When you want to buy or sell something used online, your first thought might be to use Craigslist. After all, it’s the site that brought the newspaper classifieds into the digital world and today has nearly 40 million new listings every month.

Of course, using Craigslist does carry with it valid concerns. You might deal with a buyer or seller who tries to cheat you with bad payment or an item that’s different than what was listed. There are a lot of stories of people meeting a buyer or seller to finish transactions and getting robbed or worse. That’s why it’s essential to meet in a public place and let someone know where you’re going - or bring them along.

 

Fortunately, Craigslist isn’t the only game in town.

A SAFER CRAIGSLIST

If safety is your primary concern, then OfferUp is where you should start. It created the innovative TruYou system to verify the identity of buyers and sellers.

The TruYou system works with the site’s app for Android and Apple gadgets. It lets you scan in your ID, so the website can verify your identity for other users on the site. Items sold by TruYou-verified sellers have a blue highlight.

There’s also a rating system, so buyers and sellers can let the rest of the community know what they thought about a transaction. Was your item described accurately? Was the other person friendly? This is the place to let everyone know what to expect.

Buying is really easy with OfferUp. If you like something, just click on it to be taken to the item page. From there, you can make an offer. You’ll see the price the owner is asking for next to the item, but you might be able to talk them down. If the seller accepts your offer, you can set up a time and place to meet up and get your stuff.

Selling is simple, too. Using the app, you can take a picture of the item you want to sell, add details like your asking price and upload it. The whole process is done in no time.

 

BUY AND SELL LIKE-NEW CLOTHES FROM BRANDS YOU LOVE

Used clothes aren’t something you’d normally want to buy online, especially from Craigslist. You never know where they’ve been or what condition they’re really in.

ThredUp aims to change that. The site has a strict set of Quality Standards for all clothes it accepts. It employs a team of fashion experts to go through all the clothes and approve them for sale.

Clothing’s not all you can save money on, though. You can also find all sorts of shoes, purses and handbags on the site. That’s where you can really save the big bucks. Imagine getting a like-new Coach bag for a huge discount. You can save money on clothes for your kids and grandkids, too.

If you have nice clothes you want to get rid of before updating your wardrobe, you can sell them on the site, too. ThredUp depends on people like you to collect its inventory. It’s easy to send in your old stuff to make a little extra cash.

 

FIND GARAGE SALES NEAR YOU

One of the best places to get used items is garage sales. Not only can you physically examine the item, you can do some haggling to get a better price.

 

You just need to find a good garage sale, and that’s where GSALR.com comes in. Just enter your location in the search box to see garage sales going on in your area on a Google Map. Then click on the red location flags for more details like time and location of the sale, or scroll through the listings on the right side of the page.

If you don’t care about travel distance, you can browse the listings or sift through photos by clicking “List” or “Photos” at the top of the page.

Need to narrow your search and filter your results? Click on “Search Filters,” located at the top left of the page, and enter a new location, the day of a sale, or enter keywords to look for a certain item like furniture or antiques.

Once you’ve found sales near you, you can add to a favorites list by clicking the favorite button. When you’re done adding favorites, click “View Route & Directions” to get directions.

If you’re in the mood for selling, you can add your own garage sale to the site.

Bonus: Get tons of free valuable stuff people are giving away

 

What do you do if you have used items you can’t sell? Don’t just throw it in the trash; give them away on Freecycle.

Freecycle is a non-profit organization that lets you post your unwanted items to give away. It’s kind of like Craigslist, but only with free stuff.

To get started, create a free account and post the items you want to get rid of. Be sure to include a full description. Photos help, too.

On the flip side, if you’re in the market for something in particular, you can post a want ad and see if anyone responds. Or, just cruise the site and see what kind of free stuff you can get. I mean, who doesn’t love free stuff?

When I looked in my area, there was a range of items, from television sets and moving boxes to desktop computers, children’s clothing, plants and fitness equipment.

eBay Classifieds

This site gives you the same benefits of Craigslist with the credibility of the eBay brand. eBay Classifieds provides most of the same category listings, from jobs to selling and renting, and more than 150,000 ads are posted each month. The only category missing from the site is personal ads (which could be a pro or con depending on your needs). And a recent redesign revealed a much more user-friendly interface, including the ability to see and sort items with their photos.

Pawngo

Pawngo isn’t completely like Craigslist in it’s ability to find services, job listings or apartment rentals, but, much like the name suggets, the site puts a digital spin on the concept of pawn shops. It’s perfect for someone trying to make a little extra cash from jewelry, tech, or odds and ends. Pawngo’s team makes offers on items based on estimated resale value. If the user accepts the offer, they ships the item to the headquarters in Denver, Co. and the company wires the money to the user’s account.

Recycler

This site helps users find and sell used items in a simple manner. You can exchange anything from pets to home listings appear, though it works best for actual products. Recycler also features a very easy to use search tool, making the sorting process less strenuous.

Oodle

Oodle is probably the biggest rival of Craigslist because it aggregates posts from various other sites into its hub. The site displays internal listings but also ones from eBay and Facebook Marketplace (if you opt to sign in with your Facebook account). Unlike other bartering or swap sites, Oodle also offers a section for services instead of just goods, and even houses a place for personal ads. You can also create a listing for items you’re seeking. And here’s the best part — Oodle has its’ own mobile app.

U-Exchange

This site, like Recycler, isn’t great for career or apartment listings, but it does allow for the bartering of goods and services. It’s pretty much a swap site where you can offer up some of your time or a product and trade for something else you might need. It’s more streamlined than Craigslist and could work for one-off instances when you need to get something specific done.

Adoos

Adoos acts as a much more typical classified listing hub with categories devoted to real estate, vehicles, community and jobs, among others. Unlike Craigslist, Adoos lets you log into the site through your Facebook account to provide more credibility and search optimization. The general layout is much more eye-catching than Craigslist’s bland design. The downfall — Adoos has a significant amount of ads for external sites that you have to wade through to find what you really need.

Hoobly

Hoobly is the most similar to Craigslist in it’s look and feel, though it does have a feature that asks users to register with an email address to help minimize spam on the site.

What other sites do you use instead of Craigslist? Share them in the comments below.

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