I walked into the living room today with one task, to take down the artificial christmas tree which was so nicely de-ornamented by my wife 2 days ago. After the dismantling, stuffing, and cramming of the dismembered tree parts into the provided duffel bags, i was left with dust and needle specks all over the carpet. One task turned into two, and the vacuuming was started and completed.

Not too long after, the previously arranged meeting to sell my busted HP Laserjet 2840 off of craigslist arrived and the transaction completed. An easy $50 bucks and free “come to your house and pick up the piece of trash printer thats been sitting in the living room for the past year” service was greatly appreciated (not to mention the additional space in our living room).

So yeah, thats my quick tip for 2009. Use craigslist to offer up things you dont need or really want, but are too lazy to get rid of yourself to people who may need it for parts, decor, or just for whatever needs they may have. Offer it up for free, or for really low prices, and you might have your own CTYHAPUTPOT item service for less than 5 minutes of posting work. I do have a few suggestions when selling or doing any type of transaction off of craigslist however, so below are my simple yet effective craigslist tips:

• Ive found things sell much quicker if theres a home taken photo, and things dont seem to sell very well with a stolen stock photo from the internet.
• When posting your items on craigslist, make sure to use a title which includes the model name, model number, and make of the item.
• When entering in the description for the item you are selling, be sure to outline the details of the item in terms of condition, functionality, and physical condition. More is better unless, more equates to BS.
• Be sure to detail the conditions of sale. If you only accept cash and only want people to come to your place to get the item, mention it.
• It is generally a good idea to meet at a plaza, shopping center parking lot, or well lit and somewhat busy meeting place. The buyer will feel more comfortable (in knowing you arent going to kill them in your house), and you safeguard your own health and safety as well.
• Get a feel for the potential buyer by looking at clues in the email. Extremely bad grammar, offers to use a mediator, and continuing the transaction through mail is a good indicator the potential buyer may be out looking for a scam or at least, might flake out on you.
• Dont rush into giving out your address or other contact information until you have set up a time and place for the meeting.
• After you are satisfied with your posting, copy down the title and description into a .txt file and make note of the price you are selling it for. If the ad on craigslist expires before you are able to sell the item, just copy and paste the information from the .txt file into your repost, while lowering the price in reasonable increments. This makes reposting much less time consuming and burdensome.
• Bring a friend to go with you when you meet the potential buyer. Its safer, more fun, and you can gloat to your friend that youve just made money on something that was worthless to you while cleaning up the clutter in your home!

These simple tips should make it a little easier in conducting any business on www.craiglist.org.

So all in all, today was a productive and decently profitable day, AND I got brownie points from my wife for tidying up the house and getting rid of useless computer clutter.