Tag Archives: Craigslist

Selling a car: Craigslist vs. Autotrader

14 Monday Apr 2008

Posted by in Technology, Web 2.0

≈ 3 Comments

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Count one for the good guys.

I recently sold my Toyota Solara Convertible (going for a sweet, rockin’ minivan) and posted both on Craigslist and Autotrader.

I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that Craigslist kicked Autotrader’s butt in generating legitimately interested leads, at least here in the uber-connected Bay Area. 

The tale of the tape (Craigslist vs. Autotrader):

  • Cost: Free (duh) vs. $69
  • Online pictures: 4 vs. 18
  • Magazine ads: 0 vs. 1 (I assume, I never saw it)
  • Times I had to post: 4 vs. 1 (CL expires after 7 days, AT doesn’t expire)
  • Actual interested leads: 9 vs. 1
  • “Spam”: 0 vs. 4 (I got 4 calls from businesses who want to help me sell my car)

Even though the ads on Craigslist are free (and therefore, unqualified), the search functionality minimal, and the ads poorly formatted, CL was far and away better than AT.

But you knew that already.  Count a victory for the power of a trusted, “social” classifieds system over the old school advertising system.

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Wha? Craigslist evil?

13 Wednesday Dec 2006

Posted by in Technology, Web 2.0

≈ 1 Comment

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I love Craigslist.  It rocks.  I gave away an old George Foreman grill to a good home last week.  I even gave away what must be the most hideous crystal picture frame you can possibly imagine (well, you probably can’t even imagine it).  I buy stuff, I sell stuff.  It’s much easier than ebay.

And Kevin Burton is accusing them of being evil because they don’t want to sell ads?

C’mon, you’re kidding right?  Evil?

I remember thinking that it was crazy that making money was considered evil, and I thought that was still the prevailing opinion of the blogosphere.  Google doesn’t want to be evil, whatever that means, and everytime they try to make money in a different way, people jump up and down about them going back on their promise to not be evil.

That was whack already.  Now Craigslist is evil for not accepting money?

Look, Google isn’t evil.  Craigslist isn’t evil.  Even Microsoft isn’t evil.  They do what they do within the realms of mostly reasonable business ethics. I happen to agree with most of Kevin’s points that Craigslist is wasting a great opportunity to do real good in the world. So maybe they’re shortsighted, but far from evil.

Really, we all need to get over it.