Welcome new readers! This is part 1 of a series. See part 2: secrets of Ebay shopping and part 3: saving money everywhere else. Don’t miss my other money-saving posts: subscribe via RSS feed here, or through Facebook or Twitter to catch the rest. Thanks for stopping by!
Let’s do a series, whaddaya say? Because bloggers who do a series are serious and have their junk together and someday I will grow up to be a blogger like that.
I thought it’d be fun to share online shopping tips, including Ebay, Craigslist and Everything Else. Of course selfishly I’m hoping you’ll share your best tips too, so I can glean some wisdom.
First, let’s start with Craigslist, because it is THE place to go for overstuffed recliners with built-in cupholders, casual encounters and the occasional brilliant furniture find.
1. Display Photos with Search Results
Can we all just agree that the worst part about shopping on craiglist is that you have to open up each listing to see the details?
If so, I’m about to rock your world. Option #1 is to click “show images” on the search results page. I have seriously used craigslist for entirely too many years without knowing about this trick!
Option #2 is to use Craiggers.com, because it will change your frickin life.
UPDATE: Looks like Craiggers no longer works. Bummer! But I’ve heard great things about craigseasy.com!
Enter your search on the home page:
Click enter and your search results come up – with PHOTOS. And DETAILS.
You can even narrow down your search by selecting a maximum or minimum price, selecting multiple categories at once, or setting a maximum distance from your zip code. (Earth-shattering, right? I KNOW, friends. I know.)
Update: It looks like craiggers is unavailable for now, but a few commenters have suggested using SearchTempest or CraigsEasy instead.
2. Narrow down your search.
Say you want to find a glider for your nursery that you haven’t started working on yet for your little girl who is due in SEVEN weeks – I accidentally just got very specific – so you want to search for “glider” without getting a list of sugar gliders for sale.
Glider -sugar
“Hollywood regency nightstand”
And your search would give you only results that used those three words together, in that order. And how dare we talk about hollywood regency nightstands without a little unnecessary eye candy?
Kilim | Chevron
3. Have new listings sent to your RSS feed or email.
If you’re stalking craigslist every day for that perfect set of Chinese Chippendale chairs, stalk no more! Have new listings sent to your RSS feed every time they’re posted. Just type in your search, and on the search results page, click on the orange “RSS” button on the bottom and add it to your feed.
Or, to have search results sent to your email inbox every 24 hours, right-click on that orange RSS button on the search results page, then click on “copy link address.” Your browser might say something else, like “copy” or “copy link location.”
Then go to: www.feedmyinbox.com. In the “Website or Feed URL” box, right-click your mouse and click “paste,” then enter your email address and you’re all set!
4. Search Every Craigslist
If you’re looking for something that doesn’t need to be local, or you’re willing to pay for shipping, you might want to search all craigslist locations in the U.S. I used this when I was trying to find a very specific bridesmaid dress for a wedding I was in, and I didn’t want to pay the crazy full price when I knew I’d only wear it once.
Use http://www.searchallcraigs.com/ to find listings across all sites at once.
5. NEGOTIATE
Don’t be shy. When you find what you want, offer something less. The worst they can say is “no,” and to be honest, as a craigslist seller, I’m often shocked when people don’t even try to knock something off the price. Don’t be a jerk by offering something outlandish, but at least give negotiation a try!
6. Not finding what you need? Buy a gift card!
Did you know you can find gift cards on craigslist? When we were knee-deep in remodeling after we had just bought our house, we often bought Lowes and Home Depot gift cards from craigslist. You have to be VERY careful, and we always met the seller AT a Lowes or Home Depot to verify the value before we handed over our money, but we often bought gift cards for about 80 percent of their value. It’s a fantastic way to save money on big purchases!
What tips did I miss? How do you find used and well-loved items on craiglist efficiently? (Don’t forget to check out Part 2 of this series (eBay) here and Part 3: How to save money online everywhere else here.)
And click here to see all our tips and hacks!
Hi, I'm Kelly. Glad you're here! This little blog is where I chronicle our efforts to fix up our beaten-down home on a tiny budget. We're not there yet, but here's a peek at the view along the way...
