I am sure a common question among Craigslist sellers is: Why do Craigslist buyers never contact me?
I will try to help and explain Craigslist buyers the best I can in this post.
Obviously, I don’t personally know every person that has ever browsed or searched for items on Craigslist, but I have enough experience dealing with real buyers and plenty of experience posting items that no one ever responds to.
I think the four biggest reasons are:
- The item you are selling
- Your item description
- Your price for the item
- Your location
What are you selling?
To put it bluntly, if you are trying to sell an item that no one is looking for, then you probably won’t have any prospective buyers.
One way to figure out if your item is desirable to buyers is to do a Google search for your item (type in the brand with an exact model number).
If your item shows up in Google with a lot of information about the item, you see links to eBay and other online selling websites with the product, and it shows up in a Google product search, then your item is still probably relevant and should entice Craigslist buyers to contact you.
If you search the brand and model number in Google and all that shows up are websites offering parts or user manuals and nothing shows up in Google products, then your item is probably undesirable and a little outdated.
And it might be a cheap, off-brand item. Hence, you won’t be getting any phone calls or emails from people wanting to buy it.
If this is the case, maybe consider donating your item (and writing it off on your taxes?) unless you want to get rid of your item for very, very cheap.
How good is your item description?
If you optimize your Craigslist ad and use relevant keywords in your title and description, you will have a better chance of people finding your ad in the craigslist search results.
Sure, people can find your ad by browsing, but most people find items using the craigslist search.
If you have minimal info in your ad or you have misspelled words, no one will find your ad.
Check out one of my previous posts with detailed info here: Be found in Craigslist search results.
How much are you asking?
To find a good selling price for your item, eBay is probably the best way to check how much your item is worth.
Do a search for your item and be sure to scroll down and click the “Completed listings” box on the left-hand side. If it is selling between $130 – $150, then $135 would probably be a good price to list stuff to sell on Craigslist. If you list your item for a price that is too high, no one will contact you.
To put it simply, if people feel you want too much for something, then you will get zero responses.
If they feel your item is priced right, you have a good description and it is an item that people are actively looking for on other sites, you will get responses.
Where are you?
Location is a huge factor in selling on Craigslist. Craigslist is based on local buyers and sellers and there are thousands of cities on Craigslist.
If you live in a smaller city that doesn’t have a lot of CL traffic and doesn’t have a lot of people looking to buy on Craigslist, then you probably won’t have very many people contacting you.
Also, you might have the perfect item priced at a steal for someone that wants your item. However, if you are too far away from the buyer, they probably won’t contact you.
If someone has to drive an hour each way to buy from you, it is probably hard to justify spending the time and money on gas to get to you and buy the item, even if they would be saving money on the purchase.
Conclusion:
If you are posting on Craigslist and aren’t getting any responses, any of the problems detailed above could be the reason why. If you are selling an item no one wants, you won’t get any responses.
If your Craigslist description is bad, you won’t get any responses. If you are asking too much money, you won’t get any responses. And finally, if you are too far away, you won’t get any responses.
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Nick is a seasoned professional with over a decade of experience in successfully selling products online across various platforms. With his extensive knowledge and expertise, he has honed his skills and has become an expert in the field of online sales.
How sad, this use to be such a great site, now it appears to fallen behind, and scam things occur