had a table that was worth $1200 and I was asking $500 or BO, one person offered $150 in an email without even seeing it. I was remarkably polite.

We admire your restraint in the face of major provocation, aptosca.

ole joyful

I have only sold a few things on CL. The first time I got a few spammers with the check thing. I said cash and carry only. After that on every add I add cash and carry only, spammers need not apply. I have run into very nice people through there. I also use freecycle to give away things. Most of those things I will ask when they are coming and put it outside. One time it was a TV and I put that in the garage and they could here my dog barking.

I like this and never thought of it but will use it. "IF YOU CAN SEE THIS AD, THEN THE ITEM IS STILL AVAILABLE"

I saw in the paper that craigslist is in trouble for promoting prostitution. I guess women or pimps are using the site to promote their business. LOL

I absolutely LOVE craigslist. I would have carpal tunnel if I typed all the stuff I have received from their free list. And I too bought a beautiful dinning room table and chairs for $200, LOVE IT LOVE IT. But yeah there are lots of flakes, including the ones who list things.

I just listed quite a few things for sale on Craigslist. Within a few hours, a man came and bought my old treadmill. He didn't give me what I'd advertised the treadmill for, but we struck a deal that was OK for both of us. It's nice to have it out of my house. Another man has called and made an appointment to buy the sofa I advertised on Saturday. I hope he will show up, but I have not taken the ad off, just in case.

I live 50 miles north of Tulsa and our area doesn't have a Craigslist of its own, we have to use the Tulsa one. There aren't many posts from my community that seem to be using it yet. I can see that it would be a great way to advertise stuff as they don't charge you anything to do it. I've sold books on Amazon.com before and by the time Amazon takes their commission and you pay postage on the book, you don't make very much. I plan to be having a garage sale next month sometime, but some of these items are just too hard to drag out to the driveway, especially since, if they don't sell, I'll have to drag them back in.

I put in each ad, "CASH ONLY". So far I have not had any weirdness. The man who came and bought the treadmill was a very nice person who was deeply involved in his church. I did have one annoying e-mail from a woman who saw an ad I placed for something that I put a really low price on, for what it was, and she tried to deal me down from $200 (which is quite a good deal for the item) to $180, sight unseen. I e-mailed her back that I would consider the offer if the item didn't sell in a week or two but otherwise, sorry, no. Didn't hear from her again. Some people, I think you could offer something for a dime and they'd try to get you to a nickel.

I like how Craigslist hides your e-mail address, but yet allows people to e-mail you through them so you don't have to put your phone number or address on the ad.

We have a local radio station that lets people call in and advertise things for sale for about 2 hours on Saturday mornings and I think also other days but not sure about that. It's difficult to get past a busy signal, and when I finally do, I don't tend to get much response. I had a terrible time trying to sell the treadmill that way because the guy I talked to on the air each time said he was interested in it but never called back to get the address. No one else called either, thinking it would already be sold, maybe. But I don't think very many people listen. Now that I've seen how easy and quick Craigslist is to use, I will probably not want to spend all that time on Saturday morning trying to get my call placed to the radio station.

Thanks, all, for drawing this to my attention. I hadn't realized before that you could sell things through Craigslist, I just thought it was a way to give things away.

We have used CL a lot. We've brought a few things, sold a few things, and given things away. DH once cleaned out the garage and was going to put everything in the trash. Nothing was broken, but it was a few feet of fencing, a few windows, garden tools, a wrought iron planter that was rusty, etc. I told him to take pix and post on CL in the "free" section. By the next day, everything was gone.

When we redid the bathroom, the guys put the old tiles in a box - I gave them to a school group that was creating a mosaic at the park. CL really makes the old saying true - one person's junk is another person's treasure.

There have been several times when DH says "No one will want that" and after I post it on CL, I get a bunch of emails. Have never had anyone try to scam us, and we are the the Washington DC metro area.

Well, I have an update on my Craigslist experience. I've posted eight things. Out of the eight, I've sold two. My major difficulty has been a sofa I advertised. It's a nice sofa. Clean. Looks new. We don't smoke. I posted a picture of everything.

I got a lot of inquiries. Right away I had somebody trying to get the price reduced -- without even coming out to look at it! Don't they know, you go look at it first, try hard to find a flaw, and THEN you try to deal down? But anyway, I got a guy from about 30 miles away who e-mailed me and said, "I want it but I can't come till Saturday." (it was Thursday) He called me twice to verify that I would hold it for him. So I put a pending note on the ad and said if the deal didn't go through I'd contact anyone who e-mailed me. On Saturday morning, the man and his wife came, looked at the sofa, said it was too big and wouldn't fit in his room, and left! So I removed the pending note from the ad and contacted the next person in line. He came right away as he was at the time only a few blocks from my house. Said he'd go get his wife. Called after he left and said she was definitely interested and they'd be right over. Didn't show. I thought that was kind of strange. The next few persons in line never answered my e-mail. The last person in line called and said she was from about a two hours' drive away asking if we could load it on a truck and meet halfway. ?? Like I'm going to do that... Load it up, drive 40 miles, wait for them to show, if they show at all, only to have them say, "Oh, it won't work, sorry." and then have to schlep it back? She got driving directions and said she'd come today. I really don't think she'll show, either. In the meantime, my ad has moved to the second page and I don't think everyone looks at anything but the first page. So I'm feeling like everything else won't sell this time around.

I'm feeling like I should have said that the first person to get here with cash gets the sofa. By the time you wait two days for your first "looker" to come, you've lessened your chances to sell at all. I may wait a few days more and then delete everything and repost a few of them. I realize some things are seasonal -- like the trumpet I advertised, I should wait till late summer when school starts.

I always list and re-list my items on Friday evening as most people are usually looking either Friday evening or Saturday morning when they are most available to go shopping. This puts your item closer to the top on those days. Also, the beginning of the month is the absolute best time to have your item at the top because that is when the most people amount of people get paid. I NEVER hold for anyone more than an hour or so. First come, first serve. As you see, you get the raw end of the deal if you hold an item. Also, cash only, absolutely NO exceptions. People WILL try to scam you with cashiers checks and money orders. Don't fall for it. Always have someone with you when you sell and/or buy. It is just much safer that way! I've added some more tips below. Good luck. You can definitely make some great money and find some excellent deals on CL. I am totally addicted to it and I LOVE it!

Here is a link that might be useful: TIPS FOR CRAIGS LIST

Scarlet, that's a good idea to repost. I'll do that today.

I did finally sell that couch! But I was on my last contact and they were out of town so didn't get back to me right away. I have somebody with a US Army email asking questions about the workout center. Hopefully he's on leave or has family who would come get it if he decides to buy it, because that's the only way....