I'd never use craigslist where I live, it's filled with schemers and scammers.

Honestly, that page looks like a Nordstrom catalog compared to the junk on my CL.

Who wouldn't want a "Pork Cuts" coffee table?

I thought that the Port Cuts would be perfect for the Shabin.

I think we may be close to having the worst. I never find anything on ours. If I look for antiques, all I get are dealer listings. Almost no private sales. And DH listed something recently for sale and there was an obvious scam attempt right off the bat. He took it off and listed the item later and eventually got a legit sale. We assisted the bank in trying to nail the scammers. Pitiful.

My craigslist is in a big city, but it's worse than the one that is linked!

The zebra coffee table is a bargain at $25.00 less. And it originally came from the big city. Ad

tibbrix ... ewwwwwww.

I live in a thriving CL area. I can choose from not only two large metro areas, but even my own town has one. I haven't looked for anything in the last year or so, but I've bought and sold quite a few things on it over the years. Two of my favorite purchases: My dd's entire bedroom set, solid wood and probably at least 75 years old now-that one I found on the Wash DC CL page. I had been looking at everything from brand new in stores, to CL. From my local CL page, I bought a beautiful antique dresser for my other dd's room that, thanks to someone's help from the decorating board, I had refinished and it looks amazing in her room.

Thinking it may be relative to local economy; ours is pretty flat & the listings seem to reflect that. People just don't have the best stuff to begin with. Additionally, people are perhaps not as tech enabled & there are numerous thrift/2nd hand furniture stores as competition.

Who wants to race for the 'gorgeous distressed mosaic tile' coffee & end tables offered here for a mere $350? I don't have any idea how the vintage chicken feeder light fixture, the vintage lockers, or the squishy sofa ended up in the search for 'coffee tables'. And why do these live edge cypress tables look like something about to crawl off and die (Lexington had one too!)?

http://huntsville.craigslist.org/search/sso?sort=rel&query=coffee+tables

I've always been jealous of those who live in prime CL areas. I have never found a single thing on CL.

When I lived in the Dallas area I loved craigslist, found lots of cool stuff and also great people who were excellent trades workers. When I was preparing to move I found great help on Craigslist, from handyman, painters, Packers, drywall repair etc. Now I live in the Houston area and the Craigslist here is terrible. It's all taken over by businesses and cheap junk sales. Even choosing the by individual option leads to nothing of interest. The only thing I have found worth the effort was a used computer and monitor I bought for my neighbor that could not afford a new one, it's still going strong so that was a good buy. I have not found much more. So it's not isolated to small towns.

Ours is horrible. I think our geographic isolation in New Mexico leads folks to believe all of their antiques have tremendous value. For instance, a standard issue depression-era radio table . . . for $400! And the prices never go down. The same things will be listed and relished for a year without reducing a penny.

Not Craig's list, but a good friend of mine insists that our Home Goods doesn't get the same quality of stuff as the next state over.

Our CL has mostly crap. If you are willing to drive to San Diego or L.A., you can do better. The best CL has to be Maine. I see what our Maine posters find on CL and I am so jealous. Even the stuff from their dump...excuse me, transfer station...is better than what I find on my CL and in the consignment stores here.

Ravencajun -- I was thinking you were in the Austin area. I have to agree that Houston's CL is really trashy. CI've looked a few times -- as much to decide whether to try to sell a few things as looking for anything to buy. I've come to the conclusion that it's not worth it -- either donate it or look into a consignment shop. Our Home Goods is better than average, but you have to be quick. Ours is shopped heavily by realtors and stagers, designers and decorators as well as people from other areas.

Outsideplaying, if you look at the bottom of the ads that seem to end up in the wrong search result, you'll see that the poster "tagged" their listing with a whole slew of words meant to bring up their ad in almost any search someone does. Maximum exposure with little effort. Who knows when someone searching for a new coffee table won't decide they actually NEED a set of lockers or chicken feeder light?

The Dallas area CL is pretty darn good, and we've been fortunate with finds more than a few times over the past several years. There are sometimes items posted, however, and I can't quite decide if they're fabulous or flops. This bench, for example. $125. With rag rug. Kind of a strange combo, isn't it?