WOAH!!! DID NOT know about the “show images” thing!!!! This is seriously going to change my craigslisting. Also didnot know about craiggers. Basically you changed my life. For real. 🙂
Holy cow!!! How did I not know about the pictures or craiggers? I’m in shock.
Great tips! I just learned things about Craigslist that I never knew!
This is great! We have found some of THE best finds on Craigslist!!
I had no idea about the craigslist photos! Am I allowed to publicly admit that I’ve used Craigslist to get rid of a sugar glider? I about spewed out my smoothie when I saw that photo. Less than a month after getting married, my new husband brings home one of these little creatures as a birthday present. It was NOT what I wanted and I would have cried myself to sleep except that they’re nocturnal.
i think you may have just changed my life with this craiggers.com thing!!! i had no idea this existed!!
Love these tips – I always use Craigs Easy but it looks like Craiggers is a much better web tool! Thanks – will definitely give it a try SOON.
And a big yes to negoitation.. I hate to negoitate but I try to force myself to offer less than what they ask. 90% of the time, they say YES to my offer or state a lower price than what they originally asked. It doesn’t hurt AT ALL to ask.
Um, whoa. Mind blown. I thought I knew what I was doing on craigslist, but I guess it’d been amateur hour around here. If these tips allow me to finally (after about a year of dutiful searching) snag a 6 or 9 drawer faux bamboo dresser, I may have to come clean your house or find some other way to show my gratitude. Ok, off to get me some rss…
Update: 9 drawer faux bamboo dresser came home with me today for $60 (with a matching nightstand that will be sold, hopefully for more than that). Found it in a listing I probably wouldn’t have clicked on without the “show images” trick I learned here. THANK YOU! My husband thanks you too since he thought my project list was getting far too short and that I desperately needed another furniture makeover to tackle (or just ponder and talk endlessly about).
Seriously I DO love you! I can’t believe I didn’t know many of these tips! My life just got easier!!
Okay these are AWESOME tips! I had no idea you could do all of this on craigslist! I used to be a craigslist stalker and quit for a while but now I will start it up again! Thanks for sharing them!
The only one of these tips that I knew was the image thing–discovered that a few months ago! SO helpful! I usually say something like “Are you at all negotiable on the price?” and they’ll come back with the lowest they’ll go. Works without me feeling dumb–or insulting them–for offering too little. 🙂
The website name you link to in tip #3 sounds like a a Craig’s List strap line in the ‘casual encounters’ section.
Just saying.
LMBO!!!
…except when the craigslist ‘listers’ are about ninety years old and they think their stuff is woth about, oh I don’t know, TWENTY TIMES MORE than it really is. Yeah. And that’s all I have to say. Oh, and I’m following. Because I am ALL about some baby pics.
Craiggers?!! What? You’ve done it…blown my mind. It’s official. Thanks for the great (and I mean it) tips!!
Be careful about the gift cards. Often people are selling these for cash because they originally stole merchandise and returned it without a receipt for store credit/ gift cards. Not something ethical you want to support.
I’m soooo behind on your blog. :(((( BUT I loved these tips like whoa!!!
Did not know about craiggers. You are so wise.
I’m still creeped out by Craigslist. It’s another weird Michelle thing.
Ok, I LOVE Craigslist and I learned tons from this! I will seriously have to try out Craiggers and turn on thumbnails since I hate browsing and opening up everything. And I am so using RSS now! Thank you SO MUCH!
This is awesome Kelly! I had no idea about the image preview on craigslist or the craiggers site! Thanks for putting this together!
Holy cow, that’s a lot of cool info. I have to admit I have lost many, many hours of my life searching for something so you may have just changed my life:) I would never have bought a g/c on craigslist but your tip about meeting at the store is brilliant!
Great tips. I didn’t know about craiggers.com
I have used http://www.searchtempest.com
which seems similar.
I’ll have to check out the show photos option.
I’m heading over to craigslist now.
