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

I just posted some tools to craigs, I do a good deal with ebay but those
fees add up

here my adds
http://www.motherearthrecycling.net/forsale/forsale.htm

"Ignoramus12493" wrote in message
...
On 21 Apr 2006 12:46:29 -0700,
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.

If I was to describe what I see on craigslist I would say "overpriced
junk, unreasonable sellers". I am happy that your experience is
different. I rarely look at craigslist anymore.

i

Ignoramus12493 wrote:
On 21 Apr 2006 12:46:29 -0700, 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.

If I was to describe what I see on craigslist I would say "overpriced
junk, unreasonable sellers". I am happy that your experience is
different. I rarely look at craigslist anymore.

i

I'm with Iggy on this one. 99% of what I see listed on Craigslist I
wouldn't have bothered to take the time to take a picture of.

Prices seem to be fishing trips to see if anyone is interested. Old
stuff for big money.

I did sell my car on Craigslist. I thought it worked well. Except for
some "uneducated" buyers. A $500 beater is exactly that. One kid came
to look at it and was upset that it wasn't in perfect shape. I had to
nearly force him to listen that it was drivable, but not perfect. He
was mad that I wasted his time. I wasn't the one who drove 2 hours
without asking any questions. The only question he asked was, "where
is it?".

JW

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


Craigslist is OK by me!

A few months ago we started using Craigslist here in Boston to find per
diem licensed allied medical professionals at $45 to $65 per hour for
SWMBO's practice. We've been very pleased with the results. We pay
nothing for those ads versus $450-$500 for the inch high classified ads
we used to run in the Boston Globe's Sunday Help Wanted section,
sometimes wiuthout even receiving a nibble in return.

If you're seeking to hire folks, give it a try, you might be pleasantly
suprised.

Most of the clinicians who respond to our ads are in their twenties, and
probably represent that section of the population which isn't reading
stuff printed on paper much these days. G

[Last week I read in a news magazine that street prostitution in some
major US cities has decreased to less than 50% of what it was a few
years ago as a result of the ladies of the night advertising themselves
via Craigslist, with provocative photos, instead of standing on street
corners freezing their tushes off in the winter.]

Last year I used Craigslist to try and sell an unwanted "loudspeaker
chair" and amplifier, a gadget used with video games. It was a leftover
from young son's early teen years.

A scam artist responded and the Devil made me see how long I could scam
him back. My emails are nowhere near as good as the ones I've seen at
bustedupcowgirl.com, but then it was my first and only attempt:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/temp/scam.doc

Jeff

P.S. That stupid "loudspeaker chair" never sold, I ended up donating it
to a college which uses music as a means of teaching special needs
students:

http://www.berkshirehills.org/

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

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

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

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
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

Same here. I picked up a 32' fiberglass ladder in good shape for $50 last
summer- now I see ads offering items for near-retail prices, particularly on
tools. One idiot advertised some used chain link fence, posts, and
accessories. I would have given him a few bucks for a bunch of posts. He
sent me an itemized list of the retail cost of his pile of old fence parts,
totalling $542, and invited me to make an offer.

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

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

I love craigslist. I use it all the time to sel books and tools and all
sorts of weird stuff. Reminds me of the old classifieds 2000 before
ebay got discovered.
I'm selling virtually everything I own on there. Anybody need any lathe
cutters, milling cutters, Starret 18" level screw pitch guages, large
drill bits, large and small taps? I ship from san diego. Most of this
stuff has never touched metal

I want small taps.

i

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:35:32 -0700, daniel peterman wrote:
I love craigslist. I use it all the time to sel books and tools and all
sorts of weird stuff. Reminds me of the old classifieds 2000 before
ebay got discovered.
I'm selling virtually everything I own on there. Anybody need any lathe
cutters, milling cutters, Starret 18" level screw pitch guages, large
drill bits, large and small taps? I ship from san diego. Most of this
stuff has never touched metal

Grant Erwin writes:

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.

You mean, "seller's market", right?

I can prolly supply you wth some. I have a nice assortment. I already
sold the pitch gage. Sorry 'bout that.

craigslist differs drastically around the country. Take a look
at listings from different cities.

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.

Too_Many_Tools wrote:
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.


I agree. It did start out pretty good in the two list's I watch. The
one has become overrun with junk, the other has just for the most part
died. I have been spammed by the "Nigerian", a few times. A few ads
have been obvious phish attempts.

The best one so far, was they guy who wanted $800 for his riding lawn
mower. Runs great, but a small tree fell on it. He showed a picture
of it. Small may be relative, but this was about a 2ft thick maple. I
would have been hard pressed to pay $800 for a 15yr old riding
lawnmower in the first place, but there was nothing left of this one to
even fix. I emailed him, just for spite. He was serious. He really
thought there was still $800 worth of "stuff" there.

JW

Both Ebay and Craigslist are full of sellers who either have no idea
what stuff is worth or are fishing for suckers. But there are still
deals to be had (as a buyer) on both. You have to take time to keep
trolling.

