You have lots of valuable stuff laying around that your are not using anymore and you need to sell it fast and for a good price.   What do you do?   List it on Craigslist of course!  Don’t bother taking out an article in the local newspaper, that’s old school and no where near as effective.

Step 1: Clean up your items and make them presentable.  Tighten any loose screws or part and lubricate any squeaky parts if applicable to your item.  Find the original packaging if possible.   If you have something that’s broken and it will only take a small amount of your time or dollars to fix it, buy the part and make it whole again.   You can sell a damaged or broken item but you will get significantly less than an item that’s in good working condition.

Step 2: After your items are all cleaned up take some good digital photos.  One of the most important things to have in your ad is good photos.  It will sell you product faster and make your ad more credible.   Take the photos on a light contrasting background in a well lit area or setup additional lighting, it makes a huge difference in the quality of your photos.   Take your photos as close as possible (don’t use zoom) to include the entire product or sections of the product you are wanting to show potential buyers.  Make sure the images are clear if not retake them or take multiple shots to choose the best from.   If you have multiple parts or manuals that are included take one clean photo of all the items together laid out on a light or preferably white background.  Remember Craigslist only allows 4 photos per item.  Make sure you have 4 good photos that represent your product.  Take different angles or positions of the item.  Visualize yourself as the buyer and think what you would most likely want to see when taking the photos.

Step 3: Resize your photos to a size that Craigslist will accept.  Today’s digital cameras take very large highly detailed photos most are too large to upload to craigslist.  Do this by using your favorite Photo editor.   If you don’t have one download Google Picasa for free, it’s a great photo manager that can help you resize your images and do a ton of other cool neat stuff too!  ( I will write a article on Picasa soon!)   Another great free program to download is Paint.net, read about it here on AbundanceTips.com.   You could even download a photo resizer utility like this free one called FastStone photo resizer.   Each program takes a little practice but read the help sections then practice and before long you will be an expert.     A good file size to shoot for to upload on craigslist is around 1024×768  stick with sizes in that area.  You sizes will vary based on your original photos dimensions.  Too large and craigslist doesn’t like it.  Craigslist will always resize images automatically to about 300×300 or somewhere close within those dimensions.   Another resize option would be to set your camera to take a much smaller sized images if that option is available.  But remember to set it back to it’s original high resolution when you are finished or you will have low quality images the next time you use your camera for regular photos.

Step 4: Write a good description.  Be sure to list everything that is included with your item for sale.  Search on Google for a good description of the options and features of the product you are selling, you could also search on the manufacturers website, Ebay, Craigslist, or other websites that are selling similar products.  Make sure however you have the same model and features they are describing.   This will save you time since you can cut and paste some of the info. and even save photos.  (It’s better to take your own photos for a better representation of the condition your item is in).  I like to write my description in a Word Processor (MS Word, Works, OpenOffice etc.) that has spell check.   Do not use underline or bold just use plain text.  Once you have a good clean description written, go to You “Edit ” menu and “select all” then copy (Ctrl-C) and paste (Ctrl-V) the text into your Craigslist Item description.

Step 5: Creating the actual posting on Craigslist.  Go to Craiglist.org in your web browser and sign into Craigslist (or signup for a new account, new accounts have a waiting period) then once signed in go to the top right of the screen and select the area where you will be posting your ad and hit go.    Now select the “for sale” Category then select the sub-category your item(s) best fit into.

Step 6: The Posting Title.   Carefully create your items title using keywords people will search for and be specific.  Example:   “Sony LCD HDTV 26″ Bravia L Series Model: KDL-26L5000 720P – Great Value / slightly used / 3 months old” .   This will help people find you items better and also make them click on your item to actually read it and look at the photos.  Also add in other key words that describe the condition of your item and value.  Titles can be up to 70 characters long.

