Does anyone use CL anymore? It's basically all spam (Keyword dumpers that CL doesn't care about apparently) anytime I search for anything, and I used to be able to sell a laptop on there in 1-3 days. Now I can go weeks without getting a legitimate response.
I live in the East Bay and have used Craigslist a few times and will continue to use them. Bought a bike, a TV, and some music gear. Going forward I'm going to try to never buy new music gear again, only used.
People by an insane and stupid amount of new stuff. There's no reason that I need too as well, especially when I can find exactly what I want at a fraction of the price. Just last night I picked up a $150 guitar amp for $30.
The TV I bought was $50 and it's the same one my dad bought new ~10 years ago for $2,000.
Personal Anecdote: I am in the Boston area so YMMV - but I love CL. If you are serious about buying selling used stuff it is by far the best place to go. Competitors (FB marketplace, Letgo) have a much lower quality of listings and a much less educated user base on how to prepare, negotiate and make sales. I am not saying CL is not full of spam and junk, but its very easy to spot serious sellers and people who have no idea what they are doing. Over the last 3 years I have probably made 50+ buys/sales on CL and it is still by far my favorite platform.
I use it and it works fairly well. I wish they wouldn't allow on actual stores and spammers.
I recently graduated and moved to a larger city than my college town and I've found that Craigslist is actually worse in the larger city. Less people who respond overall and there's always someone who responds 45 minutes across the city.
You can filter the stores out using “by owner” instead of “by dealer”. Some spammers will have their listings as by owner but... it gets rid of most of them
Sold a car on it ~2 years ago. Offloaded some computer hardware (servers, switches, desktop parts) as well. This was around Seattle.
It is what you make of it. It's barebones and there is a crappy signal-to-noise ratio that you need to work around, but 1) it works, and 2) I got the prices I wanted, in cash.
For a simple, basic site that's not bad. I can only imagine how some full featured app, e.g. "Amazon Community (Powered by AWS)" will data mine me and demand a 2% cut.
The buying experience is better than the selling, and it really matters what the item is.
I've had great experiences buying light industrial/commercial equipment, hobby gear, and even furniture and appliances. Those aren't great items for any sort of scam, and the the sellers tend to be legit.
Clothes, electronics, or anything trendy is a much bigger gamble. You have scams, sure, but consider the type of seller; it's a lot more people hard on cash with little experience in the used market.
The key, I think, is to be quite picky. If a listing looks off, don't bother with it. Same for buyers; if they aren't straightforward, don't bother. And avoid putting yourself in a position for someone to waste your time. Buyer picks up with cash, 100%.
I sold some stuff on CL, but it was really really painful. The worst thing is that once you post, the first 4-8 people contacting you will be scammers (trying to redirect your phone through Google Voice, or trick you into other scams).
It's like putting your hand into a pool full of alligators.
So much spam on the other end of it as well.