I've used both a lot and the short version is -- Ebay is best for
selling stuff that's not too hard to ship. All you need are 2 people in
the world who want it and you get best price. Craigslist is best for
selling stuff that's hard to ship, but you can't be greedy if you
really want to get it out of your garage. Ebay is great for buying
weird things that not everyone wants (like 3-phase motors). Craigslist
is good for buying higher ticket or big items (with high shipping cost)
because you don't pay until you see it and like it.

"You have to take time to keep trolling. "

Time has value....and the amount of time one takes to find that bargain
can make that item a mighty expensive "bargain".

I always laugh when I hear someone tell me about a great find at a
rummage/garage sale. When I ask them how many countless hours and miles
they have spent pawing through junk to find that one bargain, their
answer indicates that they could have worked at McDonalds, bought the
item new and been further ahead. Seeing this occur time and time again,
I limit my searches in Ebay and Craigslist to only odd and unusual
items that are difficult to impossible to find.

"Both Ebay and Craigslist are full of sellers who either have no idea
what stuff is worth or are fishing for suckers. "

I think the "fishing for suckers" is the majority that exists on Ebay
today because of fees. On Craigslist, because of the low cost and
relative newness I think you have a combination of both now but I can
see the "fishing for suckers" crowd quickly becoming the majority.

TMT

On 25 Apr 2006 07:26:21 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:

"You have to take time to keep trolling. "

Time has value....and the amount of time one takes to find that bargain
can make that item a mighty expensive "bargain".

I always laugh when I hear someone tell me about a great find at a
rummage/garage sale. When I ask them how many countless hours and miles
they have spent pawing through junk to find that one bargain, their
answer indicates that they could have worked at McDonalds, bought the
item new and been further ahead. Seeing this occur time and time again,
I limit my searches in Ebay and Craigslist to only odd and unusual
items that are difficult to impossible to find.

And you get SFA for entertainment value. The best bargains I ever got
were items I never expected to find while Saturday morning saleing,
especially at up to 99% off the new price. Granted, I use asbestos
gloves sometimes when handling some of my better finds.
Fluke 77 for $3.00
Homelite "weed whacker" with most of the original line on it - $2.00
because it was "leaking oil"
new #2MT live centre - $2.00

"Both Ebay and Craigslist are full of sellers who either have no idea
what stuff is worth or are fishing for suckers. "

I think the "fishing for suckers" is the majority that exists on Ebay
today because of fees. On Craigslist, because of the low cost and
relative newness I think you have a combination of both now but I can
see the "fishing for suckers" crowd quickly becoming the majority.

TMT

Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

Well Since this thread hasn't died yet I'll drop my 2 cents in.

I agree with who ever posted that FleaBay is good for small stuff that you
don't have to check out. I buy things like collets there. But I'd neve buy a
machine tool there, too complictaed.....

But I have to say that the San Francisco C/L (ya know the 'original' ) has
some good deals... I got my totaly refurbed BridgePort from there for $2700
and I just bought a Clausing 5914 Lathe that is in VERY good shape for $2000
(Aloris knock off, collet closer,chucks.).. I've seen BP's on FleaBay not
nearly as good as mine go for twice the price, and the same for the 5914...
And for me a short drive to 'The City' or 'Funk Town' beats 600 or 700
bucks shipping from the east coast.

I sold my mill/drill on C/L and I'll sell my 9x20 import lathe there too.

I also get most of my work from the SF-CL, Craig has made me a tidy piece of
change over the years (enough to spend on these tools)... and hey when you
get bored you can always read RR or CE... ;-)

Dave


wrote in message
oups.com...
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

On Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:17:01 GMT, "Dave August"
wrote:

Well Since this thread hasn't died yet I'll drop my 2 cents in.

I agree with who ever posted that FleaBay is good for small stuff that you
don't have to check out. I buy things like collets there. But I'd neve buy a
machine tool there, too complictaed.....

But I have to say that the San Francisco C/L (ya know the 'original' ) has
some good deals... I got my totaly refurbed BridgePort from there for $2700
and I just bought a Clausing 5914 Lathe that is in VERY good shape for $2000
(Aloris knock off, collet closer,chucks.).. I've seen BP's on FleaBay not
nearly as good as mine go for twice the price, and the same for the 5914...
And for me a short drive to 'The City' or 'Funk Town' beats 600 or 700
bucks shipping from the east coast.

I sold my mill/drill on C/L and I'll sell my 9x20 import lathe there too.

I also get most of my work from the SF-CL, Craig has made me a tidy piece of
change over the years (enough to spend on these tools)... and hey when you
get bored you can always read RR or CE... ;-)

Dave

Currently there are pair of Lincoln AC/DC tombstones there for $200
the pair.

Thats a hell of a deal and they actually look good

Gunner



wrote in message
roups.com...
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




"I think this is because of your belief in biological Marxism.
As a genetic communist you feel that noticing behavioural
patterns relating to race would cause a conflict with your belief
in biological Marxism." Big Pete, famous Usenet Racist