Thanks,
Christa
You literally just changed my life! I didn’t know about 90% of that stuff and now it’s going to be so much easier to find stuff! I live in a small town outside a ginormous metroplex so I’ve always gone through both Craigslists which is a timesuck if I’ve ever seen one. So excited about all these new tricks!
These tips are going to make searching craigslist so much fun! So glad you shared!
Can’t wait to check out Craiggers!
such GREAT tips, girl!
I keep Craigslist local furniture page as my homepage.. and that prompts me to check daily for those things I am itching for.
The SearchTempest tool makes searching Craigslist bearable. ( http://www.searchtempest.com/ ) I will try craiggers too – looks awesome. SearchTempest can show images but they are tiny.
These are great tips. I often stay away from Craigslist because I find it such a pain to search. With these new tips, I am going to have to give it another go! Thanks
Is it too dramatic to say that you’ve just changed my life? Well, you did just a little bit. Pictures? Craiggers? Who knew? You did! Thanks for sharing.
Ok, these are GREAT tips! I did not know most of them, so thank you so much!
I’m a new reader. We’re in Blogelina’s crafty blog group together. =)
Cool about the images, but I noticed I only saw them when I clicked on by owner, and they went away if click dealer. I really don’t care, cuz I usually look via owners anyway.
DO have a ? though. I’ve seen others post a craigslist link and when it comes up the pictures are much bigger than what I see on our local page. I’ve also seen more than 4 pics and our limit is 4.
Why is this and is there an option to show bigger or more than 4?
Great question. You have two ways to add photos in craigslist:
1. Click on the “add/edit photos” button and add them that way. This is the easiest, straightforward and most common way, but you are only allowed 4 photos and they’re pretty small.
2. Insert photos using HTML. That’s a code that tells craigslist where the photos are stored. If you go this route, you can post larger photos and more than 4. If you’ve never tried HTML, it’ll probably sound like a whole different language (and it is!) but if you have a working knowledge of it already, this page explains how to insert photos using HTML: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_images.asp
Norma, I use photobucket.com. It’s free and all you have to do is sign up, load your pic’s and then cut and paste the html directly into your description of your item (not in the photo area). You will get the biggest clearest photos which in my opinion is what sells on CL. I honestly don’t even look at posts with no pictures.
Photobucket has some photo editing tools. You can use the site to save your pics to use for FB, CL, and to share with your friends. I found out about it when I saw a great CL pic a couple of years ago and emailed the person and asked how they got such a large picture on there. They were happy to share and I have been using it ever since.
I found these tips so helpful – I hope you don’t mind that I will be sharing them on my blog tomorrow. Take care, Laura
You are genius!!!! I did not know any of this…. You may have just changed my life… or at least rocked my little world! You are my new fave blogger in all the land!
Thank you so much for posting this – I came across your site via pinterest. I will be using these tips from now on – I am an avid craigslist shopper, this will save me some sanity (and time)!
You are a boolean queen!
And I never thought of looking for gift cards on Craigslist! Genius … and now I’m pinning this one too!
🙂
Linda
You have changed my life with these tips! being able to see the pictures in the main listing page is amazing!
EXCELLENT post, Kelly! Awesome tips. I never knew that you could click hide images and they’d show up like that on the website!! I hope my readers will see your link on the comments because this is very helpful!
What a great post!! Thank you SO much for sharing these awesome tips!
Thank you so much! I’ve been petitioning some other bloggers for one of these. You just saved me HOURS of CL stalking!
Here in Chicago, people have caught on to the Faux bamboo, campaign, Hollywood Regency mid mod etc crazes. Thank you bloggers! 🙂 So anything described with those terms is pretty pricy on CL. So lately I have had good luck searching for these items using different terminology, hoping someone is selling something but they don’t know what Hoolywood Regency or mid mod is . Not everyone reads blogs, yet…. For example “vintage long dresser” turns up a ton of 9 drawer dressers from the 60’s. “girls bedroom set” turns up several faux bamboo SETS and “boys bedroom set” turns up tons of campaign style sets. Using Craig’s Pro for Ipad app you just zip thru the pics. Also search on popular makers from that era, ie Drexel and Thomasville.
