I was a big fan of eBay like 5 years ago. I have sold over 100 things on eBay, mostly just random junk and old video games I don’t play anymore. However, over the past year or two I have been relying on Craigslist more and more to sell unwanted household items. I’m not saying this will ever happen, but it wouldn’t shock me if one day Craigslist had a larger marketshare than eBay. If I’m not mistaken, eBay also owns a stake in Craigslist… so that could factor into things as well.

What makes Craigslist so much better than eBay in my opinion is that there are no shipping fees to pay! You can buy and sell everything to local people who will meet you somewhere to exchange items. In just the last year I have sold two couches, end tables, a coffee table and a 48″ projection TV. And I did all that with out ever leaving my house. People just come with their trucks and pick the items up. It’s great!

And not only is Craigslist a place to buy and sell merchandise, but you can also look for jobs/services or join in the discussion forums. Another big thing on there is finding houses for sale and condos/apartments for rent. I think I found my first place to rent after college by browsing Craigslist. It is easily one of the best websites created in the last decade.

One thing that surprises me about Craigslist is that they haven’t found a big way to monetize the site yet. Their whole mission is the provide free classifieds for everyone, but at some point you have to think that they’ll want to cash in on everything people are buying/selling. When was the last time a website didn’t cash out?

If you’re not using Craigslist, and you’re still hawking items on eBay, then you’re seriously missing out. Not only do you not have to worry about shipping items or paying listing fees, you also have a pretty good chance to make more profit for items sold. eBay is so saturated that you won’t get fair value for your items.