To shop on Craigslist, no registration is required whatsoever.  This lack of a barrier to entry allows poor quality browsers to message sellers.  Every listing has a publicly displayed random contact email address that forwards emails to the seller.  So once someone finds an item they would like purchase, they simply email the random email address that is displayed in every item listing.  No verification or login is required.  This often results in lots of unwanted inquiries about an item that is for sale.  In particular, many people that are running phishing scams will send you emails.  For instance, “I am in Nigeria.  I will pay $150 for shipping on top of asking price to send it to my kid for his birthday.  Please take the listing down and setup the transaction via PayPal.”  Well, that “PayPal” at the end is a link to a fake PayPal site that attempts to get your login and password.  There are also some categories of listings where legitimate offers come but are probably unwanted.  For example, when listing gift cards, a seller is more likely to get a trade offer rather than someone willing to purchase the card.  Some people will even offer a card of lesser value and make up the difference in cash.  This could be fine in some cases, but most likely the seller just wanted to liquidate the card.  On eBay, sellers won’t run into either these problems.  Registration is required to message a seller, and there is a well defined expectation of how a transaction works.

As mentioned earlier Craigslist is an online classifieds website.  As such, it is setup that when someone lists an item for sale it is listed by geographical location.  It’s very similar to listing an item in the classifieds of a local newspaper.  Items will get limited exposure equivalent to the newspaper readership and circulation.  It wouldn’t be as much of a problem if you could search the whole website at once.  However, you have to click into certain geographically areas, again limiting exposure to something similar to a local newspaper’s circulation.  Rumor is that the site was designed like this on purpose to help build community interaction, but it’s a major factor that stops it from being an eBay alternative.

Even though many sellers have had their disagreements with eBay, it does offer something Craigslist does not – protection.  This works for sellers in two ways.  They cannot get stuck with a fraudulent payment after already giving the merchandise to a buyer.  It also instills confidence in buyers.  They know that they have a means for recourse if the item they receive is fake, broken, or not as described.  On Craigslist this is not the case.  Take the gift card example.  What would happen if someone paid for a card with a $50 balance, but the card had less on it?  Nothing.  The buyer couldn’t dispute it anywhere and would be out some cash.

Transactions on Craigslist also require an extra level of effort and risk typically not seen on eBay.  On Craigslist it’s the norm to have to meet the buyer in person.   Selling something through eBay typically provides a level of insulation from the buyer.  It’s almost always done completely online via messages and email.  Sellers don’t have to meet buyers.  When a transaction is setup on Craigslist, most people don’t want strangers visiting their home.  Therefore, they meet the buyers in public/neutral areas for safety reasons.  At an extreme, there have been some very bad cases of Craigslist transactions where someone will list an expensive item; and when someone comes to buy it, either the buyer will steal it or the seller was a fraud and robs the legitimate buy of his/her money.  Although this typically doesn’t happen, it’s something that should be noted.

Craigslist has its purposes and serves as a fantastic medium for some types of transactions.  However, it has its limitations when it’s considered as an alternative to eBay.  Sellers don’t receive the same type of traffic because of the site’s design and the lack of buyer recourse.  The traffic that it does get often can be of lower quality. It also requires increased effort and risk for transactions to be completed.  So before any seller switches completely over to Craigslist, they should realize all that they are leaving behind at eBay.

For eBay sellers who use Twitter, you might want to check out twibler.
Twibler automatically posts your new eBay listings to your Twitter account.
It’s a simple and easy way to begin a foray into social media or expand on your current activities without a lot of effort.

If you are a current twitter user and have a following already, you may wish to create a separate account just for the twibler listings. Since all your listings will be posted (there are no filters as to what will be posted yet), you may lose subscribers if you inundate them with eBay postings (doubly important for large volume listers)

However, setting up a secondary twitter account is very quick.
In your main account where you have existing followers, post an occasional link your twibler account, as well as retweet any important listings that you do want your entire following to view.

All in all, it’s a great tool, but use caution when mixing the chat/blog aspect with the list of eBay items for sale. You will definitely want to keep a separate account if you have a lot of listings and enjoy using twitter to connect with your friends and associates.

Just a note, you’ll want to check out Dealio’s Cyber Monday Deals – and if you are stuck on what to get for all those special people in your life – the holiday gift guide is just the ticket for creative and unique shopping ideas.

Happy Shopping!!

A forgotten name not being widely mentioned (anywhere I’ve read) is Rajiv Dutta, who was long rumored to be a possible successor to Whitman at eBay for the top job.  Everyone I’ve spoken to at eBay who worked for or with him says he is a spectacular executive. Some have speculated he lost the CEO job over concerns he wouldn’t ‘play well’ with the eBay user base despite his glowing credentials.

He has recently landed at the Drucker School and Drucker Institute as Distinguised Executive-in-Residence, which seems like a position from which he could be pried for the opportunity to lead one of the web’s great properties while attempting to prove to the eBay board of directors that they missed the opportunity to retain his leadership.

Note I have zero real inside information into eBay or Yahoo! inner political wrangling, but aren’t blogs meant to feed this type of speculation:)?