GREAT tips, thanks for your comments! I live in the south, where if you want a dresser, you also have to search for “chester drawers” (chest of drawers). 🙂
You are too funny. Not only did I learn how to find a deal on Craigs list, I also got my daily chuckle. Can’t believe this is the first time I’ve found your blog. I already love it.
Kelly, too funny! I ‘get it’ because I am in the south as well!
OH and estatesales.net lists all the estate sales in your zip code with dates, times, and pics of whats for sale. I’ll be featured on Hoarders in a few years no doubt.
Wow, wow, wow… Thank you so much. What a wealth of info I have NEVER seen before despite years of blog haunting. Love your blog. Thank you for sharing.
Ok you are an angel of mercy!! Craigslist is gonna get infinitely more awesome now!!! Thanks so much!!
Seriously…my mind is blown! I thought I was a Craig’s List ninja before reading this, I bow down to your skillz! I am on the hunt for a dresser for our nursery (9 weeks to go!). Fingers crossed I make it in time!
That is EXACTLY what I’m on the hunt for too – a dresser for our nursery. Why are the cute ones so elusive?! I only have 4 weeks to go and trying not to panic. Good luck on your nursery-finishing. I hope it’s more successful than mine has been. 🙂
I tried Craiggers and when I searched it kept searching and searching with not hits at all………… weird.
Headed over here from Centsational Girl and your Craigslist tips are oh so helpful. Who’d a thunk it? Really cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Oh my goodness! I’ve been meaning to write a post just like this for my readers, but I think I’ll just direct them to you!!! All of this info. is great! I also have a list of items I commonly search for (mostly funriture pieces) with “alternate” spellings. I can’t tell you what AMAZING deals I find because people don’t spell correctly in their ad. Shadolier…odomen…armware…provenshal…etc. I know! I also find a lot of items searching with description words: girly, rustic, unique, brand new, old, etc. Although historically, the term “gorgeous” does not prove to bring me “gorgeous” results! Lol 🙂
Congrats on your feature on Centsational Girl!!!
Thanks to Pinterest, I am just finding this blog post BUT it is amazing and am playing around craiggers.org now. 🙂
WOW! This is so awesome! As an avid craigslister, I will definitely start using these tips! Thanks!
Holy Craiggers! Who knew? You did, and know I am so glad I do. Wow. seriously life changing and hand-cramp relieving. Thank you!
Seriously life-changing! Thank you for schooling us all! xo
OMG – I am a new follower because clearly you are very clever and I need some clever in my life. How did I not know this stuff?
Ditto to just about every comment above! I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to web searches, etc. but exclaimed out loud when I actually clicked the “show images” button. Rock it! I am so totally finding everything I want now on CL all because of your tips. THANK YOU!
Not only was this AMAZING and chock-full of great tips, it was basically HILARIOUS to read. Sugar Gliders?!?? I died.
(speechless)
Im not a craiglist shopper but I have family that lives by it. Thanks for the great tips.
this is life changing.
..will you marry me?
I would love to, but I’m already engaged to craiggers.
O.M.G. That is all!
Seriously though, thanks for the life changing craigslist tips. Who knew? (Besides you of course 🙂 )
Holy cow! thanks for all the great tips, I had no idea about most of those!
these are fantastic tips! thanks for sharing…esp. craiggers.com!!!
WOW the show images thing just about made me wet my pants. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS!!!
You are a goddess! I’ve used Craigslist to find everything from jobs to furniture to my fiance! And Craiggers is going to make everything so much easier. BTW, people should know about http://alerts.4info.com/browse/craigslist/. It sends you text messages as ads post…even better than checking emails!
I’m about to leave for work, so I don’t know if someone posted it in the comments or not – but you can get ALERTS on your PHONE! 8-o) My husband has it set up for all our DIY home improvement projects & no matter where we are, he can reply immediately to the listing for ‘cabinets’ or ‘free sod’ or ‘mirror’ or whatever. You can make them specific. It’s an app on the droid. And let me say, it has scored us BIG TIME! And they’re always like “wow… that was fast” LOL 🙂
Awesome info. Love your post.Thanks!
