Saving Money Challenge: Why I Suck At Selling On Craig's List - and use mostly Freecycle

So I'm sure most of you know what Craig's List is.  It's like a virtual tag sale of sorts.  You can find everything from sofas, apartments, exotic dancers, toys and cars.  And more!  For a discount!

I have found many a great deal on Craig's List.  Well maybe like 3 or 4 things.  It just always seems that what I want is not out there.  My recent great find was an Ikea kids table and 2 chairs for $15.  Would have been $65 at the store.  We also once found a Jeep on Craig's List for $2,000.  It was beautiful.

Well whenever I post something on Craig's List - I get no biters.  At least most of the time.  Or I get people who respond with stuff like "I want. give me address and I come pick up tonite."  Really?  I'm not giving you (who I perceive to be a caveman) my address.  Which leaves to to one conclusion:  Most of my worldly possessions are worthless pieces of crap.  It's okay, I'm cool with that.  Plus - after that whole "Craig's List Killer guy" from Quincy - well, I don't know if scoring $5 for that old fish tank is really worth the risk of getting my throat sliced.  That's a joke.  A sick, demented joke.

So when I declutter - I turn to Freecycle.  Freecycle is awesome.  It's through Yahoo Groups and people just post crap they are going to otherwise throw away.  The beauty of Freecycle is that since there is no cash exchange, you can just leave your crap out on your porch and tell the people to just take it.  No face to face contact.  Most Freecycle groups have "Wanted Wednesdays" where you can post things that you are looking for.  Now some people post ludicrous things - like diapers and iPads.  Like seriously?  People are just going to give you these things?  But I personally like to read through the Wanted Wednesday posts - because sometimes I need a reminder that I have some of that crap up in my attic that I'm never going to use and holding on for who knows what reason.

So if you are in the market to try to score things for free - Google "Freecycle" and your city.  In the South Shore for instance - even Hingham has it's own group.  Weymouth does.  Quincy does.  It's not just big cities.  I know this will sound bias - but you get some better hits with things in the more affluent towns.  Just the way the cookie crumbles.

This post is partially inspired by the group challenge Precious started at Frugal Makes Cents.