Craigslist tips and ideas to find good deals, and request to share yours

strat68

strat68

Member
Ok, this may be old news but I have found some interesting things this way. On your local craiglist area, go into for sale > electronics. In the search box spell the word stereo incorrectly, like this: "Stero"

Consistently I find 10+ in my area, and another 10 or 20 in surrounding areas. Mostly BPC type stuff, but occasionally a real enthusiast may make a typo. Won't save you any money, but could help timing wise.

Other variants: Streo (not as common as the other mistake)
Audiofile (a handful consistently in my area, but no good leads).

Please share if you have a similar trick!

Steve
 
Hey, you're giving secrets away! :(

Seriously, though, that's a good tip, although in my area I'd get way too many results. I tend to search on the brands or type of equipment I'm interested in.
 
That also works on ebay, especially with brand names. Which is a little off topic.

As a seller, I respond best to potential buyers who are polite, use complete sentences, are flexible about meeting up, and generally friendly. I will pick out such a person over a "Dude do u still have it hit me back" type. So if you're a buyer I recommend that.
 
Also, don't assume all the stereos are in Electronics. I find tube radios in Antiques, Electronics and sometimes other categories.
 
My biggest tip is to email back a seller a few days after their ad goes away if I never got a response back the first time I mailed them. I've gotten a few deals where the sellers were dicked around by some flaky people and just let the ad expire. You mail them, show up with cash and you've got a good deal.
Otherwise I just check often and make sure I'm ready with cash. That seems to be the biggest thing.
 
swechsler said:
Hey, you're giving secrets away! :(

Seriously, though, that's a good tip, although in my area I'd get way too many results. I tend to search on the brands or type of equipment I'm interested in.
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Ok, I recently had one that did not hit on "Acoustic Research" but I found it through one of my typo tests. He had "Acoustical Research" in the subject and acoustic did not hit it. Regular expressions work on CL but other searches like google and ebay have some heuristics (maybe colloquialisms??) built in to push things along. I did not get the purchase because I was second responder. Apparently, the lucky person must have been doing similar maybe searching for model numbers etc.
.
 
OMGCat! said:
My biggest tip is to email back a seller a few days after their ad goes away if I never got a response back the first time I mailed them. I've gotten a few deals where the sellers were dicked around by some flaky people and just let the ad expire. You mail them, show up with cash and you've got a good deal.
Otherwise I just check often and make sure I'm ready with cash. That seems to be the biggest thing.
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Through CL relay, how do you email them after their ad goes away?? As a lurker your only chance to contact them is while the listing is active..., no??
 
toxcrusadr said:
Also, don't assume all the stereos are in Electronics. I find tube radios in Antiques, Electronics and sometimes other categories.
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Ok, ok... I will do my thing one or two levels up as well.. but we're big kids here. This wasn't my point, you can do similar for fly fishing or golf or whatever your other hobbies are. I meant looking at common typos related to your interest.
 
I search for misspelled search terms a lot. People seem to misspell Technics a lot (Techniques, Technique, etc). In general, trying to find ads with typos or weird titles seems to work well. I got a BIC 960, Garrard 40B and Realistic STA-120 all for $80 in an ad titled "stereo-system" that didn't come up in a "stereo" search.

"Record player" can be a good search term as opposed to "turntable." I got a Technics SL-3350 (w/ V15-III) along with 3 receivers, a CD player and a box of records for $100 this way.

Sometimes I find gear that's only got a brand and model number listed, so instead of something like "Sansui XXXXX Receiver" they'll have "Sansui XXXXX" and you'll never find it with a search for "receiver." Other times I'll see an ad with no picture and a really vague description that turns out to be something nice; never hurts to shoot off a text message, phone call or email.

Occasionally I'll see an ad with one picture showing a pile of gear and a super generic title like "Vintage electronics" or "Audio electronics." If you have an idea of what you're looking for you can usually find spot some gems.
 
schmalvaro said:
I search for misspelled search terms a lot. People seem to misspell Technics a lot (Techniques, Technique, etc). In general, trying to find ads with typos or weird titles seems to work well. I got a BIC 960, Garrard 40B and Realistic STA-120 all for $80 in an ad titled "stereo-system" that didn't come up in a "stereo" search.

"Record player" can be a good search term as opposed to "turntable." I got a Technics SL-3350 (w/ V15-III) along with 3 receivers, a CD player and a box of records for $100 this way.

Sometimes I find gear that's only got a brand and model number listed, so instead of something like "Sansui XXXXX Receiver" they'll have "Sansui XXXXX" and you'll never find it with a search for "receiver." Other times I'll see an ad with no picture and a really vague description that turns out to be something nice; never hurts to shoot off a text message, phone call or email.

Occasionally I'll see an ad with one picture showing a pile of gear and a super generic title like "Vintage electronics" or "Audio electronics." If you have an idea of what you're looking for you can usually find spot some gems.
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Thank you for your post. This is what I was trying to get going. On a similar note, I got a decent price for Dynaco A25s on a CL listing titled "hifi speakers"

It's not a big deal sharing this info because our members are all over the world, not to mention we may not all be interested in the same things even if we happen to be in the same area.
 
I search reciever in place of Receiver. I scored a MINT Kenwood kr-2300 for $10 (i think) because I was the only guy who called. little traffic means good deal!
 
soundmotor said:
There is no shortcut to figuring it out for yourself. You will be more effective and gain new insights into what you are doing.
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Excuse me, do you think I was being lazy? I did share a few of my own tricks. 90% of my motive of the post was to share what I thought was a neat little trick. Maybe others haven't tried it. And yes, I do like to hear what others might have found only 10%, honest.

I am sorry if I am reading you wrong but I perceive a high horse.
 
mchriste said:
I search reciever in place of Receiver. I scored a MINT Kenwood kr-2300 for $10 (i think) because I was the only guy who called. little traffic means good deal!
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That's a great one. Simple and effective, and I didn't think of it yet. There's a ton in central NJ, not all bpc either. Funny I just saw one with "reciecer" in the subject.
 
When we were looking for an armoire to put my system in, I had to use seven or eight variations of spelling to see all of them. Even typing "armoire" in this post comes up as a misspelling, which it isn't.


On another note, in my 30+ years of being in business for myself, I have learned that divulging "secrets" that give me an edge in the business world is a no-no. I seriously thing soundmotor's reply was tongue-in-cheek, but true nonetheless.
 
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