Stuff I’ve Sold on Craigslist

by Liz Jordan

Magic Cards (Rhode Island)
My first Craigslist sale was back in 2008. It was a collection of about 200 “rare” Magic the Gathering cards. They were decent at best. I sold them for $50. The meeting was at a Starbucks in suburban town of Rhode Island. I was 20 and felt super-old to still be collecting. The guy that ended up approaching me was a 39-year-old firefighter easily twice my size. He was borderline giddy and a true gentleman.

A+ experience

iPod (Rhode Island)
I was hooked after that first sale and a few months later sold my iPod online to defray the costs of an iPod touch (1st gen, still under my bed. Will probably try to sell it tonight). Again for about $50. The kid that bought it was 40 minutes late and not appreciative that I left my music library on the device. But he didn’t try to down talk me the price upon arrival.

C experience. Nothing I tried to sell in D.C. worked out because everyone there already has everything and all my stuff was worthless.

2 College Laptops (Rhode Island)
While in AmeriCorps I decided to sell my crummy college laptops (having just upgraded to a Inspiron netbook). A Dell Latitude and a Sony Vaio. I took the hard drives out, and advertised them as such. They were up for a long time (almost a week) before someone bit. We met at the public library in Providence. He was an hour late, but neither of us could break his big bills so I walked away with $250 instead of $220. CRAZY money for an AmeriCorps volunteer. I spent it all on beer at trivia nights over the following two months.

B+ experience

Timbuk2 Bag (Philadelphia)
I bought this thing on eBay for $30. It was way too big (medium) and didn’t have a strap. Frustrated and seemingly over-confident, I put it on Craigslist for $40. The guy I was supposed to meet was 30 minutes late, and had two 20-something-year-old women come meet me while he stayed in the car. They paid cash and I literally hid in an alley on campus until they drove away, believing the deal to be too good for me to get away with it. Spent, to defray the cost of a new Timbuk2 bag from the actual retailer. I still have it and it was worth every penny.

B+ experience

Pokémon Games (Boston)
Boston Craigslisting has been a real disappointment. I put up a dozen decent ’90s rock CDs, 50+ bagged and boarded comic books, a busted DSLR camera, and a Gameboy with Pokémon games up for $40 — that’s a steal, people! But no takers. I tried a few months later to get several bites for the Pokémon games. A quick curious eBay search led me to the realization that my blue crystal game was worth some money. But I ended up selling it for only $25 in a parking lot in Starbucks. The man texted me to meet him at his car, I declined; he then approached me, told me he knew what model car I had, and wouldn’t give me the money until I demanded it.

D experience

Next up: My aforementioned Dell Inspiron netbook (still fully functional, but I’m removing the hard drive) for $75 (I hope), the comic books that never went anywhere ($20 because I’m an optimist), and a still functional HTC Incredible on the Verizon network ($50). Anyone in Boston interested?

Liz Jordan maintains a blog about those months at htgo.tumblr.com.

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