

Ask HN: What do people buy most on Craigslist? - aashaykumar92

Working on a new idea and am not sure what most people buy on Craigslist. I use it for buying sports tickets, cheap&#x2F;gently used furniture, and sometimes electronics, but do you think this is what most people use it for or am I missing big categories&#x2F;products?
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codegeek
The reason why craigslist is so successful is because people can buy anything
depending on the need. So I am not sure if there is a way to quantify what
people are buying "most". I would say "everything". Look at any "for sale"
section. There are lot of ads on a daily basis. For example, I have bought
furniture, laptops, cell phones, cars on craigslist but if I needed anything
else, I would not hesitate. The only reason I don't buy on craigslist is if I
need something new OR it is for my kids which I don't want used.

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noahth
That's _a_ major reason for craigslist's success but not the _only_ reason.
Clearly another is network effects. Given that, I wonder whether targeting the
largest sales category is a good plan for a competitor -- surely it has to do
with your goals, resources, etc., but imho it's worth considering that the
best opportunity may be in the categories where craigslist facilitates the
fewest sales.

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palidanx
I tend to think of Craigslist similar to digging for treasure. A lot of people
are selling junk, but some people just need to get rid of their stuff quickly.
For example, I got a great surfboard probably like $300 off the regular price
because this guy wanted to get rid of it because his wife said the garage
needed more space.

Personally, I tend to be a little more wary about electronics as I would like
to test it thoroughly, and make sure it isn't stolen.

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LarryMade2
A friend of mine sold a bunch of building supplies, appliances and furnishings
successfully on there, my sister sold a van, etc. Just about anything

You might be able to figure out what's popular by looking at the ads, the more
polished ones are probably the ones folks have done repeat sales.

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nickthemagicman
I dont know if cragslist has an api but if so you could compare states over
two time periods and tally the products that have been removed.

Amazon has an api that you can narroq down to region, age, product, and more.
This may have similar results as CL.

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jweather
Kids toys and clothes. Lots of wooden train tracks and K'nex. There's a big
second-hand market for kids' stuff as a lot of it is built to be
indestructible, but it only gets used for a few years. And parents are cheap.
Source: I yam one.

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waterlooalex
Idea: look at Craigslist for some big cities like NYC and see which categories
have the most posts, and use that as a proxy for sales?

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logn
Cars are pretty huge. Toyotas and Hondas can get sold an hour after posting
(I've witnessed it).

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cabbeer
mobile Electronics (cell phones, tablets)are by far the most popular.

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sharemywin
housing, cars, employment.