Step 7: “The Price”.   Setting the price is one of the main factors and getting your product to sell.    Set it too high and you will no get any buyers.   If you want to sell it fast and just get rid of  an item sell it for less than other people are asking.   One of the best ways to gauge a price on an item is to search other similar items  that are selling online.  Two good places are Craigslist itself and Ebay.  If you have an Ebay account you can sign in and when you search check off the box that says “show only completed listings”  then you will see what items have sold for.   Don’t be greedy,  set a fair price similar to what others are selling for or slightly less.    If you item is in perfect condition you can set you price at the higher end of the scale.  If your item has been used a good amount and you had received your monies worth out of it set the price lower and let someone take it off you hands who could really use it for a good deal.  The price is ultimately up to you, don’t give an item away unless you really want to.

Step 8:  ”Specific Location”.  You should always put in the location of the item.  I usually put the section of town I am in.      You can type anything in this field.   Example:   “West side – Portland” .  Don’t leave this field blank.  People who do a keyword search and type say for this example “West Portland” will still find your “West side – Portland” listing in their seach results.

Step 9: Now the “Posting Description”.   Do your research first as described in Step 4 above.   Take that information and write a clear description of your item.    Short and sweet is nice, just make sure you include all the info about your item.   Don’t say for example:  “100 baseball cards for sale. call xxx-xxxx”.  Instead say  “100  Tops baseball cards for sale, excellent condition, no bent edges.  Stored in dry sealed containers in a heated space.   An assortment of various cards purchased during the late 1980’s.   Mostly Met’s, Yankee’s, and Dodgers.  Multiple rookie cards.  Could be valued well over $500 if sold individually.  First $100 takes it.  Call xxx-xxxx if you are interested” Be very descriptive, hit key points that show the value of the item and all the options it has.   Look at other ads to get ideas of what to write.

Should you include your phone number or not.  You should if you are really serious about selling an item especially a higher priced one.   Posting your phone number shows credibility right out front.  Someone might call your ad immediately over another that doesn’t have a phone number and you would have a better chance of showing your item and closing the sale quicker.    You could opt to give your number out only after an email from an interested party.  This way you would not have posted your number publicly and only email to those people interested.     The choice is up to you.

Step 10: Upload your photos ,review your article and make any corrections then submit it!   To upload your photos you need to click on the “add/edit images button” and then 4 areas with a red X will appear.   Now click on the choose a file for each area and upload the saved resized version of the photos you have chosen to be in your article.   It will take a few seconds and a thumbnail of your images will appear.   Now read over your article to check for errors and hit “Continue” at the bottom.   You will have one more time to review it and do a final submit and verification.  Your article should then go live shortly!  You can always sign on and edit your article again if you need to update it.

Step 11: What to do when people start emailing you and calling you about your item.    Respond back quickly to the person’s inquiry and be clear and honest.     Make sure a person is really interested and set a clear time you can show the item to them.

Step 12: Before showing the item make sure you have a clear minimum price you will take.   Many people will try to haggle you down on price.  If you listed your item for a screaming deal or just a really good price and have multiple calls or emails on it, stick with that price.   You will sell it.      On the other hand if you list something that can sell for a range and someone asks just slightly lower and it would be no skin off your back then sell it to them for that price.    If the item has issues brought up by the potential buyer that could reduce the price, consider taking less and moving on.  The buyer will be happy they made a great deal and you will have cash in your pocket and one less item taking up space.   Don’t forget to delete you item immediately off of Craigslist once it is sold, do this by signing in, clicking on the article and then deleting it.  This will stop people from continuing to email and call you about it.

Another thing to be wary of is payment methods.    CASH IS KING!   I wouldn’t take a check unless I know the person very closely.   You should specify cash only in your ad to avoid problems with bounced checks etc.   Most serious seasoned Craigslist buyers understand this and will bring cash to pay for the item without asking.

Craigslist.org is not necessarily the best place to sell all types of items that’s where Ebay comes in and fills in the gaps, you will find a much broader potential buyer base on Ebay to get the best price for your item.  The downside is that you will pay an Ebay posting fee and most likely have to ship your item out to the buyer and charge shipping.  You can find tons of free and pay guides on Ebay online.  Ebay itself also offers some of the best help in posting on their site.

It’s takes a little effort to do it right but after your first few ads you will breeze through it, getting faster each time.

Good Luck!

LM