I love this post….Excellent!

Some of the ads are too funny, though. So many reasons — bad ads, bad spelling, bad sellers, and so on.

I’m blogging the worst of the bad kijiji ads at http://www.yousuckatkijiji.com and posting ‘em on twitter, too, at @yousuckatkijiji …

Snowflaking along the way on my maybe-less-than-a-million-dollar journey. :)

I’ve been spoofed on eBay (you win an item from a legitimate retailer than you receive an email asking you to send the money to someone else who is out of town) but never on Craigslist or Kijiji.

I actually prefer Kijiji to Craigslist – it looks more professional and my wife and I have both bought and sold successfully on Kijiji.

I also use redflagdeals.com to sell/buy goods. Go RFD!

That was a bad experience.

I’m still an active eBay user, but I’ve had plenty of success selling larger items locally through Kijiji. Mattresses, change tables and other baby accessories are just a few of the items I’ve sold.

And I’m always surprised by how quickly I get a potential buyer.

Really an underestimated, under-utilized resource.

I’ve used both sites for buying and selling, and for listing my rental property. In Calgary, the number of hits from Kijiji are probably 5-10X higher than Craigslist.

Some pointers I have for first time users.

Sellers – take the absolute best pictures possible – many people are persuaded easily, you’ll get more hits, and a higher selling price. Make sure you do research into the market value of your item. Compare with ebay, or any retail store that sells new/used goods.
ALSO – don’t raise the price after you’ve accepted someone’s offer and realized its market value is higher – this is not cool.

Buyers – negotiate price, unless you really want the item, let it sit for a day or two, you’ll get a sense of how much interest there is for the item, then strike when you think the seller is willing to soften their stance.

For everyone – meet in public places. Timmies has become my favorite meeting spot. Enjoy a yummy double-double while giving yourself/them a chance to look over the item. Safe spot and no need to give people your address.

Thanks Elbryon for your reply about which one you like over the other. I agree with you. Although we use both, I find Kijiji more attractive and easier to sort through with the thumbnail photos. I also find more things available on Kijiji – or at least the kind of things I’m looking for.

However, I also understand this to be a regional thing. In some areas, Craigslist is far more popular. For it to be REALLY great, perhaps one company should buy out the other and bring the best of both worlds together.

It really is intended for local use only. People shouldn’t be shipping things or sending money anywhere!

The most important aspect of a classifieds service is popularity. Sellers want to post ads where they will be seen by lots of people, and buyers want to search where there are lots of ads. In my city, craigslist gets a few hundred postings per day, but Kijiji often numbers in the thousands. So whether I’m buying or selling, I will always try Kijiji first, and only use craigslist as a last resort.
I should also mention the Bargian Finder (buysell.com)? Though they’ve given up charging fees for posting regular ads, they’re a bit too late in entering the free classifieds market. It’s unlikely they’ll ever become as popular as Kijiji.

Woman Victim of Apparent Apartment Scam: RCMP

“A woman from Musgrave Harbour has been bilked out of more than a thousand dollars after an alleged apartment. RCMP say she found an apartment for rent on kijiji.ca, a classified listings website, which showed an apartment on King’s Bridge Road in St. John’s with photographs and contact information. The owner told the woman he was living in the United Kingdom working and was renting it out. Police say she sent him $1,150 through Western Union and would send her the keys in the mail. The keys didn’t show up and when contacted he agreed to send back the money, but would need her full name, address and phone number. The woman gave him the information but to date hasn’t received her money back or the keys to the apartment. RCMP are reminding the public to be cautious when engaging in these types of transactions over the internet.

I do have a funny story to illustrate that all kinds of people are interested in saving a buck on Kijiji. I had one guy call me interested in buying a microSD memory card from me. We agreed on a selling price of, I think, $20 and I asked him if he could meet me at Tim Horton’s. We actually had to coordinate a day/time about 2-3 times for our schedules to work so that proves he was really intent on getting this card from me. Finally, I asked him what kind of car he would be driving so I could spot him at Tim Horton’s. He responded with “I am driving an Audi TT”. That just about floored me because, for those who don’t know, it is pretty expensive sports car.

It gets better though. I get there to Tim Horton’s and his car sticks out like a soar thumb as nobody else is driving nearly so nice a car. I walk up to his window and see both him and his wife inside. He had previously told me that they would be stopping to pick this up on the way out for dinner. Well let me tell you they were a very good looking couple and they were DRESSED UP. I swear he must have been wearing a tux and she was wearing a high end black dress with some pretty significant jewelery. I almost laughed out loud right there on the spot but I restrained myself! I was wearing my bum around the house type clothes, nothing fancy at all. Anyway, turns out the card was for his wife, he pops it in her phone, tries it out, gives me the $20, and then they drive away.

So there you have it, even really rich people will take time out of their busy schedule to buy something off of Kijiji that they probably could have picked up new on sale for the same price at Futureshop. I’m still amazed … but honestly glad to see it. That was my most amusing transaction to date.

I’ll take a look at your site as I find it somewhat ironic how difficult to simply give away valuable goods. I hate sending stuff to the landfill.

FREECYCLE.ORG is a great website hosting trading communities by area. You have to jump through some technical hoops like get a yahoo account, but it’s definitely worth the fuss. I have been shocked over and over again what people are giving away….

There are often out of town or even out of country, willing to pay a ridiculous amount for shipping and even overpay what the item is selling for. They often want to pay via money order.

I just kindly reply and say, sorry I only meet in person and deal with cash. I’m sure they suck people in with phony money orders.

Also, these requests are usually urgent and/or on behalf of another person (e.g., need for birthday gift right away, ship express, etc…)

Another tip, if you think the person is not legit, copy the email and search Google or Kijiji forums. On every occasion, the text was recycled with different cities/countries so I knew it was fraud.

Always meet in person!