Some months ago when the craigslist phenomenon was building rapidly in the
Seattle area, there were rich pickin's. Now I regularly see people selling used
HF stuff for more than the store sells it for, and people spamming the thing
over and over again touting cheap homeowner's junk for super-high prices.
Basically, it's become a buyer's market. Stuff I used to sell for e.g. $40 I
would now price at about $100. It's tough on buyers but I'm not buying much
these days.

GWE

RoyJ wrote:

I've been picking stuff off of craigslist on a regular basis. ( TOO
regular according to SWHBO!) Logan 200 lathe, small mill, wood shaper, a
collection of pool pumps, gas powered 7000gpm transfer pump, etc. None
of those items were the $5 specials like you occasionally see at yard
sales but I thought I did well on all of them. Example: the gas pump was
$40, I ran it hard this summer. The Logan lathe went of the very low end
of what I've seen for that class of machine. YMMV

I might mention that my area (TC) has around 20 to 25 items in the
'tools' section per day, lots of traffic. I keep an eye on 'tools',
'free', and 'general' But that also means that you have to move quickly
when there is something of interest.

wrote:

Maybe it's just me, but when I'm looking at machine tools (lathes &
mills specifically) on ebay & Craigslist, in general I'm seeing better
condition items and better prices on Craigslist.

My theory is that since Craigslist is a local listing service, and the
buyer is going to check it out in person, there is less opportunity for
the seller to mis-represent their goods.

Ebay listings on the other hand give the seller an opportunity to ship
goods that are often pieces of crap. I've been burned enough on ebay
to know what types of items to bid on and what to pass on.

Ed