Great tips! I refurbish furniture and have been listing my furniture on Craigslist, however, I notice when I go back in and try to search my items, most of the time they don’t pull up, however I see other vendor’s items do. What am I doing wrong? What I’m doing is trying to think like a typical buyer. If I just go in and type in “dresser”, my pieces don’t come up if I leave the category as “all for sale…” or “furniture”… I have to list my furniture under furniture by dealer, it doesn’t give me a choice to just leave it as “all items for sale” or “furniture”, but I’m guessing most buyers will choose “furniture” as their category so they can get a larger selection of choices. Here’s an example of one of my typical posts https://post.craigslist.org/manage/3075106675
Oh wait, the link I attached wasn’t right, here’s the right one.
If I understand this right (and I might not, because I’m a little behind on sleep!), they should still find you if they search for all furniture. I just searched all of grand rapids craigslist for shizzle and it came up. You do have to choose whether you’re going to list furniture by owner or furniture by dealer. You can’t just choose all furniture. I wonder if you’re just trying to search too soon after you list? It takes a little while after you list it for it to show up.
oh no – then that makes two of us – lol! I’m so tired my I can barely keep my eyes open and I have a long way to go and another early day tomorrow. Such is life yeah? I’ll try it again in the morning to see what happens. I had just “renewed” all my listings this morning. And just to experiment, I typed in “dresser” leaving the category the way it is when someone gets to that page. nothing. Then I changed it to “furniture” – nothing. When I changed it to “furnitiure by dealer” that’s when I could find them, but I noticed that was a small group of furniture. What made me curious, is I could see lots of other furniture by dealer’s pieces showing up in several categories ~ I just don’t know how they do it?
What!?! This is amazing! I had no idea how difficult I was making my life by Craigslisting the old way. You’re fabulous. Thank you thank you for sharing!
Amazing tips, but my Craigslist layout doesn’t look like yours and I don’t have the show or hide image option, mine looks like this http://i49.tinypic.com/34qjndl.png (I promise it’s not spam).
Is there a trick I’m missing?
Thanks, Katie! It looks like they’ve changed the layout a little bit. (It’s different for me too now.) But the “show/hide images” link is still there, it’s just on the left side now, just above the search results. I think I need to update this post! Thanks for your note!
I have to say these are the best tips EVER!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Tip #1 says show images, however my craigslist only shows [help] and [Post] in the top right hand corner. So not so much help with this tip ):
Craigslist changed their layout, but the “show images” button is still there. I’ve updated the post to show this.
Kelly,
I bow down to you Mi Lady!! What awesome Craigslist tips!!! I can’t wait to check out craiggers.com!!
I happened upon your blog when searching for a easy diy crib skirt for my 1st grandchild.
***Miss Eliza Jane’s MUCH anticipated debut is Sept.24th!!***
Sorry…I get a little goofy with giddiness when I think of her! 😉
Anyhoo…Thanks for the crib skirt info and the Craigslist tips.
I also scour the CL ads for baby stuff (can’t have a crib skirt without a crib!) I’ll put your tips & such to good use.
I also want to tell you how much I love how your nursery looks! I love the pinwheels, I’m doing the same look, only with butterflies.
I’ve put you on my favorites, and I look forward to reading the rest of your back blogs. Have a wonderful day!
–Sherri Louisville, Ky
I used craigslist a lot, and when I saw this linked on Pinterest I thought “Psh, what tricks could you possibly have with Craigslist’s poor interface.”
I was wrong. Tip number one will forever change how I use Craigslist. It may be a small thing in comparison to world peace and all that, but your tips have been amazing!
Umm, I don’t know about the whole world peace comment, I know my world will definitely find some peace now…not to mention time! I used to spend a TON of wasted time searching on CL!!! Now I will have more time enjoying the gems I buy for projects. Thank you Kelly, you have no idea how much you rock!!!! Awesome tips, and laughs along the way. Who could ask for more?!?!!!!
I featured this great post on Friday Finds today with a link back.
