my top 5 tips for finding craigslist treasure!

I’ve got a friend named Craig…and he’s got this awesome list. 🙂

Here is my latest craigslist find. It’s a 1920’s doctors stool. Love.

I shared it on Facebook and had some people ask me how I find such good things.

So I thought I’d share My TOP 5 TIPS for finding treasures on craigslist.

1.  Craigseasy. If you do not use this free tool, then you are wasting tons of valuable time! Craigseasy makes it possible to search quickly by scrolling through photos rather than clicking on individual posts. Did I mention it’s FREE???

(more about how craigseasy works in number 3…)

2.  Search OFTEN.

If you pop on to craigslist once a month, chances are not that great that you will strike gold. It’s simple probability, people. Search often and your odds of finding treasure increase exponentially.

3. Search SMART.

Let’s say you are looking for vintage industrial stuff. First, go to craigslist.org and navigate to your location. On the left-hand side, enter your search terms in the box.

The reason I don’t go to the antiques, furniture or household categories is because I want to grab all of the vintage industrial stuff out there. I don’t limit my search unless I’m looking for something very specific.

Entering this search criteria, brought up 123 items for me. But I want to narrow it a bit. The best way to do this is to enter your top price. If you know you won’t pay more than a certain amount for a piece, then enter it so you don’t waste time weeding through more expensive pieces.

That cut the list down to 100 items and now it looks like this:

If I want to view these items, I will need to click on the links one at a time. VERY TIME CONSUMING!

But I use craigseasy, so here is how I view the items:

I can scroll through 100 items lickety-split!

4. CALL.

If there is a phone number on the listing and it’s a piece you REALLY want, CALL. Don’t email. That is how I got these pieces…

5. See the potential beyond the seller’s crappy photo.

99.9% of the photos that sellers post on craigslist are crap. Don’t dismiss items with potential because of that. Look beyond. Case in point…the original listing photo of my surveyor’s cabinet was horrible. It was taken inside of a garage and was very small and hard to make out the details. But through my squinting, I saw real potential there.

It paid off, because this is my favorite craigslist find ever.

Well, actually it’s probably a tie with this piece. Another craigslist find.

And here’s a bonus tip for you.  Always negotiate.

Always offer less, but do it as nicely as possible. For example, if I find a table that I like and they are asking $75, I will email and say…”Hi there. I’m very interested in the table that you have for sale on craigslist. Would you be willing to take $60 for it? If so, I can pick it up tomorrow.” Nine times out of ten, they accept. Occasionally, they will counter. Rarely people will say no. Then I decide whether it’s worth the full asking price to me.

So there you have it…my top tips for finding craigslist treasure. I hope it will help you score that wonderful piece you’ve been searching for!

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