Phil Mansfield for the N.Y. Times
Phil Mansfield for the N.Y. Times

The N.Y.Times recently ran a story about a couple who bought a house in Upstate New York for $95,000 and fixed it up, beautifully, for $10,000, using pure elbow grease and a eye for scavenged and second-hand stuff.

The best nugget of info, to me, was about how to score serious finds on Craigslist“Using Craigslist successfully means scrolling through the listings every day, not once a month,” said Christina Salway. “Then there’s elbow grease and the desire to fix things up.”

I know a lot of people, myself included, who browse for an hour and then give up, wondering how we miss out on the gutted Air Stream for $2,000, and other great treasures. Or folks that pass up really beautiful, valuable items because they might need a little sprucing up or fixing.

Phil Mansfield for the N.Y.Times
Phil Mansfield for the N.Y.Times

With Ebay, I take daily searches for granted,  because I can program it to send me an email alert whenever the item I’m looking for is listed. Because Craigslist doesn’t have this feature, I tend to only check in here-and there, not realizing that real diligence is required. The reason for my lack of success with Craigslist didn’t occur to me until I read it in the Times piece, which was a nice little bonk on the head!

Perseverance furthers.

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2 replies on “craigslist strategy for finding treasures

  1. what a treasure!

    This is a great post.
    I’ve been on craigslist everyday…hoping to find a gem of an apartment in nyc.
    Sometimes the stars do align…you just have to be patient.
    it’s worked for me in the past!

    but its true, you have to check craigslist, ebay, etc. almost everyday.

    great blog btw,

    lee
    2or3

  2. Hi Lee. Please let us know if/when you do find that gem of an apartment. If it’s a diamond-in-the-rough, I want to see how you uncover it’s charm, which, judging from your swell blog, you’ve got to be great at…

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