Just tried craiggers and not up at the moment 🙁 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/good-news-craigslist-drops-exclusive-license-your-posts
You totally did. You just totally rocked my world.
You are my new BEST FRIEND!!! WOW! Love all this info!!!
Thank you soooooooooooooo much!
OMGoodness…THANK U, THANK U…….I cannot believe I wasted all this time on craigslist…..I will be forever in ur debt! 🙂
I believe there is an issue with Craiggers .. it would not allow me to search and showed an error message.
Just wanted to share the update.
Thanks!
test
Craiggers is still unavailable 🙁
You is Kind
You is Smart
You is Important
🙂
Thank You!
My problem with Craigslist is I go on there to purge things we no longer need or use and I end up shopping or picking up more stuff! But still love the challenge of getting it before anyone else:)
This was awesome and SUPER helpful. My goodness, I never thought I’d be INSPIRED to attack craigslist but now I am!! The tip about gift cards was GREAT, I never considered buying them on CL! Also the search terms formatting. I never knew about “|” and “-” to remove unwanted words! AWESOME POST!! 😀
Great info – love craigslist and kajiji!
seems like there’s a dispute with Craiggers.com – sorry I’m missing out on the previous action 🙁
I have to admit, I DID stumble upon the images secret, and THAT has saved so much time in shopping on CL!
But I didn’t know the other secrets! I am pinning this list!
Now I want a sugar glider for my (non-existent) nursery. Hahaha. It’s just so darn cute!
Hey there. Just a few comments.
1. I love your blog… your home is beautiful, your renos are great, your children are gorgeous, keep up the tutorials. Thank you.
2. You are so cute and funny. Thank you.
3. I can never find a date on the post until I read the comments.
4. Craiggers is no longer… you might want to note that here on this page.
5. Thank you
Google Craigseasy… you’re welcome.
This is awesome. I did not know about the pictures, or craigeasy.com. Thank you so mcuh!
Thanks for these FABULOUS tips! I’ve been shopping Craigslist reaping great items at low prices for years…yet didn’t know any of these tips! I’ve even purchased from out of state people! Found this on Pinterest! Thanks for sharing!
You should really not buy gift cards on craigslist. I have a family member who works at a Lowe’s, and what these people do is shoplift expensive items, then turn around and return them. Because they have no receipt, they get a gift card, which they then turn around and sell on craigslist or the like. This drives up prices for everyone else and you are basically just accepting stolen money.
Yikes! That’s not something I’d want to be a part of. I wonder if you can be more sure they’re not stolen if they’re in even amounts? One guy said he won a Home Depot shopping spree and had five $200 gift cards. That seemed safer and more legit. ??
This is my first time visit at here and i am actually
happy to read everthing at alone place.
I’m with Jen and Rainne. I work in a retail store owned by a major corporation and our biggest shoplifting issue is people taking our most expensive items and returning them for gift cards.
Also a great little app for your cell: CLApp (no, not the clap ;c) C(raig’s) L(ist) App lol. It has many of the features you’ve described above and I love it!
brilliant! thanks ☺
I know everyone has already said it, but really. you just changed my life. how did I not know about images?!?! And the tips for editing your search are fantastic! I’m now off to have my most efficient craigslist sesh yet!
Did you find the bridesmaid dress?!
YES! I think it was ebay though. 🙂
Why am I no longer allowed related search results on Crags list? Yesterday I could click on garage sales Baton Rouge and get results listing items that were for sale . Today all I get is numbers on a map .Allow users to get same type of results allowed yesterday .The other type of results are completely useless . Crags list , until today , was the ONE internet site that ALWAYS gave related search results . Why has this stopped ? If problem not resolved , I along with almost ALL other users , are going to stop using Crags list . Remember , Crags list is not a regular search engine .People don’t have to use it .
There are so many great steals on craigslist and if you are willing to drive within an hour of you house, you can get great stuff. The problem is searching around city by city. I started using http://www.searchallcraigslist.org and that greatly helped my find some great deals. Unfortunately, they doesn’t have the image search option you guys spoke of above 🙁
sucha great work has done thanks for sharing and keep it up