Good discussion...I will be interested in seeing how this discussion
progresses..

I too have seen Craigslist go from gold to crap in several cities I
frequent.

And the spamming is getting steadily worse, the junk/good stuff ratio
getting larger and larger and the seller is buried with potential
buyer's emails within seconds of posting.

I liken it to Ebay's evolution...in the good old early days one found
good buys both pricewise and uniqueness and as the popularity grew it
becomes too many people competing for too few items. I also consider
that the supply of "good stuff" is finite and once you pass through the
initial push of closet/garage cleaning, you start to see the remaining
floor sweeps up for sale over and over again. Kind of like a multi day
garage sale...the good stuff goes in the first hour and the junk just
sits for days and days.

In relation to Craigslist, it is a double edge sword with employment
offerings. Newspapers have priced themselves out of the market for
listings and that makes employers hesitant to spend significant amounts
of money to advertise. Craigslist makes the cost of local advertising
cheap. At the same time when the labor market gets tight (remember we
have been in the part of the cycle where the employer has had the upper
hand), employers will see employees moving more often because they are
more aware of what job opportunities are available. Like the national
on line job meat markets, local companies will need to compete even
more for a shrinking qualified labor pool.

TMT