I'm in the Houston area too and decent CL finds are few and far between, I've bought a chair, table and desk over the years but the desk and table needed refinishing (and the chair was smaller than it looked in the pictures but we liked it anyways). It seemed to me about 5 or 7 years ago the Woodlands Turquoise Wankers started buying up anything vintage or in decent shape, slapped chalk paint on it (usually turquoise) and tried selling for many times market worth. Suddenly everything else available was junk in someone's storage unit, I guess the leftovers that the WTW didn't want. I've been looking for a queen headboard to refinish for years now but everything is dealer, crap or wanker turquoise. Urg.

That is a great bench! As someone upthread mentioned, I think that due to economics, there just wasn't a lot of "nice" stuff here 100 years ago or even 50 years ago, so it's less likely that one will encounter it on CL. And there are tons of resale shops where people can consign. So that explains the shortage of wonderful coffee table options. But goodness, nothing can explain people charging the prices they do, as if their heiney sitting on that couch for seven years added value!

I bought a house off craigslist once.

Mine pretty much stinks but I think it is a reflection of the area at large. The antique stores are pretty much ho-hum as are the new furniture stores. New Mexico does have some craftsmen where one can get some remarkable pieces of furniture custom made but those will cost you quite a few pretty pennies and when such things come up on CL they are still out of my league.

I have found good things by using the name of a company like, if you typed in Restoration Hardware, you'd see all better quality pieces.

ghostlyvision I am lmao over here, what the heck is the Woodlands Turquoise Wankers??? I know where the Woodlands is but have no idea what the WTW is.

My area "should " be good - in between 2 major cities (NYC and Philly, can't get more major than that) and in some very old money areas. I hardly ever even look because it's just proven to be a waste of time.

I think from my recollection on here, that yes- Dallas Ft W and Maine are the winners.

Waste of time in Columbus, OH.

The Woodlands Turquoise Wankers

Hahahahahaha! They have cousins here in the DFW area! I've never seen so much ghastly turquoise-painted furniture from one seller in my life. She must've scored a fantastic deal on paint, but I can't imagine that she's not sick of it yet. I'm sick of just seeing it show up for sale.

I agree with yayagal, when searching I only view items that 'show images' and for sale 'by owner'. I then will put in names of manufacturers that I know often are good quality. It doesn't filter out all the bad, but it makes searching a little easier. I also don't limit myself to only searching in the 'furniture' section. I search all the 'for sale'. It's surprising how often people will list in incorrect categories.

I do have an app (Daily Craigslist) on my iPad that shows items by photos, makes it easy to scroll through quickly.

About the WTWs; some years ago (5 or 7, can't recall exactly) I started seeing listings from someone in the Woodlands, selling painted vintage furniture, mainly turquoise and white, for excessive amount of money, I thought they just got a good estate or storage deal but the listings kept mulitplying and the decent looking good-wood furniture listings started disappearing. I began thinking this person (or group) was buying up everything good enough to refinish and sell and slapping on paint and hoping to make a ton off them.

I thought they'd go broke because they wanted like 500. for a dresser just because they threw (up) Ann Slone paint on it. Sometimes the location listing changes a bit but always in the northern Houston area and usually the Woodlands...they became 'wankers' to me because once they appeared I couldn't find anything at all decent enough to refinish for my own use, and when I saw others of like mind (about turpuoise painted furniture) on the other CL thread they forever became the Woodlands Turquoise Wankers. I wish they'd take their show on the road and let us Houston-area DIYers get back to our chosen hobby.

I've always wondered why people put "pottery barn style" or "restoration hardware style" in half the ads. Now I understand it's because people are searching for those products and then all the non pottery barn/restoration hardware stuff shows up. I have found a few great things but have had to look through lots of junk including lots of "upcycled" painted crap.

I did get a great real pottery barn buffet, a nice coffee table (that included two end tables that I didn't need but found a home for), a perfect wicker chair for my lake place, nice little shelf for my living room and a great royal and ancient golf picture for DH's man room. I still look but don't really need anything else now.

There are some nice things on our CL but I'm astonished at the prices some people try to get for used furniture. It's not like these are priceless antiques. Someone was trying to sell a small wicker storage ottoman for $75 - basic, nothing special. I sent a message and told him when he was willing to sell it for $25 I would take it. That person kept on posting that thing for months at $75. Who has time to do that that....